Dead Born

Dead Born, Hale 2002
The second Best mystery

Audio Book, Soundings, 2003

In this exciting sequel to Dead Image, Detective Sergeant Ernest Best becomes embroiled in a terrible, real-life tragedy - the sinking of the pleasure steamer Princess Alice.
DS Best is sent undercover to lodge next door to a suspected baby farm in Islington. While shadowing a suspect he boards the Princess Alice. On their return from Gravesend the boat is rammed by a collier and around 650 passengers and crew are drowned. Best survives and among the bodies recognises someone who was not on board. The murder hunt that ensues leads him down some murky paths and he comes to a startling conclusion.

‘gripping Victorian mystery’ Publishers Weekly

‘Asking an historian to review a historical novel is asking for trouble – but Joan Lock’s book is something else. Her knowledge of London and its policing in the 19th century makes this into a very different kind of novel – one with an extremely realistic setting.’ London Archive Users Forum