Customer Reviews

The Welfare of the Dead

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I just finished reading this book a few hours ago, and I loved it!

I am a fan of Victorian London, and Mr. Jackson does an amazing job of bringing that time period to life in this book.

His descriptions put you into the settings, and he makes the characters very interesting.

If you like murder mysteries, this is for you!

Have previously read, (and thoroughly enjoyed), Lee Jackson's, A Metropolitan Murder, I looked forward eagerly to reading Welfare of the Dead. I was not disappointed. Having first of all been delighted to have found a collectible first edition of the book, I then found myself quickly drawn once again into the world of Inspector Decimus Webb. Lee Jackson has a talent for drawing one's attention to the minutiae of the Victorian era, and this adds to the overall effect of the story he so cleverly weaves. When two young women of rather less respectable means are discovered dead in a London bawdy house, Webb finds himself on a path that leads along many blind alleys, and yet which seems to lead him inextricably to the conclusion that the deaths have some connection to the events surrounding a long ago disappearance and suicide, and to the world of the Victorian's strict and ethical funeral processes. I shall not spoil the reader's entertainment by giving away any more of this wonderful story, except to say that I found myself unable to put this book down. Page after page led me further into a superb re-creation of the world of the Victorians and their morals and standards, and the ending carried a superb surprise twist.

Five stars, without a doubt!

The picture it paints of late 1800's London is the same as many others. The atmosphere is very good. The story is rather disjointed, and has characters enter, disappear, reappear and in general is in need of a good editing. The story line becomes rather easy to solve by the middle of the book, and I read on to the end for the pictures of London. Characters are rather 2 dimensional for my taste. So it ends up a toss up. On the whole I'll take Conan-Doyle or the other writers of this era.