Ah, I've found a new (to me) series of books for bedtime reading!

This is rather late in the series of Wesley Peterson (He so nearly shares my surname) tales. If this represents the standard of the others, then I shall be well served for pre slumber entertainment for some time.

As per my usual system, I shall mention nothing of the plot save that Egyptian archaeology plays a significant role (albeit, the plot is set in England). The reason for which I particularly enjoyed this book is that the author, Kate Ellis, knows exactly how to lead the reader up the garden path: I was ahead of Petersen to every suspect, until the denouement, when I was left completely flat footed. Excellent. ( )

Somebody tries to garotte a young woman walking home from the pub but is interrupted. The next victim is killed and eviscerated as if preparing her body for mummification. A third victim is found. Can Wesley and the team catch the killer before a fourth victim dies in what may be a re-creation of a case from a hundred years ago?

Well, officially I got it wrong, but the epilogue seems to suggest I might still be right after all. ( )

This is a complicated and interesting plot with many twists and turns. I kept thinking I'd worked out who was responsible only to find I'd suspected completely the wrong person and worked out the wrong motive. The ending was excellent and I look forward to reading the next episode in this series. ( )

Kate Ellis does her usual excellent job of combining two story lines separated by time. In the old investigation, we see everything through the eyes and the experiences of a governess for the Varley children, and I felt some strong ties to Anne Brontë and her novel The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. (With apologies to Ellis, I just want to say that those of you who think Emily and Charlotte were the only two Brontës who could write, you really need to read Tenant. In many ways I prefer it to the other more well-known novels.) This older story line can really take readers on a roller coaster ride because the governess is a fascinating character who evolves each time she's seen.

Wesley Peterson is one of my favorite coppers, and Ellis has given him one of the best drawn teams going. Through reading the books in this series, each police officer comes to life, each with his own foibles, and the home lives of Peterson and his boss Gerry Heffernan, often figures into their investigations.

With its disquieting ending, The Jackal Man is more than a murder investigation, and it's more than an investigation into the theft of art and antiquities. It's a look into the nature of evil and of how monsters are made. It's a worthy entry in a series for readers who like to ponder evil, for readers who like a bit of history, and for those who like their coppers to have lives outside their investigations. Kate Ellis's Wesley Peterson series has been one of the staples of my reading for years. She knows just how I like my cup of tea. ( )

This installment in the Wesley Peterson series is pretty good. Tense and suspenseful, the novel follows DI Peterson and his colleagues, as they investigate a succession of grisly murders of young women that resemble another string of murders committed in 1903. Both in the past and in the present, the killer wears a mask of the Egyptian god Anubis and prepares his victims as if for embalming. As always in this series, history and modern crime intertwine, complicating the investigation. There is no shortage of suspects, but I didn’t guess the identity of the killer until the very end.
A satisfying read, although it leans towards the grittier side. The author pays lots of attention to the perversity of the killer, many of the suspects, and some of the victims. Each of them has a deep dark secret, and sometimes the picture of humanity that emerges is very depressing. It makes you wonder: what about the people around you? Is there so much darkness in real life as well? Or is it just the demand of the genre? ( )