PUBLISHER: Crooked Lane Books, 1/2019GENRE: Historical Fiction/Mystery
SERIES: Victorian Mystery: #3
AUTHOR SITE: link
PURCHASE: link
MY GRADE: D
FROM PUBLISHER: Photographer Sarah Bain and her friends Lord Hugh Staunton and sometime street urchin Mick O’Reilly are private detectives with a new gig—photographing crime scenes for London’s Daily World newspaper. The Daily World is the latest business venture of their sole client, Sir Gerald Mariner, a fabulously wealthy and powerful banker.
One cold, snowy January morning, Sarah, Hugh, and Mick are summoned to the goriest crime scene they’ve ever encountered. A pub owner named Harry Warbrick has been found hanged and decapitated amid evidence of foul play. His murder becomes a sensation because he was England’s top hangman and he’s met the same fate that he inflicted on hundreds of criminals.
Sir Gerald announces that the Daily World—meaning Sarah and her friends—will investigate and solve Harry Warbrick’s murder before the police do. The contest pits Sarah against the man she loves, Police Constable Barrett. She and her friends discover a connection between Harry Warbrick’s murder and the most notorious criminal he ever executed—Amelia Carlisle, the “Baby-Butcher,” who murdered hundreds of infants placed in her care.
Something happened at Amelia’s execution. The Official Secrets Act forbids the seven witnesses present to divulge any information about it. But Harry had a bad habit of leaking tips to the press. Sarah and her friends suspect that one of the other witnesses killed Harry to prevent him from revealing a secret related to the execution. What is the secret, and who hanged the hangman?
MY THOUGHTS: This was awful. There were too many characters, over twenty!, and hardly any backstory on the main ones. I guess the author thought we'd read the two previous ones in the series where I assume she gave some backstory so she didn't need to retell any of it. There's really not one character I can say I truly liked in this. Everyone was bland and most were unlikable. I don't like first person narration either because we only get one persons point of view.
This takes place in 1889 and spans probably a few weeks. The main plot is a bit convoluted, especially near the end when it all comes together nicely, and not nearly as interesting as the synopsis makes it sound. Too many turns and nonsense in the latter part and it became hard for me to follow along. The subplot involving Laura's father was so boring and a space-filler. I guess they were setting that up to be featured in the next book. This story should have left that out and the pages should have been cut by about fifty.
If I hadn't known this took place in England in the late 19th century I'd have thought it was American by the dialogue and some expressions that were used, though I don't know the origin of said expressions. I just know that we Americans still use them today. There was nothing in the dialogue or lingo that would have made anyone think of England, except the overuse of Mick saying, "Crikey!"
I thought it was absurd that Laura and her boyfriend of a year, Barrett, both in their early 30's, don't have intercourse but do other sexual things that we weren't told about.
I really dislike that the character of Amelia Carlisle was clearly based on real life baby serial killer Amelia Dyer and I don't like that Laura and her crew had previously tried to track down Jack the Ripper. The author needs to be original and not take from history. Create your own unique characters.
And maybe I missed it but I don't know why Harry was hanged but the others weren't, when they knew the "secret" too.
I received this from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
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