The Adventures Of Inspector Lestrade

In this witty, original, and often hilarious book, Inspector Lestrade, that ferretlike, bumbling anti-hero, so often scorned and outdetected by the legendary Sherlock Holmes, comes into his own when, in pursuit of the sinister "Agrippa," he inadvertently solves the mystery of Jack the Ripper.

Book four in the Inspector Lestrade series. It is 1891 and London is still reeling from the horror of the unsolved Ripper murders when Inspector Lestrade (that ‘ferret-like’ anti-hero so often out-detected by the legendary Sherlock Holmes) is sent to the Isle of Wight to investigate a strange corpse found walled up in Shanklin Chine. But this is only the start of the nightmare. It is merely the beginning of a series of killings so brutal, so bizarre and, apparently, so random, that only a warped genius – and a master of disguise – could be responsible. Even when Lestrade pieces together the extraordinary pattern behind the crimes from the anonymous poems sent after each murder, he is no closer to knowing the identity of the sinister, self-styled ‘Agrippa’, the ‘great, long, red-legg’d scissor-man’. It becomes a very personal battle and Lestrade’s desperate race to avert the next death in the sequence takes him all over the country, from London to the Pennines and back, resulting in a portfolio of suspects which covers the entire range of late-Victorian society.

Book eighteen in the Inspector Lestrade series. Many readers of the Lestrade books wonder what is fact and what is fiction – and the author is delighted that they can’t always tell! So, for all the readers out there who have ever asked that question, here is the World of Inspector Lestrade. In this book, the lid is taken off the Victorian and Edwardian society in a way you’ve never seen before. Lestrade knew everybody, from Oscar Wilde in the Cadogan Hotel, to General Baden-Powell, cross-dressing on Brownsea Island, to the hero of Damascus, General Allenby – ‘you can call me Al.’ Have you ever wondered whether Howard Vincent, Director of the brand new CID really had a pet iguana? Find out inside. The Lestrade canon features the great and not so good of Britain when London stood at the heart of the Empire, the biggest in the world on which the sun never set. The novels on which this book is based are genuine whodunnits, with gallows humour and laugh-out-loud moments. Here you will find all the little peccadilloes that Lestrade took for granted. This is history as it really was – and I bet you wish you’d paid more attention at school now!

There is a new broom at Scotland Yard: Assistant Commissioner Nimrod Frost. His first 'little job' for Lestrade is to investigate the reported appearance of a lion in Cornwall, a savager of sheep and frightener of men; hardly a task for an Inspector of the Criminal Investigation Department. Having solved that case to his own satisfaction, Lestrade returns to London and to another suspicious death and then another. All old men who should have died quietly in their sleep. Is there a connection? Is there a serial killer at work? Lestrade clashes with his superiors and finds himself suspended from duty, but that is a mere technicality as he moves from workhouse to royal palace, from backstage of the Lyceum to regimental dinner in his search for clues. When can his glory fade? 'A romp it is - but Trow also has a serious side, which he shows in the first fifteen pages, giving us a sensitive historical account of the Light Brigade and the men who comprised it. Trow writes of the disastrous event with an empathy which makes this book even more exceptional.' The Strand Magazine

Dr. John H. Watson is a man of medical science, a man of action and a man of letters. His life has been one of adventure and romance. In 1894 he finds himself alone following the death of his great friend Sherlock Holmes three years earlier and now the passing of his beloved wife, Mary. His loneliness is all encompassing and only a true friend can help him to see there is still reason to continue living. But when that friend, Inspector G. Lestrade of Scotland Yard suddenly and mysteriously disappears, Dr. Watson takes it upon himself to discover the reason for the abduction. Watson is thwarted in his investigation by his friend's brother, Mycroft Holmes and by the unseen culprits responsible for Inspector Lestrade's kidnapping. Still, Watson battles on, ignoring orders from Her Majesty's Government, from Scotland Yard and from friends who wish only to see the Good Doctor through the darkest time of his life. Dr. Watson begins to uncover secrets long hidden and the possibility if threats far reaching that could embroil the world in a war never before witnessed. What is truth and what is fiction is a determination Watson will make for himself with near shocking understanding in the final moments.

Book eight in the Inspector Lestrade series. Britain has entered the twentieth century. Queen Victoria is dead and the Boer War rages on. Inspector Lestrade is called upon to investigate the brutal death of Ralph Childers, MP. It is but the first in a series of bizarre and perplexing murders that lead Lestrade around the country in pursuit of his enquiries. The connection between the victims appears to be politics. Is someone trying to destroy the government? It would seem so, particularly when a bomb is found in the Palace of Westminster. But who is responsible? The Fenians? Or have the Suffragettes decided upon a more drastic course of action to further their cause? During his investigations, Lestrade encounters some old and some new faces. Amongst the new ones are the brother and cousin of the late Sherlock Holmes who died eleven years ago at the Reichenbach Falls. But is Holmes really dead? Dr Watson doesn’t think so. Someone wants to keep Holmes alive and Lestrade is forced to tread the boards (playing himself) to discover the truth. And, as if things aren’t serious enough, the King is kidnapped just before his coronation. Amidst all this, Lestrade is faced with the knowledge that his daughter is growing up not knowing who her real father is.

Book six in the Inspector Lestrade series. The London Underground Railway, in 1895, was described as ‘dark, deadly and halfway to Hell’. Only too true, for as the last train rattled into Liverpool Street, the one remaining passenger did not get off. How could she, when her eyes stared sightless and her heart had stopped? There was another corpse at the Elephant in the morn-ing, wedged between the seats like an old suitcase. And another had missed the late-night connection at Stockwell. What was left of her lay on the floor of the ‘padded cell’, her shoes kicked off in the lashings of her agony as she died. There is a maniac at large and Inspector Lestrade is detailed to work with the Railway Police, something he needs a little less than vivisection. Heedless of warnings to ‘mind the gap’ and ‘mind the doors’, the doughty detective plunges through a tangled web of vicious deviants to solve a string of murders so heinous that every woman in London goes in fear of her life. Who is the legendary Blackfriars Dan? What are the secrets of the Seven Sisters? Whose body lies at Ealing? Will the London Transport System survive, or will Lestrade run out of steam?