Reviews

The Devil's Workshop by Alex Grecian

chenoadallen's review against another edition

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1.0

OK, this series has gone off the rails. Super disappointing, because in book 1 I liked the characters a lot (especially Claire). But now the characters are flat and one-dimensional.
If your whole plot depends on your ~brilliant inspector~ main character being to effing stupid to notice that, for example, people he's supposed to be working with go missing (or notices and doesn't think it's a problem), then you have a problem. And Hammersmith, oh jeeze. I've been known to put my pants on inside out just like anyone else, but can you hammer (heh) home enough times that oh, he's just so dedicated to his work, he can't button his own darn shirt up right?

Also, way too much gratuitous violence for me in this one. Literally made me sick to my stomach.

apriltwilights's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

ndiganci's review against another edition

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2.0

I've liked the previous two Murder Squad books, but this left a LOT to be desired.


The story finds Detective Inspector Walter Day embroiled in a search for fugitive prisoners of the local prison after a train went off its tracks and crashed into the prison, destroying the wall and allowing 4 prisoners to escape, at the same time as his wife Claire is in the final weeks of her first pregnancy. We the readers also learn that Jack the Ripper (or Saucy Jack, as they keep referring to him as, which grated my teeth each time I read it) is alive and not-well, having been captured by a vigilante group hell-bent on bringing justice to criminals in their own way and kept in underground catacombs for a year.

This book was just...ugh. I'm not squeamish of violence, but here, the violence was just for the sake of violence, for shock value rather than contributing to the story. There was a several-page spread of Jack killing a stray dog that I had to flip through as I hate reading about unnecessary violence towards animals. There was very little character development, although I guess since this is the third book it's not as expected. Just the whining of Walter about becoming a father, the whining of Walter when he realizes his mentor is part of the aforementioned vigilante group, the whining of Walter...oh, there did seem to be a lot more whining by Walter in this book. In the first two, he seemed much more stalwart and level-headed, so this was a turn of character for him, and not really in a good way.

And speaking of Jack -- look, I know we still don't know much about the man and probably never will. But the way Grecian has characterized him here seemed SO ludicrously evil, SO over the top that I found myself rolling my eyes at Jack's scenes rather than being drawn into his story. All his talk of "transforming" people, how he's "transcended humanity and is now a god" just...blurgh. Grecian had a real chance to bring in Jack, the man who terrorized London, and instead we get a one-dimensional villain. He even gives his monologue to Walter after Walter was trapped in the catacombs! Too cliche, too OTT.

And the climax...it was just all too much all at once. Too many people in Walter and Claire's house, too many people killed. It was just a mess of storytelling and I didn't care one whit about who was killed (except Hammersmith. His character I was rooting for to pull through).

I have The Harvest Man and I'll read it eventually since I have it, but if the quality on that one is the same as Devil's Workshop, I do believe I'll be abandoning this series.

ollie965's review against another edition

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dark tense fast-paced

3.75

csdaley's review against another edition

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3.0

Oh man I am worried. This was more like a 2.5 star for me. I hated the Jack the Ripper story line and felt most of the plot ridiculous. I loved the first two books of the series but if this is the way the series is going I might be out. I still love Day and Hammersmith but that was about it.

stevewhitaker's review against another edition

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2.0

Ugh. I'm done with this series.

wagmore's review against another edition

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2.0

It's rare for me to not finish a book once I start it, unless the writing is really atrocious. I *almost* stopped reading this books at several different points. But not because of poor writing. The book is too graphic and mean-spirited for my druthers. I won't be reading any more books in this series.

addy1991's review against another edition

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4.0

Plans have a habit of not going the way one expects. Four vicious murderers are allowed to escape from prison and it is up to Inspector Day, Sergeant Hammersmith and the rest of Scotland Yard's Murder Squad to capture them before they pick up where they left off at. To make matters worse, another notorious murderer is set free ... Saucy Jack (aka Jack the Ripper). It was difficult to put this book down and I found myself keeping track of the statuses on those five as the police and criminals played a deadly game of cat and mouse.

rachel_abby_reads's review against another edition

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2.0

London in the late 1800s is still struggling with a post Jack the Ripper world- one in which this most disturbing villain has not been caught. There plenty of other villains - murderers, cannibals, child molesters. They have been caught and incarcerated. Justice has been served.

Still. Doesn't that seem unsatisfying? They caused so much pain, suffering and fear. Doesn't incarceration seem ... inadequate? The Karstphanomen certainly think so. It's a "society" of men who believe that true justice, one that might actually result in rehabilitation, is for these villains (you can tell who the bad guys are, of course; they're the ones in jail) to suffer as their victims did. Over and over. Including the famous Saucy Jack.

Oh, yes. He's chained and detained in a dark cell in a catacomb under London. He was caught. Just never tried. And the Karstphanomen have arranged to break 5 other heinous killers from prison, to face their personal brand of justice. Too bad things don't always go as planned, and now these men, and Saucy Jack, are on the loose again.

Back to our heroes: Walter Day and Nevil Hammersmith. Walter's wonderful wife Claire has nearly reached term with her pregnancy. Walt is feeling all kinds of ambivalent here, which is natural and common, but we never get to see the resolution of it. We're left in an odd limbo.

There is plenty of blood and gore (the worst of it takes place off screen, as it were, but there is still plenty of spraying blood and post-mortem description to upset the average digestion). Lots of tension - will Jack kill, who will he kill, and holy cow, if the good guys are in this mess, how can this possibly work out?!

And thus ends the book. It doesn't. Grecian has done a fine job of making it look like there will be no happy ending, at least not until the next book comes along. It's like he's tired of this world and story, and he wants to end it in such a way that there is no clamour for more. I might well accept his motive.

On a side note: Jack adopts the delusion that he is somehow a Christ figure. As a former jail nurse, I have met three different men claiming to be Jesus Christ. I must say, the ultimate effect of encountering all these delusions that the true Christ is seen more truly as the miracle that he was and is.

diannel_04's review against another edition

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2.0

Alough I really like the characters of Inspector Day and Sergeant Hammersmith I really couldn't enjoy this book. The parts with them in it were interesting but the parts where Jack the Ripper is the narrator were just plain annoying. This makes Jack sound like a raving lunatic, which technically he was, but if he was as crazy as this guy he could never have gotten away with what he did without being picked up and locked away.

The most annoying thing in this book is that Claire Day is heavily pregnant with her first child, she's actually does give birth, in her own house, in her own bed. Well guess what, she had the kid, she already had her first kid in book 2, The Black Country and it wasn't under these circumstances.

All in all I have to say this book was a huge disappointment after the first two which I thoroughly enjoyed. I hope Alex Grecian goes back to their formula for book 3 because this one did not work.