Discovering 'Bowman of the Yard' by chance, The Head in the Ice is the first in a series of four books. As anticipated the story begins with the discovery of a severed head in the ice. What I didn't anticipate was how good this Victorian police procedural would be. Every few pages there was a new and usually shocking revelation. With larger than life characters and descriptive text that surpassed my expectations, it was an incredibly good read.