London, 1842. There has been a mysterious and horrible death at the Reform, London's newest and grandest gentleman's club. A death the club is desperate to hush up.
M. J. Carter is a former journalist and the author of the Blake and Avery series, The Strangler Vine, The Printer's Coffin (formerly published as The Infidel Stain) and The Devil's Feast, and two acclaimed works of non-fiction, Anthony Blunt- His Lives and The Three Emperors- Three Cousins, Three Empires and the Road to World War One. M. J. Carter is married with two sons and lives in London.
Wonderful . . . the whodunit plot takes in celebrity chefs,
extraordinary cuisine, international diplomacy and and Victorian
political shenanigans. The Devil's Feast proves to be a sumptuous
treat.
*The Times*
The keynote to this third Blake & Avery outing is enjoyment - in
the sharp, clever plot, the telling detail and the author's uncanny
ability to summon up the inner sanctum of the Victorian male club,
a debtor's prison or Soyer's extraordinary dishes.
*Daily Mail*
Few sleuths are as idiosyncratic as Avery and Blake . . . Carter is
still an irresistible conduit to crime in the past.
*Financial Times*
The Infidel Stain is a richly detailed and smartly plotted novel
that firmly establishes Carter as an authentic voice in the world
of historical crime.
*Observer*
Witty and unfailingly readable...its contemporary resonance [is]
all the more effective for being implicit.
*The Spectator on The Infidel Stain*
The Strangler Vine was a promising and enjoyable debut - plenty of
action, rich in historical detail, all crowned with a very clever
twist. Carter has proved with The Infidel Stain that it was not a
one-off.
*The Times*
An entertaining stew of blackmail, murder, cross-dressing and
incomprehensible slang ... like Dickens, Carter's righteous anger
at Victorian hypocrisy does not prevent her from revelling in it
with infectious glee.
*Sunday Telegraph*
While the relationship between the dynamic duo Blake and Avery
evolves in a nuanced, tender way the real star of the show in this
complex, clever novel is London itself.
*Evening Standard*
If this series is not bought for film, it would be another mark of
the corporate stupidity that lost the BBC Ripper Street. It is,
however, far more pleasurable and impressive to read.
*Independent on Sunday*
M.J. Carter is a slick storyteller who combines respect for a good
murder with cool historical analysis . . . [The Infidel Stain]
promises to be an equally pertinent comment, in the year of the
Charlie Hebdo massacre, on the price of a free press.
*A.N. Wilson, `Summer Reads’, Times Literary Supplement*
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