Published
by The Mystery Press,
4 Aug. 2016.
ISBN: 978-0-7509-6629-0
4 Aug. 2016.
ISBN: 978-0-7509-6629-0
Mina Scarletti suffers from
scoliosis, a deformity of the bones that has twisted her spine and resulted in
many health problems, but this does not prevent Mina from making the most of
her life. She writes horror stories, which are published under a pseudonym. Her
mother and sister believe that she writes improving morality stories for
children. As true, upper-middle-class Victorians, they would be horrified at
the impropriety of her writing if they knew the truth. Another thing her mother
would disapprove of are the callisthenic exercises that Mina does every day to
improve her muscle strength. The exercises were devised by Dr Daniel Hamid, and
Mina’s health also benefits from the special massages she receives from Dr
Hamid’s sister, Anna. Mina met Dr Hamid and Anna a year previously, when she
was investigating a medium who was preying on vulnerable people in Brighton. Dr
Hamid was ashamed when he realised that he, a man of science, had fallen for
the tricks of a fraudster who had offered him the hope of contact with his dead
wife, and he had helped Mina to uncover the truth about the fraud. Many
bereaved and desolate people had lost money to the fraudulent medium, as well
as suffering a great deal of grief and loss of hope. The Hamid family had lost
more than money through the medium. Their sister, Eliza, also a sufferer from
scoliosis, had caught cold and died after attending a séance. Mina’s mother was
one of the people who was deceived and, until Mina revealed the truth, she had
believed her late husband, Mina’s father, was speaking to her from beyond the
grave.
The
book starts in 1871, a year after Mina exposed the truth about the fraudulent
medium. Mina had hoped that the residents of Brighton had learned their lesson
and abandoned all interest in mediums and their claims, however, Anna Hamid
tells her about a book that is enjoying immense and growing popularity. This
book claims to be the true story of the Misses Bland, two apparently
respectable young women who say that they saw the ghost of the Prince Regent
(later George IV) when he was a young man in the Brighton Pavilion. They
describe the ghost Prince’s encounter with the equally spectral Mrs Fitzherbert,
his mistress. In the book, their love-making is described in salacious detail
and reading it has adversely affected the health of many delicate, female
readers.
Arthur
Wallace Hope visits Brighton as part of his lecture and book signing tour, to
promote his quest to send relief to Dr Livingstone, who is searching for the
source of the Nile in Africa. Hope is much that is admirable: he is a Viscount,
rich, handsome, brave, determined and charismatic. The problem is that he is
also an ardent believer in spiritualism and is willing to do anything to force
people to accept the claims of the Misses Bland and the fraudulent medium that
Mina has exposed. As Hope resorts to bullying, blackmail and trickery to get
his own way, Mina realises that she and her friends will have to be very
clever, and very lucky, to unravel the web of deceit and discover the truth
before she and several other innocent people are ruined by Hope’s obsession.
The Royal Ghost is the second
book featuring Mina Scarletti and the events in this book are very closely
interwoven with the first book, Mr Scarletti’s Ghost. It says much for the
skill of the author that this second book manages to stand alone. I look
forward to reading the first book in the series.
Mina
is a superb protagonist, a strong-minded, courageous young woman who accepts
the limitations placed upon her by her physical disability but will not allow
it to limit her intellectual or imaginative life, nor will she let it quell her
determined investigations to unearth the truth. The author’s descriptions of
Victorian Brighton and the Royal Pavilion are very vivid and her descriptions
of middle-class, Victorian, family life are totally convincing. Her depiction
of Hope sheds light on how so many otherwise intelligent and decent men could
delude themselves in such a foolish and destructive manner.
The
Royal Ghost is an intelligent and intriguing book and one which I would
definitely recommend.
------
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. 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, the
first in her Scene of Crimes novels, was published July 2013. Her latest book Strangers and Angels
published 28 November 2017 is set in Victorian England. Also published in 2017 is her fourth novel in her scene of Crimes Series Karma
and the Singing Frogs.
To to read a review of Karma
and the Singing Frogs, click on the title
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