The Atlantic Street Murder

From hunting pickpockets in London omnibuses and ghosts in Hesse Square, Sergeant Watters and Detective Silver are led into the notorious Wild Geese public house, and a tangled mystery that involves the murder of a guardsman and the vivacious wife of an Austrian diplomat. With the help of the Irish woman Rowena, Watters trawls through the back streets of London, encounters female prize-fighters and suave cracksmen, and finds himself in the savage world of espionage.

But can he unravel the mysterious words: ‘There is a storm from the east and the west’? The principal historical frame is Victorian London. The case draws on Dundee’s rapid industrial growth, crowded housing, docks and sharp class divisions, presenting Victorian policing as practical work embedded in neighbourhood relationships.