'Death Descends on Saturn Villa' by M.R.C. Kasasian

Published by Head of Zeus,
18 June 2015.
ISBN 9781781859711

Sidney Grice is a detective in London in 1882 who bears a considerable resemblance to Sherlock Holmes; he is expert in abstruse matters to do with identification of soil, for example.  He also has his own peculiarities as a non-smoking, non-drinking vegetarian who lacks humour.  His austerities or even idiosyncrasies often irritate his unofficial ward, March Middleton, but she respects his devotion to the solution of strange crimes - she notes a newspaper reference to a man going around London smashing busts of Napoleon to tell him about.  Presumably this was the case that Sherlock did deal with!

During  Grice's absence on a case March receives an invitation from a relative of whose identity she was unaware, he refers to himself as UncleTolly.     She visits his home and becomes embroiled in increasingly bizarre happenings.  A fascinating roller coaster unrolls from the peculiar to the surreal and then the merely macabre then soaring back to surreal and bloody death.

Things get very serious indeed.   Forebodings expressed in the introduction to the book seem to be coming to fruition.  We follow events in sections recorded through the eyes of March Middleton and through the eye (he has a glass eye) of Sidney Grice.  A whole bizarre and frightening story gradually fits together.

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Reviewer: Jennifer S. Palmer

This is the third adventure for Grice and March.

M. R. C. Kasasian  was raised in Lancashire, and has had careers as varied as factory hand, wine waiter, veterinary assistant, fairground worker and  dentist. He lives with his wife in Suffolk in the winter and in a fishing village in the south of Malta during the summer. He is now a full time author.

Jennifer Palmer Throughout my reading life crime fiction has been a constant interest; I really enjoyed my 15 years as an expatriate in the Far East, the Netherlands & the USA but occasionally the solace of closing my door to the outside world and sitting reading was highly therapeutic. I now lecture to adults on historical topics including Famous Historical Mysteries.