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Wonders & Wickedness (The Victorian Detectives Book 5) Kindle Edition

by Carol Hedges (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.6 520 ratings

Book 5 of 11: The Victorian Detectives

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1864 marks the arrival of a brand new department store right in the shopping heart of Oxford Street. What owner John Gould does not expect, is the presence of a dead man in one of his display windows. How did he get there? And why has Gould's store been picked out as a murder location?

Meanwhile Sir Hugh and Lady Meriel Wynward are not expecting to hear from their daughter Sybella, who died in a railway accident two years ago. So when a letter written in her hand arrives unexpectedly, on what would have been her eighteenth birthday, it throws them into turmoil. What is going on?

Bleak expectations dog the progress of Stride and Cully ,two of Scotland Yard's finest detectives, as they embark upon their most complex case so far. The twists and turns of the investigation will lead them into a murky mire of murder and blackmail, and the strange dark underground world of Victorian spiritualism.

Praise for The Victorian Detectives: 'Carol Hedges, in her wonderful Victorian Detective series, channels the most Dickensian of tropes without the overly sentimental, I-get-paid-by-the-word-so-I-never-use-one-where-six-would-do Dickensian mush.' ~ Barb Taub, reviewer

'Transports the reader to Victorian London: each scene is crafted to perfection.' ~ The Lady

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B074VBCV18
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Little G Books; 1st edition (August 20, 2017)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ August 20, 2017
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 3129 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 260 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #244,675 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #898 in Historical British Fiction
- #1,231 in Historical British & Irish Literature
- #1,245 in Historical Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Fiction

Customer Reviews:
4.6 520 ratings

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Carol Hedges

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Carol Hedges (1950 - )

Carol Hedges is the successful UK writer of 18 books for Teenagers/Young Adults and Adults. Her writing has received much critical acclaim, and her novel Jigsaw was long-listed for the Carnegie Medal.

Her Ebook Jigsaw Pieces, which deals unflinchingly with many of the problems that beset today's teens, is available on Amazon as is her Dystopic Fantasy The Last Virus

Carol is the writer of 'The Victorian Detectives' ~ a series of novels set in 1860s London and featuring Detective Inspector Leo Stride and his side-kick Detective Sergeant Jack Cully.

The ten books in the series are:

Diamonds & Dust

Honour & Obey

Death & Dominion

Rack & Ruin

Wonders & Wickedness

Fear & Phantoms

Intrigue & Infamy

Fame & Fortune

Desire & Deceit

Murder & Mischief

She is also the author of the 'Spy Girl' series ~ a Middle Grade/YA set of 5 books featuring Jazmin Dawson, the female 'Alex Rider'

The five books in the series are:

The Dark Side of Midnight

Out of the Shadows

Once Upon a Crime

Dead Man Talking

Ready Deadly Go

All her books are published by Little G Books and are available via Amazon in print and ebook.

Carol Hedges lives in Hertfordshire with a Tortie-Siamese cat called Halley and a lot of pond fish. When not writing/sleeping/trying to resist cake, she tutors A level and GCSE English Literature. She campaigns as chair of a local action group to save a community urban green space from possible development. She also minds her two grandchildren, one of whom is the star of the Award Winning series of blogs: The Adventures of L-Plate Gran

Bits of her writing life can be viewed on her Blog: http://carolhedges.blogspot.com

Visit her unusual Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/thecuriousVictorian/

Find her on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/caroljhedges/

On Twitter: @riotgrandma72

On Mastodon: @Riotgrandma72@Mastodon.social

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4.6 out of 5

520 global ratings

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Vmp

Wonderfully evocative and beautifully written

Reviewed in the United States on September 21, 2017

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Oh my word! What can I say that the other reviewers haven't already said? I have just finished Wonders and Wickedness and truly wish I hadn't. I absolutely loved every word; from the marvellous, evocative descriptions of Victorian London to the beautifully drawn secondary characters to the now familiar and beloved main characters of Cully, his wife Emily, Stride and Lilith Marks. This book has all the delicious variety of a rich fruit cake well steeped in sherry. The main plots are marvellously interwoven so that the story, despite its many threads, draws to a fitting and satisfying conclusion. Quite an achievement given the complexity. It was also so visual I felt as if I'd been watching one of those wonderful BBC dramatisations of Dickens' London with all the caricatures, extremes,and social divisions in full technicolour. I loved the sub-plot of the alchemy experiment and the nosy neighbour too. Well done, Ms Hedges. Another beautifully written book in the series. I know it's a lot to ask, but I do hope there will be another one soon!

4 people found this helpful

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rl

Great Series

Reviewed in the United States on October 29, 2020

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The series continued with the characters developing more. London in the 1860s is shown at its best and at its worst. I enjoyed the problem-solving of the main characters very much.

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Donna D

Very good with a remarkable ending!

Reviewed in the United States on October 3, 2019

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Detectives Stride and Cully once again have a gruesome murder to solve, but the best part of this story will break your heart and warm it too.

Reviewed in the United States on April 20, 2018

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Beautifully written mystery of many facets of the human condition.
Many characters from earlier books in the series, as well as descriptions of parts of London to witch one may, or more likely may not, wish to visit.

One person found this helpful

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Kindle Customer

Loved this series

Reviewed in the United States on August 2, 2018

Verified Purchase

Have read all the books in the series and enjoyed them all. Love the style of story telling and that characters move from book to book. Highly recommend the series.

One person found this helpful

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Cathy

Another fantastic read

Reviewed in the United States on October 17, 2017

The year is 1864. London is blanketed in the fog rising from the river, but that isn’t bothering Mr John Gould in the least. He is taking one last turn around his brand new store before the grand opening the following day. The much awaited celebration doesn’t, unfortunately for Mr Gould, exactly unfold as expected. As the window shutters are removed, the last revealing a mock-up of a dining room showing all the associated goods available in store, the reaction of the gathered crowd is not what Mr Gould was anticipating.

'Gould is very proud of this particular display. Three shop assistants laboured all day under the direction of the window dresser to set it up. Gould wanted it to convey that here is a genteel upmarket family emporium catering to the ‘right’ sort of customer.

The last thing Mr Gould expected to see was the very dead body of a man sitting at the table, with blood staining the pristine table linen.'

So begins another wonderful addition to the Victorian Detectives series, written brilliantly by Carol Hedges. Detective Inspector Leo Stride and Detective Sergeant Jack Cully are back, investigating several seemingly unconnected and complex storylines in their own inimitable fashion. Aside from the murder, Stride is summoned to Lord Wynward’s residence with regard to a communication, supposedly from the daughter who died a year previously.

An important part of the narrative is London, a character in its own right. On one hand we have the great thoroughfares, parks and exclusive residential areas, contrasting strongly with the seedy, dark alleys, beggars, street children and slums of the less fortunate, described in vivid and atmospheric detail.

'Dawn arrives, remaking the city anew. Fog rests in the morning streets. It renders everything limp, like the belly of a dead fish, slippery and wet. Roofs have a sliver sheen. Cobbles are slick and sticky underfoot. Dampness pervades everything; the grey walls of buildings consuming light, birthing rot. Lines of mildew run green tracks along everything.'

Carol Hedges is adept at creating a comprehensive and evocative flavour of Victorian London and often dire circumstances of the poorer classes. The story is peopled with well-rounded and wonderfully named characters, all of whom are compelling, tragic, wicked and amusing in their own right. I enjoyed the entertaining dialogue between Stride and his adversary, the aptly named Rancid Cretney. And it was lovely to see the return of several characters from previous books, adding to their story lines. The intricate plot threads merge seamlessly as the crimes are resolved and the engaging present tense writing serves to keep up the momentum and involve the reader directly. I love this series (and the new covers!) Long may it continue.

One person found this helpful

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Lizanne Lloyd

A wonderfully wicked account of Victorian London

Reviewed in the United States on September 16, 2017

Here indeed you will find Wonders in alchemy, seances, and on stage, but there is also Wickedness; murder, blackmail and deceit. It is 1864 and the railways have already caused a fatal accident. A brand new department store has opened but the window display contains an extra body which shocks everyone. Thankfully Detective Inspector Strife and Sergeant Cully are on hand, but they are diverted by a mysterious package delivered to the arrogant Lord Hugh Wynward and his unhappy wife Lady Meriel.

In a complex, ingenious plot several crimes are gradually solved as we meet a delicious selection of fantastic characters, from Felix Lightowler, who fancies himself as a contemporary alchemist, to Boris Finister, a Dickensian fat boy and Rancid Cretney, who constantly mans a neighbourhood watch which only irritates the police force. Every detail of the characters’ names, clothing and vocabulary fit their context perfectly.

And within the plotline there is humour, pathos and a picture of the dire social consequences of Victorian values. When Stride goes to interview a builder he finds,
“Serried ranks of terraces of two up two down houses. Absent landlords will subdivide them into as many short-term lets as possible adding them to that surprising feature: the brand new suburban slum.
Mr Bellis struts with the aggressive bantam-cock attitude of all small men who’d like to be big men only nature hasn’t permitted it.”

As a connoisseur of all the previous Victorian Detective Books, I knew that I would enjoy meeting up with old friends at Scotland Yard and independent business women such as Lilith Marks and Josephine King but this book would be equally rewarding as a one off read, although it is bound to tempt you to indulge in other gems from the series. When will a producer take up these books for TV or movie?

3 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Richard Tatham

The rich tapestry of this series keeps getting better with every novel

Reviewed in Canada on February 16, 2021

Verified Purchase

Carol Hedges' work in this field in unparalleled and unrivalled. Certainly, there are many works of crime fiction set in the dirt and grime of Victorian London, but very few authors have such gloriously rich wordplay and subtly devious humour. The back-alleyways, guttersnipes and seedy bars positively reek of the depravity around them, whilst the robber landlords, the avaricious upper classes and the effete gentlemen's clubs provide ample fodder for the author to skewer with her pen and wit. The poor are seen as barely surviving from day to day beneath the (often murderous) jackboot of the oppressive and scheming rich, whose wives generally have more interest in bonnets, breeding and eligible bachelors for their pampered offspring.
Yet there is a warmth and humanity here which is genuine and heartfelt. Frequently the rich little heiress will turn her back on her Motherly- approved suitor and may often harbour thoughts that would be quite unbecoming of a delicate little flower of a well bred lady. And who doesn't love a fabulously intelligent and fashionable former "lady of the night", who has turned her life around and who takes great delight in pulling the rug from under the feet of chinless upper classes, as she knows all their dirty secrets and what they REALLY think about their wives. She is a class to herself, and way above all others.
And in this book, her story is further revealed as her past returns to haunt her, as a barbaric murder thrusts her into the spotlight once again. The final denouement is well worth the waiting.
Plot twists abound, red herrings are there to be caught and sniffed, and you simply have to sit back and enjoy life in the dirt and the gutters of an age old London, safe in the knowledge that you are being lead by Ms Hedges expert and caring hands.
This series gets evermore better, and I probably loved this one most of all. That is, until I turn the pages of the next instalment. The author's wordplay alone is worth the cost of the book, and in this novel in particular there were points at which I laughed out loud (and to nobody in particular...just a few sundry cats and dogs).
And please don't tell anybody, but I think there was some moisture in my eyes at various points in the narrative.
Perchance my allergies were playing up.
As we never seem to get enough of Victoriana and dirty murders committed by the powerful and the rich, quite why Netflix or others haven't snapped this series up for production is beyond me.

Barb Taub

STILL! Carol Hedges writes better Dickens than Charles Dickens.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 17, 2017

Verified Purchase

Quick… What’s your first image of Victorian London? Impenetrable fog, friendly bobbies and Scotland Yard, the bells of St. Pauls, the river Thames, an infallible detective on Baker Street and his posse of street urchin “Irregulars”? Or perhaps it’s Ebenezer Scrooge, Oliver Twist, or any of Charles Dickens’ unforgettable characters? In her latest Victorian Detective novel, Wonders & Wickedness, author Carol Hedges pays homage to all these and more.

The story seems at first as though it came straight from the pages of Dickens himself. In fact, the Victorian London of 1864 is itself one of the supporting characters, introduced by its iconic fog. “Fog finds its way up from the river and down from the sky, filtering like a melodramatic ghost through cracks and crevices. Tendrils of fog slip in around shutters, sliding into lighted rooms, where they make the candles crackle.” London’s fog obscures scenes and characters, but it also connects all of them.

As the fog blankets London, we meet Mr. Gould, an enterprising Victorian gentleman on the eve of opening his brand new department store, complete with expansive plate glass display windows carefully composed to present an irresistible version of middle class Victorian life—or at least the pieces of it sold there (“Never beaten on price”). But when he arrives for the grand opening, things don’t go according to plan.

[QUOTE] He remembers the finished window clearly. It was a masterpiece. What he does not remember is a shirt-sleeved man sitting at the foot of the table, his head face down upon the oval mahogany dining table. He is clutching a carving knife in one outstretched hand, and his blood has stained the white damask table cloth bright crimson. [END QUOTE]

If this were the classic detective story later regulated by Agatha Christie or the other members of the British Detection Club, there would be a main crime to solve plus a secondary mystery, perhaps with a bit of romantic side interest. But in author Hedges’ tongue-firmly-in-cheek homage to Charles Dickens—whose numerous intersecting plots wandered far and wide, stopping to wave in surprised greeting when they happened to meet—the murdered man has to await the attentions of detectives Stride and Cully. Meanwhile the wonderfully annoying Rancid Cretney lodges his daily complaint about his noisy neighbors, a bereaved aristocratic mother consults psychics for messages from her lost child, an amateur alchemist and his greedy apprentices attempt to turn metal into gold, a wronged wife still grieves for her lost baby, a (former) urchin investigates the mysterious reappearance of the dress worn by his dead sweetheart, and the London fog wraps everything.

I’ve said it before… Carol Hedges writes better Dickens than Charles Dickens. But if she dutifully goes down the list of Dickensian tropes and Victorian themes, she is equally thorough in subverting each. Thus each of the seemingly unrelated story lines rush toward a straightforward goal. Dickensian-style coincidences verging on divine intervention that allow orphans to discover rich and loving relatives are reinterpreted here to be the results of human greed and self-deception.

Where Charles Dickens’ social conscience raised the image of starving children and abused women, he would usually choose the ones who would be miraculously saved from those who came from “good” families, their salvation at the hands of benevolent (and prosperous) members of the middle or upper classes. In Carol Hedges’ London, however, most of the abuse is at upper class hands, while the saving comes from the working classes, such as Lillith Marks, former prostitute and now a businesswoman who owns a small chain of tea shops. Part of Carol Hedges genius as a writer is the way she builds the world of Victorian London until, as a supporting character, London itself offers comments.

[QUOTE]Here, ladies of the ‘soiled dove’ variety rent places by the night, selling their bodies to men who fancy their company. Also from these dingy fetid attic rooms come the beautiful hand-stitched ball gowns for rich young ladies selling their future to men who fancy a well-dowried wife. Same game, but with different rules, more money and better clothing.[END QUOTE]

Wonders & Wickedness is, in fact, entirely made up of supporting characters, loosely connected by Scotland Yard’s two detectives, Detective Inspector Leo Stride and Detective Sergeant Jack Cully. As policing professionals, detectives are relatively new but already Stride is buried by the paperwork demands of his position, exacerbated by further struggles with his subordinates’ lack of education—“…in the constables’ day room at Scotland Yard, where Jack Cully is inducting two of the newest recruits into the mysteries of punctuation. He has just about managed to achieve commas…”

But the true bane of Stride’s existence is the ubiquitous Rancid Cretney, who waylays the inspector on a regular basis to lodge complaints about his neighbors. Rancid was, frankly, one of my favorite characters, from his coat, “…a tweed jacket that has seen better days but never participated in them,” to his “slightly hard of thinking” mental processes. I especially loved the fact that Rancid is actually correct. The neighbors whose nocturnal noises are so disturbing, do in fact end up causing a huge tragedy—an entire storyline with a full cast of deliciously well-rounded characters whose sole purpose is to place one character in exactly the right place to collide with another, providing Detective Stride with a solution to his murder investigation even as he remains blissfully unaware of the conclusion to Rancid Cretney’s complaints. (I take consolation in the twin thoughts that Cretney never understands what has happened either, and that he will soon find another topic with which to continue ambushing Detective Stride.)

The book is full of these wonderful supporting characters, each lovingly well-rounded and developed. For example, the self-satisfied department store owner John Gould’s expensive black beaver top hat and tailored frock coat are accompanied by “…a rather awful yellow waistcoat with red erysipelas spots”. (Yes, I had to that up too, and was rewarded with the information that erysipelas is a skin disease that afflicts both people and pigs.)

There are other characters equally well-drawn, their individual lives caught up in separate story lines which—with the assistance of coincidence and a few nudges from Stride and Cully—eventually resolve. I loved that most of the stories revolve around ordinary people and the ways they go about building better lives for themselves and each other. As Detective Jack Cully says, “Sometimes, maybe when we least expect it, wonderful things can happen. Things that will change our lives for the better.”

Although he undoubtedly would have used several paragraphs in the attempt, Dickens couldn’t have said it better.

2 people found this helpful

Cathy

Another fantastic read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 17, 2017

Verified Purchase

The year is 1864. London is blanketed in the fog rising from the river, but that isn’t bothering Mr John Gould in the least. He is taking one last turn around his brand new store before the grand opening the following day. The much awaited celebration doesn’t, unfortunately for Mr Gould, exactly unfold as expected. As the window shutters are removed, the last revealing a mock-up of a dining room showing all the associated goods available in store, the reaction of the gathered crowd is not what Mr Gould was anticipating.

'Gould is very proud of this particular display. Three shop assistants laboured all day under the direction of the window dresser to set it up. Gould wanted it to convey that here is a genteel upmarket family emporium catering to the ‘right’ sort of customer.

The last thing Mr Gould expected to see was the very dead body of a man sitting at the table, with blood staining the pristine table linen.'

So begins another wonderful addition to the Victorian Detectives series, written brilliantly by Carol Hedges. Detective Inspector Leo Stride and Detective Sergeant Jack Cully are back, investigating several seemingly unconnected and complex storylines in their own inimitable fashion. Aside from the murder, Stride is summoned to Lord Wynward’s residence with regard to a communication, supposedly from the daughter who died a year previously.

An important part of the narrative is London, a character in its own right. On one hand we have the great thoroughfares, parks and exclusive residential areas, contrasting strongly with the seedy, dark alleys, beggars, street children and slums of the less fortunate, described in vivid and atmospheric detail.

'Dawn arrives, remaking the city anew. Fog rests in the morning streets. It renders everything limp, like the belly of a dead fish, slippery and wet. Roofs have a sliver sheen. Cobbles are slick and sticky underfoot. Dampness pervades everything; the grey walls of buildings consuming light, birthing rot. Lines of mildew run green tracks along everything.'

Carol Hedges is adept at creating a comprehensive and evocative flavour of Victorian London and often dire circumstances of the poorer classes. The story is peopled with well-rounded and wonderfully named characters, all of whom are compelling, tragic, wicked and amusing in their own right. I enjoyed the entertaining dialogue between Stride and his adversary, the aptly named Rancid Cretney. And it was lovely to see the return of several characters from previous books, adding to their story lines. The intricate plot threads merge seamlessly as the crimes are resolved and the engaging present tense writing serves to keep up the momentum and involve the reader directly. I love this series (and the new covers!) Long may it continue.

One person found this helpful

sandyv

Another delightful read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 19, 2022

Verified Purchase

I so enjoy Carol Hedges rich descriptions of Victorian London and its inhabitants, and I always discover new facts. These novels are my go to books when I want guaranteed immersion, and some of her descriptions I read several times over. I don't know what I will do when I get to the end of the series, I'm already rationing the books out in time. I guess I could just start again with book 1.

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Wonders & Wickedness (The Victorian Detectives Book 5) Kindle Edition

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