title: The Black Country: Scotland Yard Murder Squad Book 2
author:  Alex Grecian 
description: *Starred Review* In March 1890, Scotland Yard&#x2019;s Inspector Walter Day and Sergeant Nevil Hammersmith bring their Murder Squad expertise to the Midlands, where a husband, wife, and son have disappeared; the couple&#x2019;s three other children, left unscathed, tell conflicting stories about what happened. An eyeball, discovered by a neighbor child, is the only clue. From the beginning, the bleak stage is set: a coal-mining town in winter with its slag heaps and gray snow on glumly shadowed streets that are lined with buildings sinking slowly into deserted mine shafts below. The town&#x2019;s denizens, taciturn and superstitious, believe Blackhampton is cursed, as the disappearances are followed by an epidemic of violent illness. The suspense grows exponentially while the detectives unearth clues to a bizarre and complicated crime, hoping their forensic specialist, when he arrives, will shed light on the baffling plague and the eyeball&#x2019;s owner. In contrast to Day&#x2019;s first case (The Yard, 2012), this second in the series moves at a brisk pace, with surprising plot twists right up to the very end. Grecian&#x2019;s riveting novel is an intelligent historical thriller similar to Jean Zimmerman&#x2019;s atmospheric psychological novel The Orphanmaster (2012), and as shocking as David Morrell&#x2019;s Murder as a Fine Art (2013). --Jen Baker
  						    	
  						        	--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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  THE
  
  
  FOOTBALL
  
  
  MURDER
  
  
  
  
  
  An addictive crime mystery full of twists
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ROY LEWIS
  
  
  
  
  
  Eric Ward Mystery Book 15
  
  
  
  
  
  Originally published as Death Squad
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![C:\\Users\\jasper joffe\\Downloads\\good circle
  logo.jpg](../images/00001.jpeg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Revised edition 2020
  
  
  Joffe Books, London
  
  
  www.joffebooks.com
  
  
  
  
  
  First published in Great Britain
  
  
  as Death Squad in 2006
  
  
  
  
  
  © Roy Lewis 2006, 2020
  
  
  
  
  
  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organisations,
  places and events are either the product of the author’s imagination or are
  used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events
  or locales is entirely coincidental. The spelling used is British English
  except where fidelity to the author’s rendering of accent or dialect
  supersedes this. The right of Roy Lewis to be identified as author of this
  work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents
  A