Ruler of the Night by David Morrell

Ruler of the Night by David Morrell --- 342 pages including Acknowledgements

Ruler of the Night is the final volume in David Morrell's Victorian murder-mystery trilogy featuring Thomas DeQuincey as his gifted amateur sleuth

Like Murder as a Fine Art and Inspector of the Dead — the first two books in the trilogy — Ruler of the Night closely follows the tragic career of the real Thomas DeQuincey a prolific English writer best known today for his battle with opium addiction, as detailed in his memoir, Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, published in 1821. Along with his daughter Emily and two (fictional) London detectives, Sean Ryan and Joseph Becker, DeQuincey uses his knowledge of the human condition to solve a series of seemingly senseless and brutal murders, while battling his own addiction to laudanum. And just as in the first two books, Ruler of the Night is also based on a real crime; the first murder to occur on an English train, although, for his own purposes, Morrell has the fictionalized crime occur in 1855, ten years earlier than the actual event.

Because the manners and morals of the Victorian period are so foreign to our own, the research necessary to accurately convey the social and political context that makes the story come alive for modern readers was immense, and yet the telling details are inserted without ever interrupting the rapid flow of the narrative.

DeQuincey is also remembered for his controversial essay, “On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts,” the inspiration for the first novel in Morrell's trilogy.

Ruler of the Night even ends with a fictional solution to the mystery that haunted the real DeQuincey's entire life. To fully appreciate what Morrell has achieved here it's best to read the entire trilogy in order. 

Click HERE to read the review from Publishers Weekly.

Click HERE to read the review from Kirkus Reviews.

Click HERE to read the review on the Historical Novel Society web site.

Inspector of the Dead by David Morrell

Inspector of the Dead by David Morrell --- 339 pages

The suspenseful sequel to Murder as a Fine Art finds Thomas De Quincy and his daughter Emily reluctantly about to depart London where they have been the guests of the unwilling Lord Palmerston while Emily nursed detectives Ryan and Becker back to health from the injuries they sustained in the previous adventure.

At the moment of departure however, word reaches De Quincey of a new and shocking murder, in which a lady dies in the middle of a Sunday church service. Greatly relieved, De Quincy hastens to lend his "expertise" once again.

This is another gripping historical thriller, featuring a number of actual, prominent persons in Victorian England. The story takes place during the eight-week period early in 1855 when Britain was effectively without a government.  As a result of the sensational revelations about the gross mismanagement of the Crimean War reported in dispatches from the front lines by the pioneering journalist William Russell, the government collapsed until Queen Victoria reluctantly asked Lord Palmerston, the Home Secretary, to become Prime Minister.

A series of grisly and sensational murders terrorizes London. Important and influential men and their families are being violently attacked. Is this some political conspiracy at work, enemies of the state seeking to overthrow the social order  --- or are these the acts of a deranged mind?  Can the infamous Opium Eater, Thomas De Quincey, with his strange theories about the mind and memory, and his knowledge of speculative philosophy, deduce the motives and identify the mind behind these grotesque crimes before the murderer can strike at the ultimate targets he holds culpable for the injustice that casually destroyed an innocent family?

Mixing historical fact and murderous fancy, Morrell has produced another outstanding Victorian thriller.

Click HERE to read a review from the My Bookish Ways blog.

Click HERE to read a review from the Winston-Salem Journal.

Click HERE to read an interview with author David Morrell from the Huffington Post.

Murder as a Fine Art by David Morrell

Murder as a Fine Art by David Morrell --- 358 pages

David Morrell got his start with the series of novels he wrote about a traumatized Vietnam war veteran which became the basis of the Rambo films starring Sylvester Stallone.

But he's gone on to write a number of tauntly plotted suspense thrillers incorporating historical people and events, of which this is the latest and one of the best.  Although his prose may be clunky, his characterizations of both real and imagined characters are compelling, and he deftly weaves any number of real events, persons and places into his tale.

It is 1854 and London, the capital of the British Empire, is the home of  the richest and most powerful men in the world. Much of the Empire's power however comes from the British East India Company's opium trade, which has destroyed the lives of millions of people at home and abroad. Thomas de Quincey, the infamous author of Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, has been lured to London so he can be framed for a series of brutal murders identical to the infamous Ratcliffe Highway murders that terrorized London in 1811.

De Quincey is suspected because one of his most controversial essays, "On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts," discusses the Ratcliffe Highway murders in great detail --- the very same horrific details that have been meticulously recreated in the new attacks. In order to prove his own innocence, de Quincey must insinuate himself into the police investigation, all the while fighting the debilitating effects of his own opium addiction. He learns that he and the murderer are linked by secrets long buried but never forgotten.

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