The Devil's Grin

Illustrated edition of book 1 in award-winning Anna Kronberg & Sherlock Holmes series.

She's London's most brilliant bacteriologist. She's also not supposed to exist.

By day, Dr Kronberg cuts through corpses in Guy's Hospital's gaslit laboratories, hunting microscopic killers that claim more lives than Jack the Ripper. All the while, hoping no one discovers the woman beneath the gentleman's attire.

When a body surfaces in London's waterworks bearing marks of medical torture, Kronberg draws the attention of Sherlock Holmes. He sees through her disguise in seconds. Though Holmes could destroy her with a word, he isn't her biggest problem.

The victim's wounds speak of medical experimentation. Of doctors who view London's poor as laboratory rats. Of a secret medical society that makes Burke and Hare look like amateurs.

To infiltrate their ranks, Kronberg must become the very monster she fears - cold, brilliant, willing to kill in the name of science. She'll need to convince them she's worse than any of them.

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Part Victorian medical thriller, part dark academia fever dream. For readers of Lyndsay Faye's Dust and Shadow, Anthony Horowitz's Moriarty, and Caleb Carr's The Alienist.

Awarded the "Blue Carbuncle" for best Sherlock Holmes novel 2014

"...one of the best Sherlock Holmes novels of all time." - Sherlock Holmes Magazin

"...a formidable dark-romantic conspiracy novel. A duel of two deduction monsters." - Welt

"...a powerful debut." - Stuttgarter Zeitung

"...the new dream team of detective literature." - KrimiLese

"...provocative and original..." - Peter Kavanagh, CBC Radio Producer

"A brilliant page-turner..." - BookBub

Warning: medical procedures are depicted without apology.