The Shadow of the Serpent: An Inspector McLevy Mystery - Tapa blanda

David Ashton s writing is excellent, his characters thoroughly convincing, and his narrative grabs you - I was going to say, by the throat - and doesn t let you go. --The Sherlock Holmes Society of London

McLevy is a sort of Victorian Morse with a heart, prowling the mean wynds and tenements of the endless fascinating city. David Ashton impeccably evokes Edinburgh so vividly that you can feel the cold in your bones and the menace of the Old Town s steep cobbles and dark corners. --The Financial Times

'Dripping with melodrama and derring-do' --The Herald

Election fever is gripping the city, yet Inspector James McLevy watches the electoral frenzy with a jaundiced eye. He believes in justice, and justice and politics rarely go hand in hand. A series of unsavoury events begins to unfold; a prostitute is murdered, her rib-cage split open with a single blow, bringing back unpleasant memories of a similar series of murders thirty years previously. Dangerously compelled to pursue the killer, McLevy becomes embroiled in the dark underbelly of Victorian Edinburgh. Why would a leading political figure become embroiled in sex scandal and murder? Where has McLevy's mysterious female informant come from? And who exactly is the dark figure of the Serpent...? A tale of politics, perversion, deception and mystery, "Shadow of the Serpent" leads the reader down a tangled Victorian labyrinth of Edinburgh wynds and will thrill contemporary nerve-ends.