‘Inspector of the Dead’: Rambo creator back with best mystery yet

Move over Rambo, papa's got a brand-new bag.

David Morrell, the former University of Iowa professor who introduced Rambo to the world in his debut novel 'First Blood,” has found possibly his most wonderful, engaging and interesting character in Thomas DeQuincey, a real-life essayist whom Morrell has turned into a Sherlock Holmes-ish fictional investigator who helps two Scotland Yard detectives solve 19th-century crimes.

Morrell first introduced the 'opium-eater” in 'Murder as a Fine Art,” which took readers back to the gritty, foggy streets of London and was based loosely on DeQuincey's 'On Murder Considered as one of the Fine Arts,” a fictional account of the Ratcliffe Highway murders of 1811.

In his newest novel - 'Inspector of the Dead” - DeQuincey is back and, with the help of his daughter Emily and the aforementioned detectives, helps uncover a plot to assassinate Queen Victoria. As he did with 'Murder as a Fine Art,” Morrell again brilliantly weaves actual events into a wonderful fictional story that keeps readers anxiously anticipating DeQuincey's next move - or his next story.

'Inspector of the Dead” is set in 1855 during the Crimean War when someone - or a group wanting to overthrow the government - starts killing British elites, leaving tantalizing messages that lead DeQuincey, and others, to believe the queen's life is in danger. The tale weaves through dirty pubs to slums on the outskirts of London to the inside palace.

Morrell, as usual, did extensive research to tell this tale. You not only feel like you are back in 19th-century London, but you also get a history lesson while being entertained with another fascinating story.

Morrell has been called the 'finest thriller writer living today” and 'an absolute master of the thriller,” both of which certainly hold true in 'Inspector of the Dead.”

This is his 27th fiction novel and is, quite frankly, his finest work to date.