M.J.Carter: The Printer’s Coffin, 978024196624, paperback, Penguin UK

One of my best friends is an enthusiastic fan of MJ Carter’s Blake and Avery historical mysteries and her love for these novels made me read the first of the series, “The Strangler Vine” which was set in India in 1837 introducing Jeremiah Blake and Captain William Avery, both working for the East India Company, I reviewed it in my blog.  “Strangler Vine” was nominated for many awards and was on the Shortlist of the Best Debut Crime Novel in 2015. I had to read the second novel, “The Printer’s Coffin” which is set in London of 1841 in a very different atmosphere from the previous book.

Two printers from London’s seedy gutter presses have been found brutally murdered, in an area that was then anything from the now extremely highly priced property around the Embankment and Covent Garden. Viscount Allington, a wealthy, religious philanthropist who runs charitable organizations for the poor, hires Avery & Blake to look into these grizzly killings.  The new police have very little interest to uncover the truth and fearing the murders might fire up the Chartist movement, Allington is trying to prevent civil unrest.  As Avery and Blake start their investigation in a London full of unimaginable poverty and squalor, many colorful characters try just as hard to prevent them from uncovering the truth.  I have to confess I kind of suspected who might be behind it half way through the novel but it is not an obvious choice …..

The meticulous research that Carter undertook to gain insight into the Chartist movement, the extremely detailed description of London, its architecture and the layout of the city then, makes this not only an action packed read but also a historical and sociological lesson.  This is one of the reasons I enjoy MJ Carter’s novels, you come out so much smarter while being wonderfully entertained at the same time. This novel is packed with detail and it helps to read the book without time lapses in order not to lose the thread. 

The third installment of the series has just been published, it is called “The Devil’s Feast” and some of the characters from “Printers Coffin” reappear.