Lestrade and the Sign of Nine

Book two in the Inspector Lestrade series. It was a puzzle that faced Scotland Yard from its very begin-ning - whose was the limbless body found among the foundations? And in the murderous world of Sholto Lestrade, one question is invariably followed by another - what do a lecherous rector, a devious speculator and a plagiaristic novel-ist have in common? Answer: they're all dead, each of them with a bloody space where his skull used to be.
And six others are to join them before our intrepid inspector brings the per-petrator to book. But 1886 was a bad year for the Metropolitan Police. The People of the Abyss have heard the whisper and the spectre of Communism haunts the land. There is a new Commissioner, a regular martinet, at the Yard. And then, there is that very odd couple, sometime of Baker Street .Lestrade braves haunted houses, machine-gun bullets and two Home Secretaries in his headlong hunt for the truth.
And at last, this is the book that chronicles his now legendary impersonation of the Great Sarah Bernhardt. The Police Re-vue was never the same again.