Dark Palace

Starred review from March 10, 2014
In Morris’s stellar third pre-WWI historical (after 2013’s The Mannequin House), Silas Quinn has managed to regain command of Scotland Yard’s Special Crimes Department, just in time to tackle his most bizarre case yet. Someone has broken into the morgue to remove the eyes of a victim from an earlier case. Baron Dunwich, a senior Admiralty official with a rampant libido, receives a package containing a cue ball painted to look like an eyeball. And a shocking new film by an Austrian director centers on a killer who takes his prey’s eyes as trophies. Quinn must sort all this out while struggling with his inner demons, as well as with the puzzle of his father’s suicide. Meanwhile, Quinn with his small squad has to keep watch for any suspicious activities among German nationals in London. Ruth Rendell fans open to stories set a century ago will be well satisfied. Agent: Christopher Sinclair-Stevenson, Sinclair-Stevenson Literary Agency (U.K.).

May 1, 2014
An unconventional British inspector tracks a brutal killer who gets his lethal inspirations from movies...or may be documenting his murders on film.A black-hooded figure seems to float unseen through the streets of London in 1914, killing with impunity. He first lands on the radar of DI Silas Quinn (The Mannequin House, 2013, etc.) when he strikes in Leicester Square outside Porrick's Picture Palace, where the detective is attending the world premiere of the German film The Eyes of the Beholder. The event is of particular interest since local tensions with Germany are building and war is on the horizon. Indeed, the imperious Lord Dunwich, also in attendance at the premiere, is rabidly ferreting out German spies. The film is graphic and horrific, depicting a serial killer and mutilated victims, one a prostitute with her eyes removed. Not far away, the hooded figure, whose creepy chapters counterpoint the main action of Quinn's investigation, claims a victim using the same modus operandi as the film's killer. The city is terrorized, and in order to unravel the complex mystery, the iconoclastic Quinn teams up with the bombastic Dunwich, forming a detective duo that poses no competition to Holmes and Watson. A lively cast of supporting characters-including dapper German barber Fritz Dortmunder, crass theater owner Magnus Porrick and starchy doctor Augustus Casaubon-adds Dickensian zest.Quinn's third case, which anticipates cinema verite by nearly a century, benefits greatly from Morris' colorful period-flavor prose.

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April 1, 2014

Tensions are high in London in the spring of 1914, pending the threat of war with Germany. DI Silas Quinn, once again leader of the Yard's Special Crimes Department, and his loyal sergeants, Inchball and Macadam, are tasked with watching for suspicious Germans. This vague order finds them at a premiere for an Austrian director's latest film. Within the ranks of the film crew a tempest is brewing, but Quinn's team has to work hard to discern the difference between illusion and true crime. Most startling, a mock attack diverts attention from a real murder occurring later that evening. Both Inchball and Macadam dig up relevant information on the assorted players, including a susceptible British duke whose sexual proclivities might be hampering national security. Meanwhile, Quinn learns more about his father's death and dabbles with therapy. VERDICT Book number three (after The Mannequin House) has Quinn dipping into psychoanalysis to help solve his case. While the story line is fascinating, Morris's tendency to jump around comes off as choppy, and leaves a few too many loose ends to satisfy.

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