There’s a killer in the slums.London 1884. When a thief robs Fleet Street reporter Penny Green, she finds herself caught up in a horrifying murder.Someone is terrorizing the residents of St Giles Rookery and Scotland Yard sends Inspector James Blakely to investigate. When the serial killer claims a victim outside the slums, Victorian London is sent into panic. Can Penny’s friendship with the … Penny’s friendship with the people of St Giles uncover the culprit? She and James must overcome their complicated relationship to work together, but each new murder threatens to derail their work for good.
What readers say about Penny Green:
★★★★★ “A Victorian Delight!”
★★★★★ “Good clean mystery in an enjoyable historical setting”
★★★★★ “If you are unfamiliar with the Penny Green Series, acquaint yourselves immediately!”
★★★★★ “Interesting, complex, believable characters”
★★★★★ “I found myself enthralled by Penny Green”
★★★★★ “An outstanding female lead character”
★★★★★ “I was engrossed from beginning to end”
★★★★★ “If you like Agatha Christie books you are going to like this one”
★★★★★ “I have found Ms. Organ’s story telling to be flawlessly entertaining!”
★★★★★ “Very strong mystery set in a very interesting time and place”
★★★★★ “Ms. Organ draws you into Penny’s world with her delicious descriptions and masterful story telling”
★★★★★ “I am very pleased with how this series is becoming one of my favorites!”
★★★★★ “Read the books in this series…. guarantee you won’t be disappointed!”
★★★★★ “A great read with a real twist at the end. Emily just gets better and better with this series.”
The Rookery is Book 2 in the Penny Green Mystery Series set in 1880s London. The books can be read in any order:
Book 1 – Limelight
Book 2 – The Rookery
Book 3 – The Maid’s Secret
Book 4 – The Inventor
Book 5 – Curse of the Poppy
Book 6 – The Bermondsey Poisoner
Book 7 – An Unwelcome Guest
Book 8 – Death at the Workhouse
Also available:
The Penny Green Series: Books 1-3 (The Penny Green Series Boxset Book 1)
The Penny Green Series: Books 4-6 (The Penny Green Series Boxset Book 2)
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Would read more of this series.
I found this book to be an easy read between other deeper and more thought provoking reads. It was, however, an insight into the London slums. Provided me with a launching point to explore other books related to this time period.
I love these Victorian detective adventures with Penny and James! Great characters. Great settings. Great stories.
In “The Rookery” by Emily Organ we go back in time to nineteenth century London. We follow Penny Green, an investigative reporter in a time when most reporters are men. Although her mission is to write stories that will increase her newspaper’s bottom line, she is determined to write the truth and not exaggerate or embellish what has happened. When she is not working for the newspaper, she is writing a book about her father who had disappeared on one of his many trips to South America while searching for rare orchids to bring back to London. When her purse containing her father’s diaries and notes is stolen by a poorly dressed boy who has knocked her down, she gets up and runs after him into the London slums. She is aided by a shabbily dressed young man who also runs after the boy. Penny follows both of them and when she hears screams of “murder, murder”, she sees a crowd around the boy who is lying on the ground dead, with his throat slit. She recovers her purse and starts asking the people at the scene what has happened. The police arrive and ask Penny and Rueben O’Donoghue, the man who has helped her, what they know about the death of the boy, Jack Burton. She and O’Donoghue are asked to come to the police station the next day to answer questions about what they know about Jack Burton’s murder. At the police station, Penny becomes upset that O’Donoghue is arrested for the crime. She tells police Inspector Fenton that O’Donoghue could not have killed the boy because he was helping her retrieve her purse that Jack Burton had stolen from her and did not see Jack until he was lying on the ground. Inspector Fenton recognizes Penny’s name as that of the reporter who had helped Scotland Yard’s Inspector James Blakely solve a crime and tells her to leave solving crimes to the police. Seeing the image of Jack Burton with his throat slit over and over again makes Penny determined to return to the slum and find out who murdered him. She learns from Mrs. Nicholls, the slum resident she had talked to at the scene of the murder, that two other people from the slum had also been found dead with their throats slit and that the police were doing nothing about those murders. She finds out where the other murders occurred and returns to the police station with a hand-drawn map of St. Giles Rookery showing where the murders happened and asks Fenton’s assistant why three similar murders in the same area have not been linked together indicating the presence of a serial killer. She also suggests that Scotland Yard be called before the killer strikes again. She is sent on her way. When another man in St. Giles Rookery is found dead with his throat slit, Scotland Yard is called in and Penny again has the chance to work with Scotland Yard Inspector James Blakely to solve the crimes. While working together before, Penny and James had a semi-romantic relationship which fires up again although Penny realizes it can go nowhere because James is scheduled to be married in a few months. This is the second Penny Green and James Blakely murder mystery that I have read and I look forward to reading more mysteries with them as the main characters. I know readers will immediately be hooked by the fast moving story and will not be able to put the book down until the murders are solved.
Loved it! Easy to read & follow but ending was surprising. I liked that! I love how the writer writes so I downloaded a few more of her books. Would recommend this book.
Found it boring. Didn’t even finish.
The characters are a bit two dimensional and the ending easily surmised. It was still an entertaining read, good for the beach or on holiday.
Reading the first paragraph, I was excited thinking this would be an adventure story, but was disappointed.
Not too bad but not all that exciting. The sort of book you’re read on a train or bus to pass the time, which doesn’t demand too much attention.
Lovely period piece. Well written. Kept me guessing. I like the characters and they keep on developing. Not one dimensional.
I enjoy Victorian crime novels that are a little more complicated and better written. This one was mildly entertaining, but I won’t be following up withe the series.
Trying to solve a murder is a complicated job as this story reveals. Yes, the reader has an early insight into the murderer, but only because it is so well used. Perhaps I didn’t get into the characters enough, but it felt slow and draggy. I would try this author again because it had potential but I would hesitate to recommend it.
Didn’t care for it
A bit clunky with the writing, but not a bad story.