The story opens with an assassination attempt on Queen Victoria. Her attacker is subdued by a senior police officer and Burnside - a down at heel photographer. The latter expects to gain some sort of Royal commission for his bravery but the Queen's courtiers ignore his pleas. Meanwhile, the would be assassin, Maclean, is declared insane and incarcerated in the high security mental asylum at Broadmoor but he escapes.

The action moves forward to December 1882. Two Pall Mall Gazette journalists - Alec Lonsdale and his colleague Hulda Friederichs - are at the opening of the new Natural History Museum in London's Kensington when there is the shocking discover of a body in the basement, hacked to death.

The most likely suspects are three "cannibals" from the African Congo - human museum exhibits - who seem to have vanished. But, when Alec and Hulda subsequently discover a letter in the victim's home they are shocked to read that two catastrophic events are planned for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, organised by a secret group known as "The Watchers". It seems that this secret society is based at the Garroway Club - a gentlemen's club in London's West End. The journalists further discover that three other notable men have been killed in a similar manner to the man murdered in the museum - and all four were members of The Garroway.

Set in Victorian London, this historical mystery/thriller mixes fiction with actual events and real individuals of the late 19th Century. I felt that too much time was spent in introducing the reader to a plethora of characters and one third of the story passes before the reader first learns of The Watchers and their evil plan. Or at least the fact that there is an evil plan. The same goes for Lonsdale's romantic life. He is engaged to Anne, who's none to happy with him being a newspaper reporter. Her father, Mr Humbage, is also disparaging of Lonsdale's chosen profession and the two spend a large part of the story bickering with each other. To add to his woes, Anne's sister Emelia detests him.

Lonsdale seems far more suited to Hulda and the two of them spend most of their time interviewing various friends and relatives of the various victims. With the aid of a sympathetic policeman, they race to discover who is behind the killings and what the Watchers have planned for Christmas.

The plot is somewhat convoluted and the large number of characters (there are at least 3 senior Scotland Yard officers investigating the murders at one time or another. Imagine if Sherlock Holmes had to deal with three Inspector Lestrades at the same time!) had me confused and checking back to see which was which. That said, the action does speed up as Christmas Eve draws closer and there are some shocks in store for Lonsdale and Hulda before they find out the truth. A decent historical mystery which will appeal to fans of tales of Victorian London.

My thanks to Netgalley and Severn House Publishers for a copy of this book in return for an unbiased review.