The Bedlam Detective

Book excerpt: Madmen may see monsters – but some monsters hide in plain sight From a basement office in London’s notorious Bethlehem Hospital, former policeman and Pinkerton agent, Sebastian Becker investigates those whose dubious mental health may render them unfit to manage their own affairs. When Becker is sent to interview wealthy landowner Sir Owain Lancaster, he claims that the same dark creatures who killed his family and colleagues in the Amazon have followed him home and are responsible for the deaths of two local young girls. It is not the first time that children have come to harm in his rural countryside town, though few are willing to speak of incidents from the past. Becker must determine whether this mad nobleman is insane and possibly a murderer, or if something more sinister is at work. From dank asylums to the lush and treacherous Amazon, through the makeshift studios of the early film industry and a traveling fair of freaks and illusions, Sebastian Becker’s search for answers brings him face to face with madmen and monsters, both imagined and real.