The Casebook of Stamford Hawksmoor

Bryan Talbot
Jonathan Cape

With top-hat and cane in hand, Scotland Yard's DI Stamford Hawksmoor shadows the murky backstreets of London on the hunt for a sadistic serial killer.
In the dying days of the French occupation of Britain, through gaslit, cobbled streets and squalid alleyways, stalks the great eagle Detective Stamford Hawksmoor in search of the homicidal manic whose killing spree claims dozens of seemingly unconnected victims, from random murders to targeted political assassinations.
The deeper he delves, the more he puts himself in mortal danger, pitting himself against unknown antagonists whilst under the scrutiny of the feared anti-terrorist squad, and the more he is forced to resort to working outside the law.
A prequel to Talbot's pioneering Grandville series, The Casebook of Stamford Hawksmoor is also an intriguing, labyrinthine stand-alone mystery graphic novel set in a world of hansom cabs and pea-souper fogs, where explosive violence can erupt at any second - and does!

An unexpected but very welcome return to the steampunk world of 'Grandville'.  I thought we were done with Bryan Talbot's animorphic playground after the culmination of Inspector le Brock's tale but here we are, drawn back in, with a story taken from the files of his mentor, the eagle detective, Stamford Hawksmoor.

After years of violent struggle, Britain is on the verge of separating from the French Empire.  Tensions are still high with anti-French sentiment at the fore.  In this simmering tinderbox, Hawksmoor is set to investigating both the suicide of his estranged brother and a series of grisly murders.

The book generally feels a lot more insular than the 'Grandville' volumes and, as stated in the preface, it wears it's influence from the Sherlock Holmes stories on it's sleeve but is in no way a slavish homage; it's tightly plotted, elegantly told and beautifully realised but none of that should be of any surprise to anyone familiar with Talbot's work.  It's an accomplished, self-contained story, and I'd be unsurprised if it remains so, but I must say I’d also be a little disappointed.

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