Shadow Of The Serpent

The first in the McLevy series, this is wonderfully evocative detective fiction, based in dark, violent, Victorian Edinburgh. It's 1880 and the city is gripped by election fever. But while the rich and educated argue about politics, in the dank wynds of the city it's a struggle just to stay alive, especially when a murderous madman seems to have resurfaced after thirty years. A prostitute is brutally slain and Inspector McLevy makes it his mission to find the killer, having failed the first time round. But his questioning leads him somewhere far more dangerous than the labyrinth of Leith. It leads him into a world of politics, perversion, deception and mystery and into the shadow of the serpent.