Murder as a fine art - David Morrell

The Ratcliffe Highway murders of 1811 were the most notorious mass killings in their day. Never fully explained, they brought London and all of England to the verge of panic.

Forty-three years later, the equally notorious 'opium eater' Thomas De Quincey returns to London. Along with his Confessions, he is known for a scandalous essay about the killings: 'On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts'.

Days after his arrival, a family is killed in the same horrific way as the earlier murders. It seems someone is using the essay as an inspiration - and a blueprint. And De Quincey himself is the obvious suspect. Aided by his daughter Emily and two determined Scotland Yard detectives, he must uncover the truth before more blood is shed... and London itself falls prey to attack.

In MURDER AS A FINE ART, gaslit London becomes a battleground between a literary star and a demented murderer - whose lives are linked by secrets long buried, but never forgotten.