Published by The Mystery Press.
ISBN: 978-0-7509-5444-0
ISBN: 978-0-7509-5444-0
Frances Doughty is a
very unusual young woman. Alone in the world, apart from her redoubtable
companion, Sarah, Frances has adopted a career as a private investigator, a
remarkable move for a respectable, middle-class woman in Late-Victorian times.
What is more, Frances' exploits have been fictionalised in the local newspaper
by an unknown journalist and she is famous throughout Bayswater, where she and
Sarah live.
In 1881, Thomas Whibley, a wealthy and very over-weight
businessman dies suddenly at his home. His death sparks off acrimonious letters
in the Bayswater newspapers from doctors and supporters of various diet
regimes. This progresses to anonymous, libellous letters, and Frances is
employed to discover the author of these libels.
At the same time, Frances is offered a more controversial
case. Hubert Sweetman is a former colleague of Whibley, who has served fourteen
years in prison for a violent robbery that he has always insisted he did not
commit. Having served his time, he has been released from prison and asks
Frances to help him find his estranged wife and children. Although Frances has
her doubts; wondering why Sweetman's wife so determinedly turned from him
before he was convicted, she likes Sweetman and agrees to try and locate his
family. Before her investigation makes any progress, Mrs Sweetman is murdered
and Sweetman is arrested for the crime. Against her better judgement, Frances
agrees to investigate Mrs Sweetman's murder.
As her two cases progress, Frances finds herself embroiled
in the complex world of middle-class business dealings and becomes convinced
that the solution to present day crime lies in discovering the truth behind
crimes and suspicious deaths in the past. As she draws nearer to the truth,
Frances realises that her own life and reputation are in danger.
This is the fourth in the Frances Doughty series and the
author shows great skill in inserting the back story into the current plot
without becoming cumbersome or giving too much away. It is a meticulously
researched and beautifully structured novel that takes the reader smoothly
through an intricate plot, skilfully interweaving the strands of the
investigations. Frances is an engaging heroine and life in Victorian Bayswater
is convincingly portrayed. I enjoyed this book and would recommend it.
------
Reviewer: Carol
Westron
Linda Stratmann was born in the city of Leicester on 4 April 1948. Linda
attended Medway Street Infants and Junior School, in the days of the eleven
plus, and from there went to Wyggeston Girls Grammar School. Her earliest
ambition was to be an astronomer, and she read and wrote a great deal of
science fiction. She also read biology, zoology and medicine, and seriously
considered a medical career. But by her teens, she had developed an absorbing
and life-long interest in true crime, probably taking after her mother who
loved to read about famous trials. After
a period of rebellion Linda I took her A levels and went to Newcastle
University in 1971, graduating with first class honours in psychology three
years later. She then joined the civil service, and trained to be an Inspector
of Taxes. In 1987, unable to resist the
pull of London she moved there, married her second husband, Gary in 1993. In
2001 she left the civil service, and started a new career as a freelance writer
and sub-editor, and in 2002 was commissioned to write her first published book
on the history of Chloroform.
Carol Westron is a successful short story writer and a Creative
Writing teacher. She is the moderator
for the cosy/historical crime panel, The Deadly Dames. Her crime novels are set both in contemporary
and Victorian times. The Terminal
Velocity of Cats is the first in her Scene of Crimes novels, was published
July 2013. Her second book About the
Children was published in May 2014.
www.carolwestron.com
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