The Blake and Avery Mystery Series (Book 2)

The Printer's Coffin

For lovers of Sherlock, Shardlake and Ripper Street. A hugely enjoyable action-packed Victorian thriller with a great detective double act. 
 
'Delicious Stuff.' Financial Times 
 
Published in hardback as The Infidel Stain. 
 
London, 1841. Mr Jeremiah Blake and Captain William Avery, recently returned from India, are invited by Viscount Allington to examine the particulars of a grisly pair of murders. Two printers from the seditious gutter presses have been brutally dispatched in distinct but similar circumstances. Fearing the deaths will stoke the fires of Chartism sweeping the capital, Allington hopes Blake and Avery's determination to uncover the truth will solve these crimes and help restore civic order. But there are others who seem equally determined that the pair shall fail . . .

Vividly realised...the second outing for [Blake and Avery] is even more fun, with the same blend of derring-do and elegant writing. ..Delicious stuff.

Witty and unfailingly readable...its contemporary resonance [is] all the more effective for being implicit.

An entertaining stew of blackmail, murder, cross-dressing and incomprehensible slang ... like Dickens, Carter's righteous anger at Victorian hypocrisy does not prevent her from revelling in it with infectious glee.

While the relationship between the dynamic duo Blake and Avery evolves in a nuanced, tender way the real star of the show in this complex, clever novel is London itself.

The Strangler Vine was a promising and enjoyable debut - plenty of action, rich in historical detail, all crowned with a very clever twist. Carter has proved with The Infidel Stain that it was not a one-off.

If this series is not bought for film, it would be another mark of the corporate stupidity that lost the BBC Ripper Street. It is, however, far more pleasurable and impressive to read.

A sinister tale involving political revolution, printers and porn, The Infidel Stain drips with period atmosphere.

Compelling... Carter's book is historical crime fiction at its best.

M. J. Carter is a former journalist and the author of the Blake and Avery series: The Strangler Vine, The Printer's Coffin (formerly published as The Infidel Stain) and The Devil's Feast, and two acclaimed works of non-fiction: Anthony Blunt: His Lives and The Three Emperors: Three Cousins, Three Empires and the Road to World War One. M. J. Carter is married with two sons and lives in London.

It's 1841, and something very strange is going on in the back streets of London. There has been a series of dreadful murders in the slums of the printing district, which the police mysteriously refuse to investigate, yet the culprit must be caught before he kills again. Three years after we left them at the close of The Strangler Vine, and in very different circumstances, Blake and Avery find themselves reunited in a race against time to find and stop the murderer.

The Blake and Avery Mystery Series (Book 1)

The Strangler Vine

For lovers of Sherlock, Shardlake and Ripper Street. A gripping and pulse-racing mystery thriller with a great detective double act. 
 
'Splendid, enthralling, an exotic mystery that captivated me.' Bernard Cornwell 
 
Calcutta 1837. Young officer William Avery is tasked by his employers-the East India Company-with tracking down disgraced poet and spy Xavier Mountstuart, lost in the jungles of central India. Accompanied by the dissolute and mysterious Jeremiah Blake, Avery is sure the mission is doomed. 
 
When their search leads them into Kali-worshipping Thug territory, the pair are soon fighting for their lives, but impelled to solve the horrifying mystery behind their mission. With death and danger on every side, is it too late for them to save themselves? 
 
Shortlisted for the John Creasey New Blood Dagger for Best Debut Crime novel of the year 2014, and the HWA Debut Crown for Best Historical Novel 2015, Longlisted for the Theakston's Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year 2015 and the Bailey's Woman's Prize for Fiction 2014

The first of three rip-roaring capers, introducing Blake and Avery, a Watson and Holmes duo for the 1830s and 40s. 
 
Calcutta 1837. The East India Company rules India - or most of it; and its most notorious and celebrated son, Xavier Mountstuart, has gone missing. 
 
William Avery, a down-at-heel junior officer in the Company's army, is sent to find him, in the unlikely company of the enigmatic and uncouth Jeremiah Blake. A more mismatched duo couldn't be imagined, but they must bury their differences as they are caught up in a search that turns up too many unanswered questions and seems bound to end in failure. 
 
What was it that so captivated Mountstuart about the Thugs, the murderous sect of Kali-worshippers who strangle innocent travellers by the roadside? Who is Jeremiah Blake and can he be trusted? And why is the whole enterprise shrouded in such secrecy? 
 
In the dark heart of Company India, Avery will have to fight for his very life, and in defence of a truth he will wish he had never learned. 
 
M. J. Carter is a former journalist and the author of two acclaimed works of non-fiction: Anthony Blunt: His Lives and The Three Emperors: Three Cousins, Three Empires and the Road to World War One. M. J. Carter is married with two sons and lives in London.

M. J. Carter

Wonderful . . . the whodunit plot takes in celebrity chefs, extraordinary cuisine, international diplomacy and and Victorian political shenanigans. The Devil's Feast proves to be a sumptuous treat.

The keynote to this third Blake &amp; Avery outing is enjoyment - in the sharp, clever plot, the telling detail and the author's uncanny ability to summon up the inner sanctum of the Victorian male club, a debtor's prison or Soyer's extraordinary dishes.

Few sleuths are as idiosyncratic as Avery and Blake . . . Carter is still an irresistible conduit to crime in the past.

The Infidel Stain is a richly detailed and smartly plotted novel that firmly establishes Carter as an authentic voice in the world of historical crime.

M.J. Carter is a slick storyteller who combines respect for a good murder with cool historical analysis . . . [The Infidel Stain] promises to be an equally pertinent comment, in the year of the Charlie Hebdo massacre, on the price of a free press.

A.N. Wilson, ‘Summer Reads’, Times Literary Supplement

The Blake and Avery Mystery Series (Book 3)

London, 1842. There has been a mysterious and horrible death at the Reform, London's newest and grandest gentleman's club.  A death the club is desperate to hush up. Captain William Avery is persuaded to investigate, and soon discovers a web of rivalries and hatreds, both personal and political, simmering behind the club's handsome façade - and in particular concerning its resident genius, Alexis Soyer, 'the Napoleon of food', a chef whose culinary brilliance is matched only by his talent for self-publicity. But Avery is distracted, for where is his mentor and partner-in-crime Jeremiah Blake? And what if this first death was only a dress rehearsal for something far more sinister?

M. J. Carter

Praise for The Devil's Feast

Wonderful . . . the whodunit plot takes in celebrity chefs, extraordinary cuisine, international diplomacy and and Victorian political shenanigans. The Devil's Feast proves to be

The keynote to this third Blake & Avery outing is enjoyment - in the sharp, clever plot, the telling detail and the author's uncanny ability to summon up the inner sanct ...

Few sleuths are as idiosyncratic as Avery and Blake . . . Carter is still an irresistible conduit to crime in the past.

Wonderful . . . the whodunit plot takes in celebrity chefs, extraordinary cuisine, international diplomacy and and Victorian political shenanigans. The Devil's Feast proves to be

The keynote to this third Blake & Avery outing is enjoyment - in the sharp, clever plot, the telling detail and the author's uncanny ability to summon up the inner sanct ...

Few sleuths are as idiosyncratic as Avery and Blake . . . Carter is still an irresistible conduit to crime in the past.

Wonderful . . . the whodunit plot takes in celebrity chefs, extraordinary cuisine, international diplomacy and and Victorian political shenanigans. The Devil's Feast proves to be

The keynote to this third Blake & Avery outing is enjoyment - in the sharp, clever plot, the telling detail and the author's uncanny ability to summon up the inner sanct ...

Few sleuths are as idiosyncratic as Avery and Blake . . . Carter is still an irresistible conduit to crime in the past.

Books by M. J. Carter

Series by M. J. Carter

The Blake and Avery Mystery Series

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