The Yard Review: The Ripper Effect

The Yard is the latest book that I have read this past summer. Since May I have been determined to read the many books I have bought in the past couple of years that I hadn’t already read. Unlike my usual summer reading, which consists of a lot of Harry Potter, The Yard is a brand new series for me. I still remember picking up The Yard last summer at the bookstore because the cover was intriguing with a well-dressed man in the fog as well as being interested in what the blurb on the back promised.

If you have read my about me section you will know that my favourite genre is mysteries and this book promises a detective story set in London right after the Jack the Ripper murders. It would be hard to describe a book that is more tailored for me. Like I already said I love mysteries and detective stories are one of the best setups for a mystery. I also love Europe in general but especially the UK as I just find it to be a fascinating culture. I also love history so a period piece that fully embraces its time period is perfect.

Needless to say, I was ready to like this book and quite excited when I picked it up. The first thing I want to talk about with this book is the atmosphere. Right from the very first page, this book establishes that you are in Victorian-era London. The description used in the novel is very detailed and adds to the feeling that you are in the past. Every street, building, and character is used to create the atmosphere and bring you to that period in time.

Everything in this book reflects the time that it is set in. The best part of it is it’s all treated as mundane normal things. This is a story where everything we read about is just plain and ordinary for the characters. That may seem like an odd thing for me to comment, on but as a reader it was refreshing.

So many stories, even those written for adults, feel the need to over-explain everything. Whether that’s through a character who is experiencing this world or environment for the first time or odd dialogue and descriptions that you feel are there more for the reader than the characters.

This book doesn’t really hold your hand so if you are completely unfamiliar with 1880’s London and the way that the city worked it’s not going to explain everything. Don’t get me wrong, I also need things explained to me sometimes but I just liked that in this book everything was already in place and our characters just know how to exist in their world.

One thing that I found really fascinating is how this novel really addresses and looks into how police work has changed. In London, before Jack the Ripper the cops who solved murders kind of always knew the reason. The motives were clear as it was typically crimes of passion with someone getting back at someone else who wronged them.

Jack the Ripper presented a new type of criminal, someone who killed in excess and because they enjoyed doing it. This notion terrifies most of Scotland Yard in the book as they don’t believe they have the ability to stop such crimes. One of the characters, Inspector Blacker, is so fearful of this idea that he insists Jack the Ripper was a one-off.

It was just really fascinating to me as a reader to think about the fear that this type of criminal could exist and the idea that there could be multiple people like this. Today, we live in a world where serial killers are more common and we have a better understanding of how they work but I can’t imagine when this all was being brought to light and the fear it could cause. So I really enjoyed that element of the story that is sprinkled throughout.

 Another plot point that I have never read about before was the development of forensic science. Obviously, I know what forensic science is and I have a basic understanding from TV and my science class. Still, it is interesting to examine that type of investigation from a time when they did none of that.

In the book, we meet a character named Dr. Bernard Kingsley. He is a doctor who during his spare time aids the police in their investigations by examining evidence through new techniques he develops. He doesn’t get paid for this and does it to help the people of London and to explore his scientific theories. It is really quite interesting to read about how this character used so many methods that are commonplace in modern times.

The first thing we see him do is examine the body, which I guess was not something that is too extraordinary but at the same, during the period in which this book takes place, it is pretty incredible to imagine what they could derive from examining a corpse which was not a practice typically used at this point in history. The other major technique that Dr. Kingsley uses in the novel is fingerprint analysis. 

My favourite part about how this is used in the book is that many members of Scotland Yard refuse to believe that the ridges on one’s finger are unique, and they think that identifying a person by their fingerprint is insane. It’s the little touches like that where the author really fleshes out the time period he is writing in because it is realistic that many people would be skeptical of these new ideas and advancements.

Now I want to discuss the structure of the novel. We follow multiple characters throughout the novel, though the main three are Inspector Day, Cinderhouse, and Officer Hammersmith. One of my few complaints in regards to this novel is just the way it is structured. The transitions between characters can be abrupt and the chapters can be quite long, so you are really invested in one perspective before it flashes to another.

Another departure from the traditional mystery is we are aware of the killer from the first few chapters. While we do not know his name at first, we get to read from the perspective of the killer throughout the novel with his sections being in italics. It was certainly an interesting way for us the reader to be able to see how the cat-and-mouse game develops.

There are moments where the police are so close to figuring it out early on and we get to read that from the killer’s perspective which is cool. It allows us to get into the heads of all the characters and understand why they think the way they do. It was fun at the beginning of the novel to read about this seemingly unconnected storyline and watch as they converge toward the end of the novel.

All in all,  The Yard was a really good book that seemingly fits all the things I enjoy in a novel and story in general. With a great mystery, solid thrills, excellent location, and compelling characters I am happy to report that this book was captivating the whole time. I have also discovered that this is the first in a series so I will have to check out the next entry!