The Yard

Prologue



LONDON, 1889.

Nobody noticed when Inspector Christian Little of Scotland Yard disappeared, and nobody was looking for him when he was found. A black steamer trunk appeared at Euston Square Station sometime during the night and remained unnoticed until early afternoon of the following day. The porter discovered it after the one o clock train had departed, and he opened the trunk when it proved too heavy for him to lift.



He immediately sent a boy to find the police.

Detective Inspector Walter Day was first at the scene, and he directed the many bobbies who arrived after him. He had come to London only the week before. This was his first crime scene and he was clearly nervous, but the blue-uniformed bobbies knew their job well and did not require much from him. They pushed back the commuters who had gathered round the trunk and began to scour the station for possible weapons and other clues.

An hour later, Dr Bernard Kingsley entered the station all in a rush and headed for the knot of people gathered on the gallery of the booking office. The trunk had been left against the railing overlooking the platform. Kingsley brushed past Inspector Day and knelt on the floor.

He opened his satchel and drew out a cloth tape measure, snaked it between his fingers, moving it up and across. The trunk was a standard size, two by three by three, glossy black with tin rivets along the seams. He closed the lid and brushed a finger across the top. It was clean; no dust.

With his magnifying glass in hand, he scuttled around the trunk, scrutinizing the corners for wear. He licked his finger and rubbed a seam along one side where black paint had been applied to cover a crack. He was aware of Day hovering over his shoulder and, less intrusive, the bobbies at the sta

Alex Grecian is the national bestselling author of the contemporary thriller The Saint of Wolves and Butchers, the novels of Scotland Yard s Murder Squad, including The Yard, The Black Country, The Devil's Workshop, The Harvest Man, and Lost and Gone Forever, as well as the critically acclaimed graphic novels Proof and Rasputin. Grecian lives in Kansas with his wife and son.

Praise for The Yard

Grecian has a talent for capturing gory details...extremely vivid (and strangely moving)...Bounding from the workhouse to the lunatic asylum to the stinking streets, [Grecian] does outstanding descriptive work on the mad and the maimed, the diseased and the demented. If Charles Dickens isn t somewhere clapping his hands for this one, Wilkie Collins surely is. The New York Times Book Review

An absorbing launch pad for a new series built around the detectives who are finding their way in the new business of criminology. Fingerprinting, saving evidence, comparing notes from different crimes to see if there's a pattern, even something as simple as working in pairs are all novel, untested ideas tried out for the first time...[a] mix of historical facts and vivid fictional creations. It's great fun...Grecian's debut is the promising start of a new series and should be one of the most acclaimed and popular mysteries of the year. The Huffington Post

Alex Grecian's exuberantly grisly serial killer tale set in 1889 London picks up where the Ripper left off. The Guardian (UK)

Lusciously rich with detail, atmosphere, and history, and yet as fast paced as a locomotive, The Yard will keep you riveted from page one. It s truly a one or two sitting read. Jeffery Deaver, author of Carte Blanche and The Bone Collector

A brilliantly crafted debut novel with unforgettable characters. An utterly gripping tale perfectly evokes Victorian London and brings you right back to the depraved and traumatic days of Jack the Ripper. Lisa Lutz, author of The Spellman Files

Grecian successfully re-creates the dark atmosphere of late Victorian London. Kirkus Reviews

A winner, filled with Victorian arcane and eccentric characters and more humor than one expects from such a work. The Rap Sheet

Grecian powerfully evokes both the physical, smog-ridden atmosphere of London in 1889 and its emotional analogs of anxiety and depression. His