London: the early 1840s. The birth of the young Queen Victoria's first child is taken as an auspicious sign for all. But on a cold March night, a spree of dark crimes in shadowy workhouses shocks the city.

When Inspector Owen Endersby, of the recently formed London Detective Police, learns that the string of identical murders and abductions have all taken place under similar circumstances, he fears a monster is prowling the city. How long until the murderer strikes again? Is this the work of a diabolical killer, or a madman with confused motives? Facts are scarce. Endersby and his sergeant, Thomas Caldwell, must start an investigation based on the fitful testimonies of terrified girls and one peculiar clue: a piece of curtain lace found in the throats of the victims.

Jon Redfern was born and raised in Alberta. He has been a free-lance journalist for both the Toronto Star and The Globe and Mail, a story editor for the CBC and a children’s playwright. Since 1989 his short stories have appeared in numerous literary journals including Grain, Event and Descant. When Jon Redfern was a graduate student at the University of Toronto he became fascinated by a relatively unexplored period of theatre history. His subsequent thesis on the operas and melodramas of London’s great theatres, and the producers of these entertainments, became the basis for his latest detective novel, Trumpets Sound No More. Jon’s first novel, The Boy Must Die, won the prestigious Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Crime Novel in Canada for 2002. Since that time, Jon has been researching and writing, teaching English as a professor at Centennial College in Toronto, serving for two years as the active Vice President, Toronto Chapter, of the Crime Writers of Canada, and traveling to Siena Italy, Havana Cuba, and Madrid Spain to attend conferences and continue research on up-coming writing projects. Jon lives in Toronto and in Waterton Lakes, Alberta.

Jon Redfern's profile page

Inspired by Dickens, Redfern transports the reader back to Victorian London, vividly recreating the language, social customs, and atmosphere of the time.

Publishers Weekly

Jon Redfern has won two Arthur Ellis Awards for his Inspector Enderby series, set in early Victorian London. This third Enderby may be the best one yet.

Globe and Mail

[Redfern] is adept at drawing the reader into Victorian-era London, skillfully creating the atmosphere of the city and the characters who inhabit it.

Lethbridge Herald