The English Monster
In the east end of Regency London, two families lie butchered. Residents of the notorious Ratcliffe Highway, the victims bear the mark of unprecedented brutality.
Panic sweeps the country as its public cries for justice. But these murders stem from an older horror, its source a sea voyage two centuries old. In a ship owned by Queen Elizabeth herself, a young man embarks on England's first venture into a new trade: human souls.
As a nation's sins ripen and bloom, to be harvested in a bloody frenzy on the twisted streets of Regency Wapping, an English Monster is born.
Panic sweeps the country as its public cries for justice. But these murders stem from an older horror, its source a sea voyage two centuries old. In a ship owned by Queen Elizabeth herself, a young man embarks on England's first venture into a new trade: human souls.
As a nation's sins ripen and bloom, to be harvested in a bloody frenzy on the twisted streets of Regency Wapping, an English Monster is born.
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Book details:
- Simon & Schuster UK |
- 432 pages |
- ISBN 9780857205377 |
- September 2012
£7.99 List Price
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Praise
“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... ”
– The Sun (UK)
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“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... ”– The Sun (UK)
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“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... ”– Independent on Sunday (UK)
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“Masterful storytelling... If you like your historical fiction with a mighty twist, want to know more about London in the early 19th Century, or simply enjoy pacey but thoughtful fiction, the English Monster is up there with the... ”– The Londonist
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“A feat of perfectly maintained tone and tension... A sinister, fine-grained novel.”– Booklist (Starred Review)
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“ 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... ”– Essie Fox, author of The Somnambulist
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“An unusual, vivid and well-written story.”– The Free-Lance Star
Read an Excerpt
21 JUNE 1585
The ancient road began at the Tower and ran east to west along a terrace of gravel. To the east it disappeared into the flat treeless horizon of the estuary, merging into the earth just as the earth merged into the sea at the muddy edge of England.
As it left London, this road, which in only a few years would become a highway, formed the northern boundary of a dreary region of swampy land. The great river, as it bent south then north again, formed the southern edge of this semicircle of marshland. It had been drained and flooded, drained and flooded half a dozen times in the... see more
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- Book Cover Image (jpg): The English Monster
Mass Market Paperback 9780857205377(1.5 MB)
- Author Photo (jpg): Lloyd Shepherd
Photograph by Paul Clarke(0.1 MB)
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