I just did not connect with the main character at all. The writing was okay but I spent most of my time reading this feeling like i was wasting my time on it as I did not care what happened to any other the characters that were on the page.

I absolutely loved this book and can't believe it has taken me so long to find this author!

This book was very well written, full of detail, fantastic characters and it has a brilliant plot - there wasn't anything in the book that I didn't dislike!

It was a brilliant read and I have to give it 5 stars!! Superb story!!

I was lucky enough to read The Red Hand of Fury as part of a blog tour in the summer. It’s exactly my cup of tea, as I love crime novels and also the period around the First World War. What I am especially drawn to is the ability of the investigating characters to solve crimes without all the modern, CSI-style methods and equipment that are often in modern crime novels and on TV – deduction, brain power and investigation win the day!

Silas Quinn, R. N. Morris’ lead character, is unique in his dedication to solving the apparant suicides of three men, which he does not believe are just chance and unconnected. He gets himself committed to an asylum where the men were treated and we then find out that Quinn might not be such a stranger to mental health struggles.

This is my first experience of Silas Quinn but there are earlier books featuring the detective which have all now made it to my reading list as he is a compelling detective to follow, with his personal difficulties giving an interesting angle to his character. This book in particular has an interesting angle, given that the reader knows that the First World War is not long ahead for these characters.

The mystery of the book is excellent, constantly leaving you guessing and providing loads of twists that even the most avid reader of crime fiction would struggle to spot and the final act is dramatic and satisfying to read.

What I found most interesting to read – and what has fascinated me in my own family history research – is the depiction of an asylum of the time. Read any historical novel featuring mental ill-health and you will be horrified by how mental health patients were treated. Confined like criminals and often subjected to experiments that hoped to cure them, there is none of the empathy or treatment options that exist today. It really is awful to read and, although today’s mental health care is by no means perfect, we can at least be grateful that these horrible conditions no longer exist.

Do you believe there is such a thing as true evil? Can someone who has committed the most heinous of acts ever be redeemed, and should they then be allowed to walk amongst the innocent of society? Allowed to prowl the streets like a caged hungry tiger, who is always only one step away from devouring its next meal.

How many men and women with a lust for pain and killing have convinced their peers that they are merely victims of a moment of mental instability, as opposed to beings who crave the pleasure of sadism, thereby laying their own path for inevitable freedom somewhere in the future.

The truth is the criminal system is flawed, and the containment of psycho- and sociopaths in mental institutions is perhaps the biggest flaw of all. Where an attempt is made to heal and rehabilitate, and assessments are made which enables to patient killers to one day prowl the streets again.

Silas Quinn can see Timon Medway for what he is, and the danger he represents to everyone around him. Even the most brutal of guards can often distinguish the difference between lunacy and true evil.

When men start committing suicide in the most bizarre and brutal way possible, the obvious assumption is some sort of momentary madness or desperation. Which isn't completely impossible, even it weren't for the fact they all have something minor in common. Just something any other person would dismiss as a coincidence, but Silas and his team are used to sniffing out the anomalies in the strange cases they solve.

It's an intriguing combination of mystery and crime with a gothic horror vibe. You can feel the insidious nature of the beast seeping into the pages. Morris plants this almost hypnotic suggestion about not looking into the eyes of evil, thereby confirming not only the fears the characters have, but also your own.

What makes Silas Quinn such a compelling character is the fact he has crossed the line between reality and his own conjured up visions of insecurities and fears. One gets the feeling that he never quite knows what he is doing and whether or not he is about to lose the plot completely. Who better to recognise the devil than someone who has danced with him themselves.

The story has an element of the macabre feel of a Poe at his darkest, and yet it is lightened by the imperfections of Quinn and his bloodhound knack of sensing when a crime is afoot. It's a well-written riveting piece of fiction.

Inspector Silas Quinn of the Special Crime Department believes there is a connection when he comes across 2 suicides and 1 attempted suicide. There is not much that links these events together, but Quinn thinks differently and along with his sergeants; Macadam and Inchball they try to discover the truth.

This is set in 1914 London and begins in Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum as the newest patient is brought in. The author describes the brutal and harsh treatment of patients before taking a step back by a few weeks, and then I got to learn the story of the events as they happened bringing me back up to date.

This is a really gritty and grimy read as I got taken round some not particularly nice areas of London. There are historical references that help set the picture and add to the scenes and have very nicely woven into the story.

The plot is very clever and I had no idea as to who was responsible or why. It contained teasing and cryptic little details as I followed Quinn and his team on their investigation. The characters themselves are quite likeable, but I am not sure about Quinn he is an oddball in some ways.

This is the fourth in the series and it worked very well as a stand alone. True to my usual form I haven’t read the previous books, but didn’t feel that I was missing out too much on any previous stories. It has left me very intrigued and wanting to read the previous books in the series.

If you like early 1900’s detective, murder mystery then this is a really must read one . It is well paced and kept me guessing all the way through, it does have some good historical references. This is one I would definitely recommend.

I really enjoyed this fantastic, intriguing historical mystery. I’ve had a few people recommend this author to me but have never managed to pick up one of his books until now.

This book is rich with historical detail about life and society in 1914. The author has clearly done his research and manages to make the reader feel emersed in the time. It was especially interesting to learn more about life and treatment in an assylum for people needing psychiatric care. The methods they used and the casual cruelty of some of the staff sent a shiver down my spine at times. It’s a relief to realise how far we have come in this area.

The mystery of the supposed suicides was fascinating and kept me guessing as to how it would all work out. The two cases seemed so different to each other that I was unable to guess what was going on. The author has written a very cleverly plotted book where the clues and answers are revealed gradually at a rate that keeps the reader’s interest and ensured that I continued turning the pages.

I liked the main character Silas Quinn, though he seemed to have two parts to him. On one side he seemed to be very intelligent and a great detective but on the other he seemed very vulnerable when his mental health problems arose which made me feel very sorry for him. I absolutely hated Stanley the incredibly cruel member of staff at the assylum. His attitude and treatment of the patients made my blood boil and lead to some very hard to read passages. His behaviour is made worse by the attitude of the other staff who are aware of his cruelty but still allow him to work there! I really wanted him to come to a sticky end and get his comeuppance.

Huge thanks to Rachel from Rachel’s Random Resources for inviting me onto the blog tour and the publisher for my copy of this book via Netgalley. If you like well plotted, unusual historical thrillers then you’ll love this book.

June, 1914 and several bizarre suicides have been brought to the attention of the Special Crimes Department and DI Silas Quinn. Unfortunately for Quinn his past may be catching up on him.
The book drew me in straight away. I loved the style of writing, and the mystery and was intrigued by Quinn and his team. They were characters that I enjoyed reading about.
Although this was the fourth in the series it can be read as a standalone story, though I am looking forward to reading the first three.

Wow, I just want to talk about the beginning of the book! I had no idea where it was going or who the first patient would be and bam! The author just throws a curve ball straight off the bat! Jaw dropped!!! 

This is book four in the series of Silas Quinn, but you are fine as you don’t have to read the others to read this. It reads perfectly as a stand-alone novel. 

Silas is a famed detective, but he feels like he has not done anything to deserve the praise. He lets his two sergeants do the thinking and then decides one of their ideas to solve cases. 

They are in a bit of a lull when Inchball comes across a new story where a man has decided to strip all his clothes off and jump into a bear enclosure...well you can guess what happen! Silas and Macadam write it off as nothing to investigate. Then a man jumps off a bridge, known as Suicide bridge, again getting naked and jumping! Now their interest is peaked, what is going on..and now they begin to delve into the history but not before there is a third (near) victim...and this time its someone that one of them knows. 

This is not a book for the faint-hearted that is for sure. It is at times such a dark foreboding read. Some of the descriptive words that the author uses are so detailed I found myself cringing so much that I could see the scenes and smell the smells. Not always a good thing I am telling you!! Especially when we spend time in Coney Hatch asylum...

It was interesting to read about life pre-war, being set in 1914. Simple throwaway comments like hearses being cars instead of horse-drawn carriages, ‘because it is all the rage now,’ seem crazy but back then it was not. 

Silas is a complex and maybe even slightly crazy character. You are following him into a tunnel of discovery, especially when you learn some of his history at the beginning wondering where it will fit in, in the present. 

Always wondering can he be trusted.....

This is the first book I read in the Silas Quinn series. Before I started reading I knew it was the 4th book in the series, but I decided to just go for it and read the other three after. And I discover that it’s okay to read it as a standalone, because you still get all the goosebumps and all the tension, and you are even more curious about Silas, the Deputy Inspector that is the head of the Special Crimes Department at the Scotland Yard.

When you begin the book you get immediately pushed in to the world of the Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum and because one of my favorite books and movies is “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest” you may understand why I got intrigued even more. And if in the other book and movie the doctors and staff were scarier than the patients, in “The Red Hand of Fury” you can be sure it’s the same.

As we keep reading we understand more what’s going on and even more questions start to form in our minds. This mystery/crime book involves Silas and his companions trying to figure out what caused the death of a series of men. Meanwhile he must confront his own past and we get this weird feeling sometimes, but still we keep reading.

That’s what happened to me. I wasn’t entirely sure of what was true or not. Was he really crazy or was he just pretending? Nevertheless, with the mystery behind those weird deaths, I was so stuck in the book I couldn’t let it go even when I was ready to jump from my seat.

Silas Quinn fascinated me. He’s a complex and intelligent man, haunted by his past, just like we all are I suppose, but there is this ‘something else’ I can’t quite put my finger on that makes him different from all the other detective characters in books, movies and tv series.

R. N. Morris did such an wonderful job creating amazing (good and bad, or just crazy) characters and setting the atmosphere and flow of the book in such a way that made it possible for me to fell into the book and feel like I was part of that story.

I totally recommend this book and I will be reading the previous ones in the near future.

[I want to thank Rachel at Rachel's Random Resources for this blog tour, to R. N. Morris for the amazing book and for getting me curious about the all series, and to NetGalley for the eCoppy of this book in exchange for an honest review.]

The opening to this story definitely got my attention and it was kept throughout as we follow Silas and his investigation. I believe that this book is part of a series but I didn't find any confusion when reading so don't let the fact that it is part of a series worry you. There is a brilliant mystery at it's heart that made for a compelling story.

R. N. Morris has created a detailed and atmospheric story that will easily pull you in especially with a character like Silas to keep you interested in all aspects of the plot. With the book being set in 1914 I felt it added an extra depth to the story as some of the scenes show the brutality that could have easily taken place. The case is so intriguing and I'm trying to be vague when it comes to the plot as it really is worth discovering every little part for yourself.

Compelling, dark and gritty!

Four stars from me!

With thank to Rachel at Rachel's Random Resources for my copy.

My review is written with thanks to Rachel at Rachel's Random Resources for inviting me on the tour and providing my copy of the book via Netgalley.
It is 1914, shortly before the outbreak of World War I, and Detective Inspector (DI) Silas Quinn is required to investigate two deaths: one young man who is mauled by a polar bear, and another young man who jumps to his death from a bridge known locally as Suicide Bridge. Whilst at first, these incidents seem unrelated, Silas knows there is more to these cases than meets the eye, and he knows he must find out what happened before there are any more victims. But what will the personal cost be?
The Red Hand Of Fury is the first book I have read by Morris, and therefore my introduction to Silas Quinn, despite the novel being the fourth in the series. By no means is he a perfect detective (although this is partly owing to the fact that policing was less advanced when the novel was set over a hundred years ago), but he is determined and likes to do things in his own way, which made me root for him. The reader is also given insight into his personal life, and this made me feel sympathetic towards him.
As The Red Hand Of Fury is set in 1914, I found it interesting to learn about the methods and social conditions of that time. Morris has taken a lot of time to ensure that we are transported to that period, and I enjoyed the tension and atmosphere created by his descriptions of Quinn's surroundings, both physically and in terms of the political and social climate in which he lived and worked. I was particularly interested in the theme of mental illness, and the way the characters' illnesses manifest themselves and were treated. I am so glad our understanding of these issues has improved so much over the last century!
The plot of The Red Hand Of Fury is a slow burner, but the tension builds steadily over the course of the novel from the discovery of the first body until the conclusion. There were times when I struggled to differentiate between imagination and reality, and this gave me a fascinating insight into the minds of the characters, and made the novel incredibly compelling, keeping me enthralled until the final page.
I would like to catch up with the DI Silas Quinn series, and I am intrigued to see where Morris will take the series next.

Really good historical procedural. Silas Quinn will remind you of more modern tortured detectives but he's got some unique characteristics I haven't encountered elsewhere. He's trying to solve the mystery of three suicides, all of which are odd and what's with the card found with each man? Colney Asylum........This has twists, turns, and will make you question Quinn's thought process as well as your own. It's hard to review without spoilers but suffice it to say that it's a very good story. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. I'd not read the earlier books but very much enjoyed this one and will look for more in the future.

An intriguing who-done-it in the vein of Sherlock Holmes that had me amused and intrigued simultaneously at the author's creativity. This is the fourth in a series but definitely works as a stand alone. Set in the prewar years of 1914, Deputy Inspector Silas Quinn is head of the Special Crimes Unit at the New Scotland Yard and is assigned to investigate the bizarre deaths of 3 men who had committed suicide in a very unseemly fashion. Fascinating clues appear to connect the three, where all had been relegated to a lunatic asylum . How Quinn decides to piece together the puzzle fragments is half the fun and also a huge plot spoiler. So, trust me that you will have to put on your sleuthing hats and see if you can outwit this delectably wicked inspector before he has you gaping with your mouth open.

This was the first of the Silas Quinn books that I have read. Quinn is a complex man. I wasn't sure if he was really crazy or just pretending. 

The absolute last place I would want to be is this Colney House Metal Asylum. Where the not so well in the head wear corduroy suits and have their heads shaved. The doctors and staff were scarier than any of the patients.

This was one nail-biting story. The pace was excellent as the story unfolded at exactly the right time. The characters were well done and complex. There was always some undercurrent to all of their motivations. I would definitely read more of the series.

Netgalley/July 1st 2018 by Severn House Publishers

After a series of male suicides, one of whom is unsuccessful and gravely ill in hospital, Silas Quinn begins to investigate these apparently unconnected events. This grim work is something that will raise the long-buried spectres of Quinn’s past and pitch him headfirst into a darkness that he soon discovers has never been far away.
This is the first Silas Quinn book I have read. Although I didn’t so much read this book as grind my teeth while experiencing it, as I stressed over Quinn’s ever-increasing trials and tribulations. Given that the socially inept Quinn gives short shrift to authority, particularly when it gets in the way of the truth, he does not make life easy for himself. You feel Quinn’s world begin to uncomfortably shift like quicksand around him as his investigation takes him to places he would rather not go.
R N Morris is very good at creating atmosphere and sense of place, allowing the reader to really immerse themselves in the events unfolding at an alarming pace as Quinn digs deeper into the sinister goings on.
The Red Hand of Fury is set in the run up to the First World War, an event you can really sense beginning to impact on Quinn’s world, at first in a subliminal way. Quinn is running out of time on his case as the erosion of his inner peace eerily echoes the rapidly crumbling tranquillity of the everyday life of the general population. As the case develops, the clues drop into place with the inevitability of a shell being loaded into the breech of the infamous Big Bertha gun, readied for an assault on the soon to be embattled Allied forces.
Credible and mild-mannered, Quinn’s old nemesis is written in a very understated way which gives you the feeling that something is not right, but you just can’t put your finger on it. This just adds to the tension.
In all, The Red Hand of Fury is a highly entertaining and rattling good tale in the spirit of John Buchan’s Richard Hannay series. But you will have to read the novel to know whether Quinn survives to solve another crime or whether this will be the case that finally claims his sanity and his life.

I love this series so much that, a while ago, I actually emailed the author, through his website, and asked him to write a new one! Not sure I had any influence, but hopefully lots of other readers did the same thing – anyway, for whatever reason, I was delighted to read a new Inspector Silas Quinn mystery.

It is 1914 and Inspector Quinn is still running the Special Crimes Department, at New Scotland Yard, along with his colleagues Sergeant Macadam and Sergeant Inchball. Always on the lookout for unusual events, their interest in piqued by a series of strange suicides. Men, who strip off their clothes, and kill themselves by jumping from bridges or climbing into the polar bear enclosure at the zoo. There are other odd coincidences; including the fact that the men were wearing a similar uniform – one which is all too familiar to Inspector Quinn.

This excellent mystery involves Silas Quinn having to confront his own past; including both his family history and his time at Colney Hatch Asylum. In order to discover what is causing these men to die in such terrible ways, Quinn has to face both his personal demons and a criminal that escaped him in the past.

This is the fourth in the Inspector Quinn series – previous titles are, “Summon Up the Blood,” “The Mannequin House,” and “The Dark Palace.” I highly recommend all of the books and think it is best to begin at the beginning of the series, if possible. This book, as I mentioned, is set during 1914 and the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand occurs – almost as a side comment – during this story. I do hope the author takes the characters on, as the country goes to war. I feel that Quinn’s story is not yet complete and will hope for future novels. I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.