Murder is rampant in Early Victorian London. Detective Inspector Newsome of the new Detective Force decides to recruit a recently-apprehended master criminal to help bring the culprits to justice. A polymath with a mysterious past, the man is no eager volunteer. And when the ghastly murder of conjoined twins galvanizes the city, Newsome blackmails his prisoner - Noah Dyson, as he calls himself - into working with the Force's Sergeant George Williamson. Unknown to the policemen, the criminal genius behind the murder shares a dark past with their new associate. It is not justice that is on Dyson's mind, but retribution. As Williamson and Dyson together close the net, the murder-rate soars and the streets of London begin to burn.

In Victorian London, gruesome events are afoot. Some are asking why the Detective Force's Inspector Albert Newsome is investigating the curious but - apparently - insignificant death that occurred in Holywell Street. What seemed like a common enough incident is complicated when the Inspector discovers his ex-colleague (and master detective) George Williamson is also pursuing the case, as well as a sinister former criminal named Noah Dyson. Then the questions begin to multiply: why are prostitutes being poisoned? Who is exerting pressure on the Commissioner of police? And who, or what, is 'Persephone'? From the gutter to the drawing rooms of St James, the two detectives choose their allies and plunge into the underworld of Victorian London, where nothing is quite as it seems and the razor's flash waits around every corner.

The third dazzling Victorian entertainment in McCreet's extraordinary crime series A death on Waterloo bridge, a body in the river near Wapping, a lady robbed on Wych Street—all common enough daily incidents in early Victorian London. But when an outrageous theft is committed at the port, the clues from these seemingly unconnected crimes soon point irresistibly to a mystery deeper and murkier than the Thames itself. The rapacious Inspector Newsome has much to prove, ex-police detective George Williamson faces difficult choices, and the mysterious Noah Dyson is once more drawn unwillingly within the reach of the authorities. Meanwhile, competing against them all, there is the enigmatic figure calling himself Eldritch Batchem. Lives and reputations are at stake as the investigators pursue a macabre trail into the city's darkest passages, each seeking a prize more personal than mere justice. And in the race for a solution, all stand to discover much more than they are prepared for.

Two bodies are discovered on the same night in the same part of London: both shocking, both inexplicable – neither entirely human. Police Commissioner Sir Richard Mayne’s prized Detective Force is being mocked by the press on one side and investigated by Parliament on the other. His notorious investigator Inspector Albert Newsome seems afflicted by a dangerous mania and Sir Richard himself is expected to stand before parliament to defend the practices of his men. So when two houses are apparently burned down by an incendiary, the commissioner sees an opportunity to again recruit the victims of the crime: ex-detective George Williamson and his shadowy friend Noah Dyson. Together, they are obliged to collaborate in a case more gruesome and extraordinary than any of them has experienced. Further inhuman effigies appear, Scotland Yard itself is robbed, Mr Williamson is arrested for murder, and men walk the streets wearing the exact likenesses of others. Is the evil mind behind this chaos the same man being sought by Inspector Newsome? And is the villain’s aim blackmail, revenge, anarchy . . . or merely terror? In this city of many faces, voices and guises, how can any man be recognised as one’s lethal adversary? The Masked Adversary is the latest instalment in the Victorian crime series that includes The Incendiary’s Trail, The Vice Society and The Thieves Labyrinth.