Product Details
Simon & Schuster UK, March 2012
Hardcover, 416 pages
ISBN-10: 0857205358
ISBN-13: 9780857205353
Description
London, 1811. The twisting streets of riverside Wapping hold many an untold sin. Bounded by the Ratcliffe Highway to the north and the modern wonders of the Dock to the south, shameful secrets are largely hidden by the noise and glory of Trade. But two families have fallen victim to foul murder, and a terrified populace calls for justice. John Harriott, magistrate of the new Thames River Police Office, must deliver revenge up to them and his only hope of doing so is Charles Horton, Harriot's senior officer. Harriott only recently came up with a word to describe what it is that Horton does. It is detection.
Plymouth, 1564. Young Billy Ablass arrives from Oxford armed only with a Letter of Introduction to Captain John Hawkyns, and the burning desire of all young men; the getting and keeping of money. For Hawkyns is about to set sail in a ship owned by Queen Elizabeth herself, and Billy sees the promise of a better life with a crew intent on gain and glory. The kidnap and sale of hundreds of human beings is not the only cursed event to occur on England's first officially-sanctioned slaving voyage. On a sun-blasted islet in the Florida Cays, Billy too is to be enslaved for the rest of his accursed days.
Based on the real-life story of the gruesome Ratcliffe Highway murders, The English Monster takes us on a voyage across centuries, through the Age of Discovery, and throws us up, part of the human jetsam, onto the streets of Regency Wapping, policed only by Officer Horton.
Plymouth, 1564. Young Billy Ablass arrives from Oxford armed only with a Letter of Introduction to Captain John Hawkyns, and the burning desire of all young men; the getting and keeping of money. For Hawkyns is about to set sail in a ship owned by Queen Elizabeth herself, and Billy sees the promise of a better life with a crew intent on gain and glory. The kidnap and sale of hundreds of human beings is not the only cursed event to occur on England's first officially-sanctioned slaving voyage. On a sun-blasted islet in the Florida Cays, Billy too is to be enslaved for the rest of his accursed days.
Based on the real-life story of the gruesome Ratcliffe Highway murders, The English Monster takes us on a voyage across centuries, through the Age of Discovery, and throws us up, part of the human jetsam, onto the streets of Regency Wapping, policed only by Officer Horton.
"Intelligently explores the tendency of man to be invigorated, even transported by death… The English Monster is an original, imaginative investigation into some of the most disturbing episodes of the nation’s history."
-- Times Literary Supplement
“A brilliantly imagined historical crime novel"
-- Times Literary Supplement
“A brilliantly imagined historical crime novel"
-- The Sun (UK)
"A story as rich in ideas as it is in intrigue…If all this sounds ambitious to the point of audacious for a debut novel, then suffice to say that Shepherd pulls it off… The English Monster becomes as vivid an education as it is an entertainment. None of which is to mention that devilish twist in this tale."
-- Independent on Sunday (UK)
“The English Monster is a riveting police procedural, a thrilling tale of life at sea, and an evocative piece of historical re-creation--all with an intriguing element of the fantastic that makes it irresistible. This is a novel that surprised and astounded me time and again.”
--Felix Palma, New York Times bestselling author of The Map of Time
"A book of remarkable scope and imagination."
--Felix Palma, New York Times bestselling author of The Map of Time
"A book of remarkable scope and imagination."
-- Essie Fox, author of The Somnambulist
Guardian.co.uk, March 7, 2012
...Lloyd Shepherd, author of The English Monster, chooses his favourite weird histories, from Never Let Me Go to The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen I've long been intrigued by the idea ...
Londonist, March 1, 2012
...Lloyd Shepherd is a writer whose first novel, The English Monster , is set in Regency-era Wapping and based on the Ratcliffe Highway murders. Here he takes us on a tour of ...
The Independent, February 25, 2012
...Aaron Graham to a story already centred around the real-life characters of Harriott, Horton and Hawkyns, and The English Monster becomes as vivid an education as it is an entertainment. None of which is to mention that devilish twist in this ...
Guardian.co.uk, February 24, 2012
...cobblestones, hansom cabs and pea-soupers on the page as there are on a Sunday evening on the BBC. Lloyd Shepherd takes as his starting point the true-life murder of the Marr and Williamson families in the East End of London in 1811. One ...
Guardian.co.uk, February 21, 2012
...by Elliot Perlman • The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year by Sue Townsend • The English Monster by Lloyd Shepherd Non-fiction • Wilkie Collins by Peter Ackroyd • The Ecstasy of Influence: Non-fictions, etc. by Jonathan Lethem ...
Guardian.co.uk, August 30, 2011
...metaphorically invited to the only party I've ever wanted to be seen at. My first novel, The English Monster , was picked up by an agent, and then by a publisher, Simon and Schuster. It hits the streets in March 2012. I've made it, I ...
