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    The Devil's Workshop
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    The Devil's Workshop
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    The Devil's Workshop
    Audiobook9 hours

    The Devil's Workshop

    Written by Alex Grecian

    Narrated by John Curless

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Scotland Yard's Murder Squad faces the most shocking case of its existence, in the extraordinary new historical thriller from the author of the acclaimed national bestseller The Yard.

    London, 1890: Four vicious murderers have escaped from prison, part of a plan gone terribly wrong, and now it is up to Walter Day, Nevil Hammersmith, and the rest of Scotland Yard's Murder Squad to hunt down the convicts before the men can resume their bloody spree. But they might already be too late. The killers have retribution in mind, and one of them is heading straight toward a member of the Murder Squad-and his family.

    And that isn't even the worst of it. During the escape, the killers have stumbled upon the location of another notorious murderer, one thought gone for good but now prepared to join forces with them.

    Jack the Ripper is loose in London once more.


    From the Trade Paperback edition.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateMay 20, 2014
    ISBN9780698163874
    Unavailable
    The Devil's Workshop
    Author

    Alex Grecian

    ALEX GRECIAN is the national bestselling author of Red Rabbit, The Yard, The Black Country, The Devil’s Workshop, The Harvest Man, Lost and Gone Forever, and The Saint of Wolves and Butchers, as well as the critically acclaimed graphic novels Proof and Rasputin, and the novellas The Blue Girl and One Eye Open. He lives in the Midwest with his wife, his son, their dog, and a tarantula named Rosie.

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    Reviews for The Devil's Workshop

    3.5/5

    114 ratings32 reviews

    What did you think?

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      Of the three books in this series so far, this is the best one yet. Alex gets better and better with his story about the Murder Squad. I'm really liking Hammersmith and Day. This book increased the torture and horribleness of the criminals. With the introduction of Jack the Ripper, there were several times I cringed and several times I thought "oh no!" This book kept me wanting to stay up and read and continue reading when it was done. It frustrated me so much that back before the telephone they had to find neighborhood boys to send messages to summon the police and it would take a good hour or more for them to show up. Where now we can call on our cell phones or even hit a button in our cars. If you like murder and serial killers and London in the 1800s, then you will enjoy this book.
    • 4/5
      I do enjoy especially the characters of Walter Day and Nevil Hammersmith [among others] - It is a rather gory story, based as it is a bit on jack the Ripper. But did enjoy this book in the series = read this [#3] before reading #2, but that didn't spoil either of them. For gritty London detective thriller, a good read.
    • 2/5
      Having thoroughly enjoyed the first entry in this series, The Yard, I very much looked forward to reading this third installment (haven't had a chance to read the second). However, I was sorely disappointed. This book seems to be lacking the humor, characters and wonderful historical detail I remember from the first book and is, instead, yet another Jack the Ripper story. And an unusually smarmy Jack at that.I hope the next installment gets back to what was so good and interesting about this series in the first place; this volume is sadly lacking.
    • 1/5
      Jack the Ripper.
    • 4/5
      This is a well-made historical mystery, which plays in 1890. The figure of Jack the Ripper is also installed in such a way that he plays a prominent role. In a planned jailbreak, which was not quite as planned, five prisoners who were sentenced to death can flee. The hunt for the escaped leads through old London as well as through the underground catacombs. Soon, Walter Day of the Scotland Yard Murder Squad finds that up to the highest ranks in politics, police and high-ranking citizens are a group of diabolic comrades who take the judiciary in their own hands.The story is exciting and fast.
    • 2/5
      I think perhaps this is one of those series that isn't meant to be read all at once -- I've been enjoying up until this book, but this one? Meh. Very predictable/ heavy-handed foreshadowing, very unbelievable secret society that lends to a tortured plot, and I just got frustrated seeing the same villains come back again. It felt a little like a batman movie -- the joker has escaped and is up to his old tricks! But now he's targeting the hero! Duh-duh-duh!
      *sigh*

      I'm relieved at the survival rate of the main characters, but I'm not sure I find that believable, either, and the set up for the next book just makes me want to headdesk.
    • 3/5
      Just a little too much graphic detail in this one for me. Writing and characters are great though.
    • 2/5
      Oh dear I think this series may have ran its course - disappointing
    • 5/5
      London, 1890. There has been a train wreck, and one of the cars has crashed into a prison. There is complete chaos, and bodies everywhere, but when everything has been checked and accounted for, it looks like some prisoners have escaped. And these are some of the most notorious and vicious sociopaths in London, including the infamous Saucy Jack, better known as Jack the Ripper. The Scotland Yard Murder Squad has its hands full chasing down these criminals. This is the first book I read in this series and I loved it. The POV switches between many of the main characters, including not only the detectives, but also the criminals. It was definitely creepy to see the world through some of these serial killers. Loved the Victorian setting. Definitely will be reading more of this series!
    • 4/5
      Five murder's escape from HM prison Bridewell. The Murder Squad is assigned the task of rounding up these convicts before they can unleash terror on London. Among these dangerous men is jack the Ripper. If that were not enough,, another one has a score to settle with Detective Inspector Walter Day. The man hunt is on, but even with all the constables and detectives involved, will they be able to capture these desperate men before there is blood in the streets of London?
    • 3/5
      The Devil's Workshop is not a complete novel - it does have something of an end but none of the big storylines actually get closed. That would not have been a problem if the novel had managed the strong points of the first one. Unfortunately it does not. The idea is interesting enough - Jack the Ripper's story is about to get a closure, a secret society acting in London and a prison escape, all of them connected in a weird way. And if it was an individual novel, I would have liked it a lot. As part of the series, it missed the mark - neither the atmosphere, nor the characters. At least we see March for a while. I am not sure I liked where his character went but it was needed for the story I guess. I will read the next novel, I really want to see what happens in this story after all. And I really hope that Grecian will return to the style that sounds like 1890 - because in this one, there is nothing that puts it in the correct timeframe - the Murder Squad could have been pretty much any police department or a detective company, the time could have been any time really.Note: The previous novels were dark enough but that one contains a lot more torture scenes and overall darkness.
    • 5/5
      This is the third entry into the Scotland Yard Murder Squad series and in my opinion the best one yet. You really want to read these books in order because the third book revisits a nemesis from book one, a thoroughly nasty child killer who goes by the name of Cinderhouse. Thanks to a spectacular prison break he is on the loose in London along with a handful of other psychopathic killers who include non other than Jack the Ripper himself. Jack is portrayed as a sort of Hannibal Lector, a criminal of the most dangerous sort, intelligent and completely bat crap crazy. To complicate matters even further, Claire, Walter day's wife is moments away from giving birth to the couples first child. All of this leads into a truly terrifying showdown at the Day residence.I was fresh off from reading the second installment in the series, The Black Country so I was primed and ready for this outing. The tone of these books is undeniably dark. There are a lot of descriptions of torture and gore which probably wouldn't offend fans of Hannibal or The Following on TV. It seems like excessive gore is the in thing in entertainment now with everyone wanting to push the envelope but I do find it off putting. I prefer psychological terror over descriptions of people's organs outside their bodies.Despite the grizzly descriptions I found the story top notch and extremely well put together. The epilogue was chilling and the author left a few loose strings which will take the story of the murder squad further while still providing a satisfying ending to this novel. I highly recommend this series to fans of historical crime fiction.
    • 4/5
      Once again, Alex Grecian turns loose his formidable powers of description to bring Victorian London to eerie, bustling life. From the prologue that takes place in the underworld beneath the city streets, to the prison break, to the adrenaline-pumping chase scenes, I could see it all before me, and I have to admit that the hair was standing on the back of my neck over and over again. Secondary characters like the young boys used to deliver messages and drive the police wagons from place to place as well as the marvelous Eunice Pye and her garden hoe added so much depth to the story.Having known from the synopsis of the book that Jack the Ripper was involved, I expected blood and knife work, so those scenes did not surprise me. They also didn't seem gratuitous or over the top. But what of our heroes, Day and Hammersmith? Their relationship is progressing and right on the threshold of turning into something very special. We also get to see how Walter Day is responding to impending fatherhood, but the two are separated for much of the book. Dr. Kingsley and his daughter also play reduced roles, and these factors seriously weaken the story. In many ways, it felt almost as though there was a bit too much going on in the book. A secret society, Jack the Ripper, four other killers scattered around the city, Claire Day's pregnancy, Day going his way and Hammersmith in another... I got the distinct impression that Grecian was laying the foundation for future books in the series. I love his writing-- the way he can set a scene and bring it to life, the atmosphere and the marvelous characters he creates-- but The Devil's Workshop was a bit hectic and unfocused. Still miles better than many other crime fiction novels available today, just not quite up to the standard Grecian set in The Yard and The Black Country. That said, I still highly recommend the entire series and am eagerly awaiting the next.
    • 5/5
      Like a vintage wine, Grecian just keeps getting better. Walter Day finds himself struggling with the idea of fatherhood even as Claire's due date draws closer. However, a major prison break brings all hands on deck including the Murder Squad. As information develops, the police learn that at least 4 dangerous criminals are loose in London, including Cinderhouse who knows where Day lives. Add in a secret vigilante group and the return of Jack the Ripper, and the bloody bodies keep piling up as Day, Hammersmith. As the police try to survive long enough to protect their city and Claire goes into labor, all of the action narrows in on the Day home with violent results.
    • 4/5
      I suppose you don't have to read this series in order in order to understand what's going on, and I hadn't read the first two books in the series before reading this one, and it seemed fine. But it would be ideal to have read them in order, as an important character from the first novel returns here. This was a propulsive, dark read. It's very gory, but I enjoyed it nevertheless.
    • 5/5
      I received a copy of 'The Devil's Workshop' as part of the Librarything.com's Early Reviewers program. I haven't yet read 'The Yard', which is the predecessor to this novel.It's 1890 in London and four murderers escape from prison with outside assistance. One of them stumbles upon Jack the Ripper and frees him. Walter Day and his assistant, Constable Hammersmith, are among the police trying to find the four escaped murderers - one of the men previously found Day's home and spoke to his wife, Claire, who is now near the end of her pregnancy. There is some concern that the murderer will return to Day's home and so a young constable is dispatched to watch over the house.I found 'The Devil's Workshop' compelling in a way that is unusual for me - sometimes it was necessary for me to put it down and do something else for a while when tension got too high. Grecian doesn't sensationalize violence but the description of the end results are clear enough for an imaginative reader who's at all familiar with the history of Jack the Ripper. Usually when a writer is this gifted I'm unable to put the book down, but the many horrible 'what-ifs' as Day and Hammersmith are trying to find the murderers and keep the people of London from panicking were almost overwhelming.This is one of the best crime novels I've read and 'The Yard' in now on my TBR list.
    • 5/5
      Wow, this one really rocks. I read Alex Grecian's former novel, The Black Country, and was moderately impressed. This new novel featuring the further adventures of the Scotland Yard Murder Squad, truly surpasses the former book. This book is loaded with action and suspense exploding from the pages. A jail break has been masterminded to free some of the worst criminals of Victorian England. However the plan might have been overly successful, as Jack the Ripper, who has been kept under wraps in a hidden prison, is unintentionally allowed to escape. Inspector Walter Day and his competent but slovenly companion, Sergeant Hammersmith, have their hands full trying to recapture the escaped criminals. Little do they know that "Saucy Jack" , the worst criminal London has ever known, is among the escapees and may even now be threatening the life of Inspector Day's pregnant wife. No one is safe when Jack is about. Suspense and thrills just don't stop coming. Great fun. Book provided for review by Putnam Books.
    • 3/5
      I received a copy of 'The Devil's Workshop' as part of the Librarything.com's Early Reviewers program. I had read Alex Grecian's two previous novels, so I was very much looking forward to this third installment.The Karstphanomen group has arranged for a mass prison escape in order to mete out "real" justice to hardened criminals. Unbeknownst to Inspector Day someone he respects and regards as a friend is not only a member of this group but has also captured Jack the Ripper and has been keeping him in catacombs beneath London. Of course, Jack escapes to wreak more havoc.I didn't like this book as well as the previous two. This one was graphically gory. I believe I would have enjoyed it more without quite so much detailed descriptions of torture and gore.Favorite recurring characters are back for this installment, but most don't make more than cameo appearances. Even Hammersmith is sidelined for much of the book. Walter and Claire's relationship didn't get much "screen time" or development here, and that development is one of the things I've very much enjoyed in the earlier books.The story is good; could have done without so much gore; would have enjoyed more time and development with the recurring characters. I will probably give the next book a try, but I hope it is more in line with the first two.
    • 3/5
      This third book in the author's Scotland Yard Murder Squad series is too dark, bloody, graphic, morbid for me. Because I kept pulling back from the darkness of the novel I never got caught up in the story line. I finished the book only because "I should."
    • 5/5
      "Get back, Jack, do it again." A secret society of self-serving professional men do not believe that the justice of the court system goes far enough. Hidden in the dungeon-like underground of the prison complex, they have conspired to abuse and torture criminals, meting out justice of the "eye for an eye" variety. What a criminal did to his victims, so would be done to him. The big name that they are hiding is Jack the Ripper who escapes from the prison in a botched train wreck, planned by the secret society. And then the blood begins to drip. Warning! if you cannot handle gore and sadistic torture in the vein of the Silence of the Lambs, there will be some nightmares heading your way, Clarice. Tongues nailed to the mantelpiece! You have been warned. This is my first read of this series, but it was not necessary to have read the two earlier volumes. Do the Scotland Yard force have a bit of the Clouseau blunderbuss in them? Can there be any humor in a tale of serial murder? Jack the Ripper=Jack Nicholson in The Shining. That's what my mind's eye was imagining. Scarylicious, just read it. And then ask for another helping. Thanks, Mr. Grecian, well done. My thanks to the Penguin First-to-Read Program for a complimentary copy.
    • 3/5
      I'm honestly not sure how to rate this book, so I'm going with 3 stars as a bit of a default. I've generally enjoyed this series thus far and this latest installment takes the series to a place it inevitably had to go, but that place is also one that essentially omits all my favorite elements of these novels. Still, Grecian does a fine job of replacing the looming sense of paranoia from the prior novels taking place in a post Jack the Ripper London with an actual sense of danger that Jack's return presents. I just found that the cold, historical reason of the earlier books to be something that distinguished this series from the many other procedurals out there, and that is no where to be found here.
    • 2/5
      Alex Grecian's first two books were terrific! He introduced us to Scotland Yard's Murder Squad, with terrific characters, interesting stories, a little mystery, and a lot of historical fiction. I was very disappointed with his third novel of the series, The Devils Workshop. While some of the characters remained, they were not further developed. The story wasn't all that interesting to me, and there was no mistaking this as a mystery. What was most disappointing was that Grecian lost his ability to tell a tale about a different time and place. This book and its story could equally have been set in a modern time period by removing the horses and adding cars. This was just plain old gruesome and horrific killing and dismembering, with the added horror of Jack the Ripper, and that's not what I read historical fiction for. I will be looking for the author to get back to his roots in future efforts, and hoping I'm not disappointed.
    • 5/5
      With a "resurrected" Jack the Ripper as a primary character, "The Devil's Workshop" is the darkest and most disturbing installment yet in the "Murder Squad" series. There is plenty of violence, akin in many ways to "Silence of the Lambs," but the focus is on the psychological rather than gore, which makes this work stand out in the historical thriller genre. It is not for the faint of heart, however, with many unexpected twists regarding prominent characters in the series, and the ending leads into book four with much anticipation.
    • 5/5
      This is easily one of the more gruesome books I've read in quite some time. It was gory enough that I race through the book, both running away from and towards more twisted violece. The mental image of human tongues nailed to a mantel - thanks to Jack the Ripper - will stay with me for some time. I've read several other books of Grecian from his series about Scotland Yard’s Murder Squad, and they are all well done. The scenes of house disappearing into the ground in his book The Black Country was spot on. Since I loved the foggy and dangerous nights of all the Sherlock Holmes stories, it only makes sense that Grecian's series fulfills a need of mine. Arthur Conan Doyle never got this graphic in his more well-mannered stories of Sherlock, but these newer books work.
    • 5/5
      This is the third book in Grecian’s Murder Squad series. It deals with a mass prison break that reintroduces villains seen in earlier books in the series. Readers who haven’t read the first two books and don’t want spoilers about them should not read The Devil’s Workshop first. If you do decide to read this book first you will have no problem following the story but you will likely learn more about ‘The Yard’ and ‘The Black Country’ than you wanted.The Murder Squad series is character-based, drawing much of its appeal from the interaction of the squad members, their families, and a thoroughly nasty pack of villains. In this outing, the villains are as evil as one can imagine to the point that many readers are turned off by the violence. As we all have different tastes each reader must decide if this is the kind of story for them. If you are a reader whose idea of a great crime story is Murder She Wrote, this may not be for you. *Quotations are cited from an advanced reading copy and may not be the same as appears in the final published edition. The review book was based on an advanced reading copy obtained at no cost from the publisher in exchange for an unbiased review. While this does take any ‘not worth what I paid for it’ statements out of my review, it otherwise has no impact on the content of my review.
    • 3/5
      Scotland Yard’s “Murder Squad” is still in its infancy; undermanned and sometimes untrained, they are not doing their job with the expediency some citizens expect. This small group of citizens takes it upon themselves to capture criminals and mete out their own brand of justice – namely making them suffer in the same manner as the victims. Their own plan, however, is also moving along a little more slowly than they anticipated so they hatch a scheme to get more criminals at one time. Arranging, in a most unique way, the prison escape of four criminals they hope to subsequently round up again. The plan goes horribly wrong and now the Murder Squad” has escaped criminals on their hands as well as their ongoing caseload of crimes.

      To make matters worse, one of the escaped criminals is a man with a vendetta against Inspector Walter Day. The “Tailor” happens to run into a fellow criminal who is well known to the police. The “Murder Squad” was created to catch this one criminal who has eluded them, but now “Saucy Jack” is back!

      This all going on while Inspector Day’s wife is busy having her baby in the background. The author pulls it all together brilliantly.

      This series is definitely historical, but I could not describe it as Historical Fiction – a more accurate description might be Historical Thriller if such a genre exists. Mr. Grecian takes us into the fog-shrouded, gas-lit streets of London in the late 19th century. The ambience blends perfectly with the grisly crimes perpetrated. This entry in the series, even more than the other two, definitely had some cringe-worthy moments.

      I would highly recommend this series to any fans of “historical thrillers”, but would suggest starting with Mr. Grecian’s first book. This book, even more than the last (The Black Country) needs a little bit of familiarity with the first book (The Yard). This book would also appeal to fans of Lindsay Faye’s “Copper” series (The Gods of Gotham, Seven for a Secret) so they could compare how it’s done on the “other side of the pond”.
    • 5/5
      I received The Devil's Workshop free from GoodReads. It's the 3rd book in the Murder Squad series and written by Alex Grecian.I read the second book in this series, The Black Country recently and enjoyed it quite a bit but not enough to go out and buy this one. Big mistake! I love this book. And the recently published sequel, The Harvest Man is supposed to be even better. I put it in my Amazon cart a few minutes ago.In this volume Grecian takes on Jack the Ripper but he gives the diabolical character a definitely modern spin. Personally I find him a much more menacing villain herein than in other books I've read. Jack's emergence is preceded by a prison escape of a peculiar nature and much of this book moves back and forth between the evil Jack and the nasty scoundrels that have escaped imprisonment. It's interesting to contrast the more prosaic motivations of the run-of-the-mill murderers with the ghastly Jack.All the usual characters are here: Scotland Yard's Inspector Walter Day, Sergeant Nevil Hammersmith, Fiona and her father, Dr. Bernard Kingsley, as well as the rest of Scotland Yard’s Murder Squad. But the events of this novel will definitely change the way that they relate to one another and that's why I'm in such a hurry to read the next book. It should be a doozie!
    • 5/5
      I give Alex Grecian’s novel The Devil’s Workshop my highest rating because it is so well-written from page 1 to page 383. The style is like the Sherlock Holmes novels and short stories of Arthur Conan Doyle, but even better. Grecian has captured the 1890’s London setting in such a way that the reader is at home in the novel's prison, underground ancient city, homes, and streets. The action is exciting, realistic, and often gruesome with good character development and dialogue. Jack the Ripper makes his appearance after a jail break releases 4 convicted murderers from prison, and Scotland Yard’s Murder Squad has been called in to catch them. Yes, Jack has been kept alive by a group of vigilantes who want him to receive some of his own medicine before he dies. They also want to keep the 4 escaped murderers alive and out of prison. In fact, the “Karstphanomen” have engineered the murderers' escape for the purpose of meting out real justice to the evil men, not just incarceration.The novel was so entertaining that I searched Amazon Books to see if Grecian had written any other novels about the Murder Squad. The Devil’s Workshop is number 3 in his series after The Yard and The Black Country. I look forward to reading both of these books.
    • 4/5
      The Devil’s Workshop by Alex Grecian is the third in his Murder Squad series and reintroduces characters from the previous two books due to a prison outbreak resulting in a murder spree and possibly the rise of Jack the Ripper. Detectives Walter Day and Nevil Hammersmith are given the case and trying to round up the escapees before one of them become a victim. I enjoyed The Devil’s Workshop and found it a fast paced, historical thriller. I caution that reading The Devil’s Workshop before the previous two books in the series may cause some confusion and definite spoilers. I would recommend The Devil’s Workshop to those who enjoy historical suspense mysteries.
    • 4/5
      1890, LondonJack the Ripper is alive and chained to a cell wall in the catacombs below London held and tortured by a secret society of men wanting justice for Jack’s victims. A train is deliberately sent into the wall of Bridewell Prison releasing an unknown number of murderers into London. Scotland Yard’s elite murder squad is sent out to retrieve the prisoners before they kill again. Detective Inspector Walter Day, Sergeant Hammersmith and retired Inspector Adrian March are teamed up to chase down the killers including Cinderhouse who Day and Hammersmith had apprehended a few months before. Cinderhouse, abductor and killer of young children and two officers, had vowed vengeance on the Day family. Meanwhile, Inspector Day’s wife Claire, is close to having her baby. Sir Edward sends young Constable Winthrop to keep watch over the Day household. Cinderhouse, along with another escaped prisoner, Griffin, enter the tunnels below London. An altercation ensues and Cinderhouse leaves Griffin unconscious with a broken leg. As he wanders through the tunnels underground, he finds and unchains Jack without knowing who Jack really is.Suspenseful, with a stunning climax, I look forward to the next book in the Murder Squad series and will go back and read the first 2 books: The Yard and The Black Country.