I really enjoyed this book! I love mysteries and historical fiction and this hit both of those places. It reminded me very much of something by Anne Perry, although it was set in the Regency period, not the Victorian era. The author's years of research and writing about this period paid off and she was able to weave historical details in deftly, without slowing down the narrative.
I also really love character-driven, voicey novels, and this, again, scored on both counts. The characters were interesting, and all but the very worst were sympathetic to some degree. I think perhaps that was something that felt different to me about this novel. The characters were good people who were flawed in many regular human ways. But in addition to centering on the gruesome and evil plot of someone who was quite mad, I really liked how good many of the characters were, while still being human. I feel like so much of what I read now is often colored by suspicions and ideological axes to grind about certain people in certain groups; there often seems to be an deep-seated ugliness or cynicism about people. I liked that I liked these people. Even those who did bad things had sympathetic qualities. And even those who were good had flaws. A generous gentleman and his wife are clearly in love, but get tense and bicker a bit. A friend responds in an awkward and confused way to another friend. A character makes a decision based on hard realities, not sentimental hopes. It struck me as being similar to the people I know, including myself.
As far as the mystery, goes it could be enjoyed on many levels. I think perhaps my favorite part of it was putting together Trev's backstory and the twist at the end. I also enjoyed the larger mystery that drives the story. The author gave enough information to it all made sense at the end, allowing the reader's suspicions to grow and sometimes be misdirected, which of course is half the fun.
Finally, I enjoyed getting to know Lord T better. He was an interesting character, one I quite liked and with whom I was happy to spend several hours. Really enjoyable read! I'm looking forward to the next installment.
OR
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JAC from Down Under
New author to me with new character.
Reviewed in Australia on October 26, 2019