Product Description

Sniffing a set-up when he oversees a seemingly open-and-shut case involving a murdered printer and a raving poet, Sir John Fielding is aided by thirteen-year-old Jeremy Proctor and uncovers a sinister truth. Reprint. PW. NYT.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #343877 in Books
• Published on: 1996-11-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 320 pages

From Publishers Weekly
The lusty life of London's Covent Garden?and its diverse practitioners?highlights the second appearance of blind Sir John Fielding, an 18th-century magistrate first met in Blind Justice. Jeremy Proctor, Sir John's 13-year-old ward, has been hired by Grub Street publisher/bookseller Ezekiel Crabb. But the night before the apprenticeship is to begin, Crabb, his family and two employees die in a hideous massacre. Houseguest and rustic poet John Clayton, found dazed with ax in hand, is taken into custody. But Fielding is not satisfied with the evidence. In pursuit of the truth, he enlists the help of the Bow Street Runners, Samuel Johnson (but not Boswell), a pickpocket, a gambler, another publisher and, of course, Jeremy. More murders and a torched synagogue lead to a band of religious zealots who have come from Monongahela in the American colonies to convert London's Jews. Still needing facts, Fielding sets a trap that snares the villains in a stunning double climax. Especially noteworthy are scenes of Sir John in action at the Bow Street Court, dispensing practical justice to Londoners high and low.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
YA?In this sequel to Blind Justice (Putnam, 1994), 13-year-old Jeremy Proctor again teams up with Sir John Fielding, the blind magistrate and co-founder of London's first police force, this time to investigate who massacred the printer, Ezekiel Grabb, and his family and two employees the day before Jeremy was to be apprenticed to him. Acting once more as Sir John's eyes, the boy becomes ever more deeply involved in the magistrate's life and eventually earns himself a permanent place in his household. Though fiction, this book relies heavily on historic figures as its key characters. Its strength is its depiction of 18th-century London, seen through the eyes of young Jeremy, as he ranges from Grub Street to the Bedlam madhouse, from Covent Garden to London's worst slums..?Pamela Rearden, Centreville Regional Library, Fairfax County, VA
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Scientific American
A wealth of political and religious intrigue in a story so suspenseful it ends all too soon. Seldom have the color, rhythm, and sounds of London street life in the mid-18th century been made to seem so realistic.

Customer Reviews

Once again a FANTASTIC novel!!!!!
This is the 2nd in the Sir John Fielding series. This book finds Sir John and Jeremy once again embroiled in another murder investigation. Once again the story is great as well as the cast of characters.The descriptions of the people and customs of that time make this one of the best historical mystery series around. Do yourself a favor and pick this one up. I would advise you reading the first novel in the series before(Blind Justice) you read this one. I continue to look fwd to the latest addition to this series.

Recreates the 18th century in full colour and sound!
Recently orphaned Jeremy Proctor, "adopted" by blind magistrate Sir John Fielding and dutifully installed in the position of his assistant, protégé, jack-of-all-trades and utilitarian gopher, narrates a thoroughly entertaining tale of their continuing life together in "Murder in Grub Street". Mere hours before Proctor is to report to a publishing house to begin his apprenticeship, Ezekiel Crabb, the owner, his entire family and two of their staff are found brutally axe murdered. John Clayton, a disgruntled poet fresh from a heated disagreement with Crabb is found wandering in the house, dazed and bewildered, clutching the murder weapon and the constabulary are immediately convinced the murder has solved itself! Fielding, of course, remains unconvinced by the evidence and looks elsewhere concerned that failure to find the real culprit might result in the conviction and execution of an innocent man.

Not to insult any reader's intelligence, least of all my own, but when other apparently unrelated murders and an arson in a nearby synagogue point Fielding's sleuthing in the direction of an outrageous sect of American zealots styling themselves Brethren of the Spirit who would forcibly convert any Jews to Christianity - well, it doesn't take a heavyweight literary analyst to realize the two cases will come together at some point! The plotting is quite transparent and the culprit is easily predicted at little more than the halfway point of the novel.

But the real strength of this novel lies elsewhere - extraordinary characterization and atmospheric embellishment that brings people, time and place to life with a sparkling vitality and a sense of realism that can hardly be rivaled - the slums, the prisons, the docks, pubs, theater, outdoor markets, upstairs, downstairs, Grub Street and the publishing business, of course, courts, gaming houses, bordellos, street walkers, pickpockets, scamps, cut purses and thieves. Jimmie Bunkins, a ne'er do well street urchin that begs to be compared to Dickens's The Artful Dodger and Corrie Swanson, the bright but rebellious teen Goth from "Still Life With Crows", describes Sir John's wisdom, kindness and leadership ability, in a hilarious stream of street lingo that nearly defies understanding:

"What a rum cove he is! I ain't never met such a joe and I don't never hope to. I could be sent to cr*p by such as him and thank him for it."

(Now that would be an interesting and amusing English essay question for further research ... "Compare and contrast the characters of Jimmie Bunkins, The Artful Dodger and Corrie Swanson with reference to the roles of Sir John Fielding, Fagan and Aloysius Pendergast as their benefactors, teachers and mentors!")

A much more graphic and grittier novel than its predecessor "Blind Justice", Alexander has used this novel to present a mystery - not a great one but a darned good one - that brings Georgian England to life in full sound and Technicolor. Thoroughly enjoyable!

Paul Weiss

A worthy sequel, but not as good as "Blind Justice"
I read and loved "Blind Justice", and really looked forward to the next book. I had gotten involved in the characters' lives, and wanted to know what was going to happen next. This sequel was good, but not nearly as good as its predecessor. For one thing, the mystery started off with a bang--but then rambled on, getting ever more complicated. The characters weren't as finely drawn: especially Sir John. The alteration to his domestic life in the last chapter was hardly unexpected, but came from nowhere. I look forward to the next book, but I doubt that it will live up to the first in the series.