M R C Kasasian Books In Order

Publication Order of Gower Street Detective Books

Publication Order of Sackwater Mysteries Books

Publication Order of The Violet Thorn Mysteries Books

M R C Kasasian is a British author best known for the Gower Street Detective series. The detective series of novels is about Sidney Grice and his sidekick March Middleton, two Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson type of characters. Just like his inspiration Sherlock Holmes, the detective mystery series is set in Victorian London. Sidney Grice is the country’s most renowned private detective who takes in March Middleton, his niece, as his ward and apprentice in amateur sleuthing. Set in the darkest recesses of underground London, Kasasian combines his love for Victorian age society with his penchant for the mystery detective story to write a series of compelling narratives. Like his narrator March Middleton, Kasasian was brought up in Parbold, Lancshire, and travelled to London by train, getting off at Euston Station. His experiences of London were what he had read about in Conan Doyle, Charles Dickens, and the streets he had seen on Monopoly boards. Upon his arrival, the real London that he saw was very different from the view of London that was in his head. Black cabs rather than hansom cabs and buses rather than horse drawn carriages ruled the streets. Nonetheless, the city still had the bustle and excitement of a major city.

M R C Kasasian first got interested in literary works at fourteen years, when his parents gave him the book of illustrations Orrible Murder. The drawings of police officers huddled over corpses with lanterns in dark, grimy alleys, with the victims strangled in theatrical poses, and bystanders throwing up their hands in horror fascinated him. As a child, he also read Sherlock Holmes, Britain’s most renowned mystery series, which played a huge role in shaping his writing as a writer. Like many professional writers, he went through many jobs before making it big. M R C Kasasian has worked as wine waiter, fairground hand, vets assistant, and dentist. Nonetheless, he has a natural flair for writing and it is a wonder that he took so long to take up professional fiction writing. According to the author, his various work experiences have greatly influenced his writing as they helped him get a range of perspectives on life. He knows how it is to be waited on and to wait on people, knows about the tedium of spending the whole day working in a factory, and the camaraderie between men whose lives revolved around the assembly line. His dentist job also helps a lot in his work as he used to operate on cadavers during his medical training years. Aspects of medical science, including clues on teeth make an appearance now and then in the novels, credit to his years of training and practice in dentistry.

The idea for the mystery detective series of novels came about when a publisher rejected his novel about the Pre-Raphaelites. With Victorian London still a compelling theme in his mind, he decided to pivot and write a Sherlock Holmes type of novel, and the Gower Street Detective Mysteries was born. The Gower Street Detective series of novels is set in Victorian England and features the strong-willed March Middleton paired up with her uncle, detective extraordinaire detective Sidney Grice. Even as Kasasian draws much of his inspiration from Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, the Grice and Middleton are a more evenly matched pair that complement each other rather than one being a sidekick of the other. Setting the novels in Victorian London, Kasasian integrates humor into his gruesome murder mysteries in an effort to both shock and entertain his readers. Even as London was the center of an Empire that governed over a fifth of the globe’s population, it was a city of contrasts with significant portions of it lawless and savage. Abject poverty, cruel deaths, and arbitrary justice were the order of the day. However, the Gower Street Detective mysteries are mainly intended to entertain and evoke emotion in the reader rather than depress them. In this regard, the novels are full of jokes though for the most part, these are not in any of the grim scenes. Moreover, the humor is never about the cruelty perpetrated by a killer on their victim.

The Mangle Street Murders introduces March Middleton, who moves to London to live with her uncle Sidney Grice, the UK’s top private detective. The novel is set in London at a time when London is a city of great contrasts. It is the wealthiest city in the world yet has some of the most poverty-stricken people; it is vibrant and murky all at the same time. No sooner has Middleton arrived in the city than she is confronted with her first murder case: A young woman is found dead with the husband the likeliest of suspects. The victim’s mother does not believe that her son-in-law had anything to do with the murder, which makes March so moved; she offers to pay Sidney for all investigative costs. The two detectives soon find themselves in the grimy alleys of the East End. But with each twist, Sidney the more experienced detective believes that the husband is guilty though March remains adamant that he is not the guilty party. With London that they operate in full of gossip and the stench of poverty, civil unrest over the case is a very real possibility. Sidney Grace suddenly discovers that failure will not only destroy his reputation, but could also put him in mortal danger.

The Curse of the House of Foskett is the enthralling second novel of the Gower Street Detective Mystery series of novels. Set in 1882 Gower Street it tells the story of Sidney Grice, London’s most renowned detective that has fallen from Grace. Business is hard to come by ever since he sent an innocent man to the gallows on his last assignment. Depressed and listless, Grice spends his days lying in the bath and coming out in the evening for a lot of tea and some toast. Typically a voracious reader, his appetite for his newspaper and book seem to have deserted him. Middleton, his ward and apprentice is left to dine alone as the older Grice does not even have the time to insert his glass eye. But things change when the Final Death Society comes knocking, with an eccentric member of the enigmatic group dying in Sidney’s study. The two finally have something to work an – an investigation that will lead them to the mysterious Baroness Foskett and her eerie house in Kew.