The Incendiary’s Trail is the debut novel

Debut novel

A debut novel is the first novel an author publishes. Debut novels are the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to publish in the future...

 from writer James McCreet

James McCreet

James McCreet is a British writer, the author of a series of Victorian detective thrillers set in 1840s London. His works are known for their fast-paced, historically accurate and complex plotlines featuring the same core characters....

, first published in July 2009. It is a Victorian detective thriller set in 1840s London and introduces a series of characters that recur in successive books.

Plot summary

The book begins with the grisly murder of a conjoined (‘Siamese’) twin who is part of a travelling freak show. Investigating the crime is Sergeant George Williamson, a member of the newly formed Metropolitan Police Detective Force. However, when police regulations prevent Williamson from investigating the crime as freely as he might, a suspected criminal is recruited by the detective’s superior, Inspector Albert Newsome. The investigation leads the policeman and their new recruit to a blackmailer and arsonist (or ‘incendiary’ in the language of the time) who – unknown to the policemen – knows their unwilling ‘volunteer’ personally and has scores to settle. The story has a number of murders – one of them a classic ‘locked-room’ mystery – and also some large set pieces, including a public hanging, a masked ball and a balloon chase.

Fact and fiction

The book is based in a very specific time and place and there is some question about how much is historical and how much purely fictional. The author has written: “A sense of realism is important. I limited myself to primary sources: books, articles and periodicals written at that time. What I like about those sources is their unreliability and ambiguity – I would read three different eye-witness accounts of an incident and receive three different versions of the facts. What was the truth? We’ll never know.”

McCreet also points out that much of what is factually historical proved unusable: “As I read through contemporary newspapers, I came across numerous stories so amazing that I wouldn’t have dared to use them. Nobody would have believed them.”

The fact remains that many of the places and institutions are real, though they may have since vanished. These include Newgate

Newgate

Newgate at the west end of Newgate Street was one of the historic seven gates of London Wall round the City of London and one of the six which date back to Roman times. From it a Roman road led west to Silchester...

 and Giltspur Street

Giltspur Street

Giltspur Street is a street in Smithfield, London, running north-south from the junction of Newgate Street, Holborn Viaduct, and Old Bailey up to West Smithfield, and it is bounded to the east by St Bartholomew's Hospital...

 prisons (now gone), Vauxhall Gardens

Vauxhall Gardens

Vauxhall Gardens was a pleasure garden, one of the leading venues for public entertainment in London, England from the mid 17th century to the mid 19th century. Originally known as New Spring Gardens, the site was believed to have opened before the Restoration of 1660 with the first mention being...

 (also gone), Haymarket, St Giles’ church, and Hyde Park (all still around). The Detective Force also was real and created in 1842, while the only real person in the book is Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Richard Mayne (1796–1868), although his activity in the book is entirely fictionalised.

It is suspected that Sergeant Williamson is loosely based on the real Victorian detective Jack Whicher. The description of both characters is very similar. There are also some other interesting parallels in the character’s name. A murder case of 1811, documented famously by Thomas de Quincey, involved a case in which the victim was called Wilson and the murderer called Williams, while Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...

 (one of McCreet’s main influences) has a short story called “William Wilson” in which a man is plagued by a double of himself.

Sequel and series

The Incendiary’s Trail is the first in a series featuring the same characters and location. It is followed by The Vice Society

The Vice Society

The Vice Society is the second novel from writer James McCreet, first published in May 2010. It is a Victorian detective thriller set in 1840s London and continues a series featuring the characters of George Williamson, Noah Dyson and Inspector Albert Newsome.- Plot summary :Ex-detective George...

(2010) and The Thieves' Labyrinth (2011).