Person or Persons Unknown (Sir John Fielding)

Eighteenth-century London: prostitutes are being brutally murdered in Covent Garden. Sir John Fielding, the blind magistrate who confounded London's first police force, must call upon his keen intellect and uncommon detecting skills to solve this shocking series of crimes with a plan that is as daring as it is desperate...

The place: London; the time: 1770, when the wealthy denizens of the city walked through London's streets with scented handkerchiefs over their noses to disguise the stench of the poor. As if filthy streets, impoverished beggars, pickpockets, thieves, and prostitutes everywhere weren't enough of an eyesore, the mutilated bodies of young women start turning up around Covent Garden.To Sir John Fielding, a blind magistrate, the crimes are an abomination; he sets out to trap the killer with the help of his assistant, young Jeremy Proctor.

In addition to a fine mystery, author Bruce Alexander offers up a fascinating guided tour of 18th-century London, from the precincts of the Bow Street Runners to the shadowy haunts of criminals. In the characters of Sir John and Jeremy, we are gifted with the voices of experience and innocence--a potent combination in so murky a venue.