The English Monster marks the highly impressive debut of former journalist and digital producer Lloyd Shepherd. Technically at least, the book is a historical novel set as it is in the 19th and 16th Centuries, but it hardly feels like that due to a combination of the innovative structure, the pacing of the investigative elements of the story and the contemporary resonance of Wapping itself. For those of us who can remember the turmoil and violence of the brutal relocation of a large chunk of London’s press to the redeveloped Wapping area, there is a certain irony that a former journalist is making his novelistic debut at a time when the district is in the news again.

The English Monster is heavily influenced by genuine historical episodes and perhaps more importantly is imbued with some pivotal moments in British and indeed the world’s history. A number of real-life incidents form the trigger for the story, namely a series of brutal killings known at the time as the Ratcliffe Highway murders. The distinguished institution of the Royal Society also plays a significant part in the narrative. At a time when science, as in the study of knowledge, was labeled natural philosophy, the involvement of these eminent fellows – because fellows are what they were – is pertinent. The key historical backdrop to this wonderfully complex tapestry however, is the repulsive and harrowing practice of slave trading and its almost casual ingratiation in the blurred history of trade, piracy and adventure which the British perpetuated, admittedly on the foundations of other nations’ precedent of empire-building colonies and other pivotal outposts.

This history would count for nothing if it was not for the wonderful storytelling and enthralling entertainment provided by Shepherd. There are two central conceits in the structure of the novel which contribute to its impact. The first is the parallel stories that take place throughout the novel. The first occurs during the reign of the last Tudor monarch, Elizabeth at a time when Britain was establishing itself as a supreme trading nation; and the second begins at the commencement of the Regency age when the incapacitated George III was replaced by the Prince of Wales as his Regent. As with the Elizabethan age, the Regency period was marked as a significant era of transition in everything from fashion and the arts to commerce and society at large, and all this at a time when the Napoleonic wars and other conflicts were taking place across the global stage. Fascinating as all of this transitional background is, Shepherd focuses his narrative on the lives and worlds of a number of key individuals and their adventures in the world. From the ale house to the drawing room, and from the cabins of captains to the hill-top villas of Caribbean colonials, we are taken on a relentless pursuit of the trail of the English Monster.

The other central conceit of Shepherd’s is the innovative investigative detection methods used by Charles Horton. Waterman-constable Horton is a wonderful creation and would surely repay a revisit in some future adventure. His profession itself is a mark of the power and dominance of the Thames as the powerhouse of the British and London economies in that it justified its own police force. The brutal murders at the centre of the story don’t take place on the river and so are, technically, outside of the jurisdiction of Horton and his superior the venerable John Harriot, magistrate of the Thames. Thus we have one of the enduring conflicts of all great investigative thrillers, the detective acting off limits with a burning desire for justice and an enveloping frustration at the incompetence of others. So begins the chain of actions that sees Horton create processes and techniques that he refers to as detection and investigation much to the chagrin of others such as the magistrates of Shadwell and Bow Street. Of course such invention and determination is justified by the need to match the cunning and relentless drive of the English Monster itself as it emerges from this glorious panoply of history and geography unbounded by time and space.

Lloyd Shepherd has chosen a rich but challenging milieu for his debut as a novelist which might have been the undoing of a lesser writer. It is perhaps a mark of his journalistic background that he has been able to harness these elements of history and imagination into to a fascinating and compelling story. The story itself builds slowly and carefully towards a dramatic and bold conclusion to the point that you emerge almost from a dream such is the richness of events and incidents that compound the characters’ lives. The gruesome murders and adventures that take place as part of this journey are artfully and vividly presented in their historical context. The English Monster marks a worthy debut and promises much. So long as Shepherd maintains this focus on detail and innovative vision we can expect some fascinating and engrossing novels and characters to emerge from his pen, whether digital or ink, in the years to come.