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A review by ndiganci
The Devil's Workshop by Alex Grecian
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.
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.