Down a Dark River by Karen Odden

 

First Lines: London. April 1878. Most of us Yard men would say that over time we develop an extra sense for danger close at hand.

 

After a well-publicized corruption scandal hit Scotland Yard, they're running short-handed, so when the daughter of a prominent judge is found dead in a boat on the Thames, Inspector Michael Corravan is one of the few remaining senior inspectors left who can take the case. Reluctantly, Corravan takes the case and hands off his search for a missing shipping magnate's wife to Mr. Stiles, his young colleague.

 

Corravan has good street sense and has a knack for digging up clues, but he's confounded when another woman's body turns up in a boat a week later. And then a third. The women seem to have no connection to each other at all, but when Mr. Stiles uncovers evidence that the missing shipping magnate's wife may not be insane and that the shipping magnate may not be as solvent as he claims to be, it begins to look as though the two cases may be connected.

Once again, the newspapers are shouting about more Scotland Yard incompetence, and Inspector Corravan is under tremendous pressure to dredge up the truth.

~

Down a Dark River is a very promising start to a new historical series featuring Inspector Michael Corravan, the type of multi-faceted character that readers will love to sink their teeth into. An orphan, Corravan was raised by a foster mother in the East End of London. He's been a dockworker, a bare-knuckle boxer, a river cop, and a Metropolitan police officer. His life seems to have taught him that there are two ways to deal with people: fight them or rescue them, and this attitude has caused him many problems. Even his mistress, wealthy author Belinda Gale, is finding it difficult to put up with a man who's been described more than once as a rabid bear barreling through the woods. Corravan is the type of character that can exhaust and annoy a reader-- at least he did me-- except for one thing: he does show a willingness to change the personality traits that are causing him so many personal and work-related problems. This is just the sort of rich characterization that I love.

The mystery is excellent, with plenty of misdirection. Readers have to make their way through the theft of a valuable necklace, a runaway wife, an insane asylum, the ongoing feud between the River Police and Scotland Yard, the deaths of young women who have no obvious connections to each other, and rich, entitled men who think it's beneath them to deal with the police. 

I also liked the secondary characters of young Mr. Stiles and Belinda Gale. This series isn't going to be a mere one-man show, which means readers will reap even more benefits. There's also something for the poetically inclined: Tennyson's "The Lady of Shalott" is woven into the story, and since that's one of my favorite poems, it was the icing on the cake of this very well-done historical mystery. Down a Dark River is the first book by Karen Odden that I've read, but it won't be the last. I'm definitely looking forward to Inspector Corravan's next case.

Down a Dark River by Karen Odden

eISBN: 9781643858708

Crooked Lane Books © 2021

eBook, 336 pages

 

Historical Mystery, #1 Inspector Corravan mystery

Rating: B+

Source: Net Galley

Murder as a Fine Art by David Morrell

First Line: Titian, Rubens, and Van Dyke, it is said, always practiced their art in full dress.

In the London of the 1850s, a series of murders has almost brought the city to its knees. Not only are these killings horrific, they mirror crimes that were committed decades earlier... and they also seem to have the same blueprint: Thomas De Quincey's essay "On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts." 

Two Scotland Yard detectives are working against the clock in order to capture the killer, and whether they like it or not, they find themselves working with De Quincey and his daughter Emily. Crippled as he is by his addiction to opium, this frail man in his sixties still has a brilliant mind that can look into the thoughts of a brutal murderer and know he must be stopped at all costs.

While I was in college, I read Thomas De Quincey's Confessions of an English Opium Eater. When I recently learned that David Morrell had written a mystery with him as a sleuth, I thought back to De Quincey's Confessions and knew what a marvelous character he could be. To my delight, Morrell has done him justice. And then some.

During this investigation, Scotland Yard detectives Ryan and Becker do the hard work while De Quincey is the ideas man. De Quincey was saying things about dreams and the subconscious (he even coined the word) many decades before Freud, so it is a definite battle of wills between this frail, brilliant, and odd little man and the detectives who are used to a more physical style of investigation. Ryan and Becker also have to get used to the bloomer-wearing Emily De Quincey who has been raised to think and speak for herself. As much as she shocks the two young men, she isn't the hindrance they're convinced she'd be. Quite the opposite in fact, and one of the pleasures of reading this book was watching the two men begin to admire her.  Is there a budding romance in Emily's future? And with which of the detectives will it be? This is only one of the many reasons why I look forward to reading the next book in this series.

Morrell brought Victorian London to life, and the action sequences were excellent. (Any time I read an action sequence and become worried or frightened, I know it's good.)  We are treated to excerpts from Emily's diary throughout, and although these entries bring a needed break from tension, I have to admit that Emily's eye for detail had me wondering if she had a photographic memory.

Occasionally Morrell would change to a third person omniscient point of view to share facts about Victorian England that were important to the plot. As interesting as these passages were, I found that they took me out of the story, although I haven't got a clue how the author could've imparted this information in a less intrusive way.

With a hair-raising story, excellent action sequences, perfect period detail, and a marvelous cast of characters, I can't wait to get my hands on the next Thomas De Quincey book, Inspector of the Dead.
    

Murder as a Fine Art by David Morrell

ISBN: 9780316216784

Mulholland Books © 2014

Paperback, 384 pages

Historical Mystery, #1 Thomas de Quincey mystery

Rating: A

Source: Purchased at The Poisoned Pen.


 

The Black Country by Alex Grecian

First Line: It was an unusual egg.

The little girl who discovers a human eyeball in a bird's nest sparks fear in a small mining village in the black country of the English Midlands due in no small part to the fact that three members of a prominent family have disappeared. The local constable knows that he's in over his head, so he sends for help to Scotland Yard's new Murder Squad. Inspector Walter Day, Sergeant Nevil Hammersmith, and Dr. Bernard Kingsley have two days to solve the case, but they have no earthly clue what they're getting themselves into. Everyone has a secret in this tiny community, and most of the villagers' lives seem to be subsumed by superstition.

Alex Grecian's The Yard was one of the few books I purchased during my recent trip to the UK, and when I'd read it and turned the last page, all I could say was "Wow!" I'm thrilled to say that The Black Country has now firmly placed this author on my Must Buy list.

Grecian has a very visual style of writing that makes me feel as though I'm right in the thick of things. His setting of a small mining village that's virtually cut off from the rest of the world adds the perfect Gothic atmosphere-- especially since the mine has tunneled underneath most of the buildings, and the town has been slowly sinking into the shafts for years.

Taking these three out of London gives them a chance to bond and form a relationship away from all the other characters-- in particular Day and Hammersmith-- and although I did miss some of the cast from The Yard, this element worked very well. The villagers add just the right touch of helpfulness and obstinacy and are brilliant at showing how people's histories intertwine in such a remote place. In fact their closely woven lives add all sorts of complications to the detectives' investigation.

My mother once told me that she believed I must have been a miner in a previous life (one that died in a cave-in) because I refuse to go underground. If you see me at someplace like Carlsbad Caverns, rest assured that I'll be camped out in the parking lot. With my fanatical passion for these Murder Squad books, and with a character like Nevil Hammersmith who literally grew up in a coal mine, I think I shall have to resign myself to having the heebie jeebies when I read parts of these books because they do go down into the earth from time to time. In this case, however, these sections heighten the suspense and sense of danger... a delicious way of scaring myself, I suppose you would say.

Creepy atmosphere, wonderful characters, a convoluted mystery, all wrapped up in the Victorian Era's conflict between science and superstition. What a marvelous reading experience Alex Grecian has created! Do I recommend his Murder Squad series? You bet I do!

The Black Country by Alex Grecian

ISBN: 9780399159336

G.P. Putnam's Sons © 2013

Hardcover, 400 pages

Historical Mystery, Police Procedural, #2 Murder Squad

Rating: A

Source: LibraryThing Early Reviewer program

The Yard by Alex Grecian

First Line: London, 1889. Nobody noticed when Inspector Christian Little of Scotland Yard disappeared and nobody was looking for him when he was found.

Just months after Scotland Yard spectacularly failed to catch Jack the Ripper, Colonel Sir Edward Bradford has created the Murder Squad-- twelve men put in sole charge of solving all the violent crimes committed in the largest city in the world. Morale has never been lower at the Yard, for their failure to catch the Ripper has turned the population of London against them-- and now someone is killing them, sewing the police officers' eyes and mouths shut and stuffing their bodies in steamer trunks. Detective Inspector Walter Day, the newest member of the Murder Squad, will need all the help he can get from Dr. Bernard Kingsley (the Yard's first forensic pathologist) and Detective Constable Nevil Hammersmith if these murders of their colleagues are to stop.

Even before I finished this book, I wanted to have copies of it magically appear in the hands of all historical mystery fans. When I did finish it, I had to restrain myself from dancing around the house in delight. What a marvelous book!

Alex Grecian's descriptive powers would have Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins clapping him on the back in approval. In The Yard, Victorian London comes to life in all its smelly, crowded and depraved glory. Some readers may glance at the book's almost 600-page bulk (depending on the particular edition) and walk away, but this story reads like a house afire. The murders of the policemen aren't the only crimes Day, Kingsley and Hammersmith wind up investigating either. When the story begins, Day has only been at the Yard a week. As he becomes more accustomed to the men with whom he's working and with workplace routine, he and the other two men begin to pick out similarities in other crimes... and sometimes things just fall into his lap.

Grecian does not leave his villains under cloaks of invisibility until it's time for the ending reveal. No, one by one they raise their masks, pull back their hoods, and show themselves to us. What's brilliant about this is that there's absolutely no reason to despair. This book is about so much more than identifying a few criminals. Knowing their identities and watching them follow the good guys around during their investigations really ratchets up the suspense-- especially when the chase leads Day and Hammersmith through narrow streets in the dead of night or in the creepiest asylum you'll ever have the "pleasure" of exploring.

But more than lush descriptions and an intricate plot, The Yard is about people. We learn the backgrounds of Day, Kingsley and Hammersmith. We come to know them, to like them, and to care about their safety. We see the way they interact with people from every level of society. We learn what they believe to be important. I know that one of the basic tenets of crime fiction is justice-- to right wrongs, to speak for the dead. The Yard does all this and much more, but it's been a long, long time since I've read a book that was filled with so much compassion and humanity. Not only do Day, Kingsley and Hammersmith see the absolute worst that we humans can do-- they still believe we're worth fighting for, and worth saving. This book spoke to me on so many levels. I can't recommend it highly enough.

The Yard by Alex Grecian

ISBN: 9780241958919

Penguin Books © 2013

Paperback, 583 pages

Historical Mystery, #1 Murder Squad mystery

Rating: A+

Source: Purchased at Waterstone's, Cambridge, UK

Devoured by D.E. Meredith

Title: Devoured
Author: D.E. Meredith
ISBN: 9780312557683
Publisher: Minotaur Books, 2010
Hardcover, 304 pages
Genre: Historical Mystery, #1 Hatton and Roumande mystery
Rating: D+
Source: Publicist

First Line: The door creaked open as the maid stepped into the room.

The year is 1856, and the London elite find themselves gripped by the craze of collecting specimens. Expeditions are being sent to far-off jungles to gather the known and the unknown. Combine this addiction with the new theories of evolution that are changing the ways people think about themselves and the world around them, and a potentially explosive situation is being created.

Glamorous Lady Bessingham prides herself on being ahead of all her friends in anything from fashion to the latest scientific discoveries. She's the recipient of letters from Benjamin Broderig, a young man just recently returned from an expedition to Borneo. When Lady Bessingham is found murdered and those letters stolen, Medical Jurisprudence adviser Adolphus Hatton and his assistant Albert Roumande, are called in to examine the crime scene. The new world of forensics and autopsy examinations are viewed with suspicion, but Scotland Yard has found Hatton and Roumande capable of very useful observations. However, they've barely begun when one murder turns into a series of them-- all with those letters at the heart.

I can always be tempted with a good historical mystery, especially one featuring the beginnings of forensic science. In Devoured, Meredith's setting and time period are extremely well done. I felt as though I were right in the middle of Victorian London, and the author's building tension through a creepy, gloomy atmosphere was quite effective. Unfortunately, too many other elements were uneven and confusing.

Although we're told what marvels Hatton and Roumande are at interpreting crime scenes, we see very little of it. If you're a CSI fan and want to read a book with quite a bit of detail about your favorite science, you're not going to find it here. In addition, Meredith gives just enough information about her two main characters to make them intriguing. Very little about the two, their backgrounds or motivations, is actually shared with us, which made it difficult to empathize with either of them.

As I read, I kept feeling that this book would have benefited from more editing. The narrative often felt very disjointed-- a character would be doing something and I'd wonder "How did we get here?" A secondary thread involving the murders of prepubescent girls really wasn't necessary; it deflected attention away from the "Borneo letters" murders and would have been better used as the focus of a separate book. While I'm on the topic of those letters, people are being murdered left and right because of them, but guess what? The letter writer himself is in London. Why were no attempts made on his life?

Although I did find this book a bit muddled, I can also see that, as a series, it does show considerable promise. It will be interesting to see what Meredith does with the second book in the series, The Devil's Ribbon.

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Review-- Drood

Title: Drood
Author: Dan Simmons
ISBN: 9780316007023/ Little, Brown and Company, 2009
Genre: Historical Fiction
Rating: D

First Line: My name is Wilkie Collins, and my guess, since I plan to delay the publication of this document for at least a century and a quarter beyond the date of my demise, is that you do not recognize my name.

Mr. Collins' plan went slightly awry in my case. I have eight of his novels in my library. Of course, I also have twenty-five of Dickens', which I do believe wouldn't set well with him at all.

There is a lot to like about this novel. Simmons' research into Victorian England as well as the lives and writings of both Dickens and Collins is exhaustive and insightful. The setting comes to life beneath his pen, particularly the smells. (If your olfactory sense is particularly acute, I would suggest having a handkerchief sprinkled with eau de cologne on stand-by.) The premise of the novel is the last five years of Charles Dickens' life, the basis of his last, unfinished, novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, and his friendship with Wilkie Collins. The mysterious figure of Drood is genuinely creepy at the beginning, and I read along, happily immersed in the pitch black streets of Dickens' Great Oven and caught up in the lives of the two authors. After all, this is one of my favorite time periods and two of my favorite writers.

But halfway through this gargantuan book, my pleasure rapidly began to fade, and it was then that I came to the conclusion that Simmons is just not the author for me. You see, I also tried to read his book, The Terror, and stopped shortly after the 150-page mark because I cared nothing for the characters and didn't appreciate the lack of action. Any action. I found the same thing happening in Drood. This book is almost 800 pages long, and it took half that before anything really started happening in the book. The creepiness of Drood faded, and what could have been a crafty, scary read turned into a dragging tale of jealousy and spite. All along, I felt as if the book set me up for an explosive conclusion, but it wasn't. The ending just seemed to waft away in a cloud of snarkiness and opium fumes. After reading almost 800 pages that did contain flashes of brilliance, I was left feeling that somewhere in all that paper and print, there was a tight, compelling 300-page thriller screaming to be turned loose.

I'm sorry, Mr. Simmons. You're just not the author for me. Since you seem to have quite a following, I'm certain I won't be missed.

If you've read and reviewed Drood, please leave a link to your review here in the comments. I'd really like to hear other readers' views of this book!

Check out these other reviews of Drood:
Cafe of Dreams
Books Ahoy!
A Circle of Books
Jenn's Bookshelf
Bermudaonion's Weblog
Linus's Blanket