Summon Up the Blood

Starred review from June 11, 2012
British author Morris (The Gentle Axe and three other historicals featuring policeman Porfiry Petrovich of Crime and Punishment fame) launches a new series with this superior whodunit set in 1914 before the start of WWI. Inspector Quinn, “an extraordinarily gifted detective” who heads the Special Crimes Department, an unorthodox unit within Scotland Yard, has earned the nickname “Quick-fire Quinn” for his tendency to kill suspects rather than apprehend them. With the future of the department in doubt due to the Home Secretary’s opposition, the inspector devotes himself to catching the butcher who slit the throat of a young male prostitute before draining all the man’s blood, an inquiry hampered by the difficulty in actually identifying the rootless victim. Morris does a fine job of conveying the grimness of life on the streets, and his hero’s wrestling with his own inner demons makes a nice change from the typically unreflective historical detective. Agent: Christopher Sinclair-Stevenson.

August 15, 2012
A bold and twisted killer challenges one of New Scotland Yard's most brilliant young detectives. March, 1914. A beautiful young rent boy named Jimmy accepts a carriage ride from a top-hatted toff despite a few details about the man he finds worrisome. The next morning, DI Silas Quinn is called to investigate a bizarre murder on the London Docks. Quinn, dubbed "Quick-fire Quinn" by the Daily Clarion, is meticulous but also a bit of a maverick. His two stolid sergeants, Inchball and Macadam, pose quite a contrast to Quinn, who started as a medical student but dropped out after his beloved doctor father committed suicide. Quinn is as socially awkward as he is professionally accomplished. He lives in a boardinghouse, devotes himself entirely to his work and is unable to converse easily on even the most casual topics. This case gives him plenty of reason to concentrate his attention. The throat of the victim was slit, and all of the blood drained from the body. His file at the local police station bears the designation, "Unidentified Sodomite." Starting from a beautiful cigarette case found on the body, Quinn probes the seamy London subculture in which wealthy and influential men buy the sexual favors of disadvantaged youth. Morris, author of the Porfiry Petrovich series (The Cleansing Flames, 2011, etc.), kicks off this promising new series by focusing as much on the conflicted and vulnerable character of Quinn as on the crime itself. Though his prose is often too pedestrian for the sinister complexity of his tale, his sense of the historical moment is strong.

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Starred review from August 1, 2012

"Quick-fire Quinn" is what they call Scotland Yard's Silas Quinn. Heading the Special Crimes department in 1914 London, the volatile detective has been assigned the lurid case of male prostitutes who have died by exsanguination, i.e., being totally drained of blood. A killer has been carefully positioning victims around the city and leaving a silver cigarette case with each body. Quinn knows the murderer is taunting his team with this affected touch, because each case bears a quotation. Going undercover, Quinn places himself in danger, learning more about homosexual prostitution than he ever wanted, and also how cruel the intricacies of a secret society can be. Powerful people make the mistake of underestimating Quinn. VERDICT Changing centuries and locale, historical mystery author Morris (A Vengeful Longing) introduces a new protagonist with Silas Quinn. He may lack for scientific gadgets, but this sleuth excels at intuition and picking up on people's emotions. His passion for justice makes for an engrossing and disquieting Sherlockian entry. [See Prepub Alert, 4/2/12.]

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from July 1, 2012
Mesmerizing, repellent, bizarre, intelligent, dark, provocativeall of these apply to Morris' first book in his new series. Set in London in 1914, the story features flawed, complex, decidedly odd Detective Inspector Silas Quinn, who is known as Quick-Fire Quinn for being far too ready to kill the criminals he captures; at the same time, he is respected for his high solve rate and his ability to crack cases no other copper can. The discovery of a young male prostitute, his throat slit and his body completely drained of blood, launches Quinn's latest case. Unsure whether this is a queer bashing murder, the work of a cult, or something even more sinister, Quinn confronts his own dark, mysterious past and, in so doing, finds he is able to think like the killer. Gory, even stomach churning at times, this book is not for the faint of heart; but for mystery fans looking for a challenging, utterly fascinating read that's part explosive psychological thriller, part police procedural, part historical mystery, and part intelligent exploration of art, literature, and society, this remarkable series debut will fill the bill superbly.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)