A
Body in Berkeley Square
Captain Gabriel Lacey #5
by Ashley Gardner
Melancholy Captain Gabriel Lacey limps into view for his fifth (mis)adventure, back in
London again after his brief stint as a schoolmaster. In the wee small hours of an April
morning, he is summoned to the opulent house of Lord Gillis to witness the aftermath of
a ball -a dead body. The man has been stabbed, and the top suspect is his former friend
and mentor, the irascible Colonel Brandon. Can this upright-seeming man truly have been
fighting over a woman thought to be his mistress after flirting shamelessly with her at
the ball? Naturally, Brandon doesn't want Lacey's help, but of course he gets it for the
sake of his wife Louisa, whom Lacey still yearns for. Stranger still, it looks as though
Grenville might have some secrets of his own...
After four other books, readers will know what toexpect by now.
Nobody reads these books for a good laugh, but the atmosphere of
Regency London warts and all comes to convincing life within these
pages. As usual, the whodunit part of the plot is a page-turner,
with red herrings here and there and plenty of action. Also part
of the plot and taking center stage some of the time is Lacey's
own shadowy past and the effects of it upon his present predicaments.
We get to reacquaint ourselves with the growing cast of well-defined
characters, including Denis and Pomeroy, and learn a little more
about them. It is compelling reading, although I often think that
Lacey is not the best choice of narrator, as he spends so much of
the narrative feeling sorry for himself. A third-person viewpoint
would have been my choice, but I am only reading the story. Fans
of Anne Perry ought to enjoy these for their convoluted plots and
descriptions of high and low London life.
Other
reviews in this series
The Hanover
Square Affair #1 [amazon]
A Regimental Murder # 2 [review]
The Glass House #3 [review]
The Sudbury School Murders #4 [review]
A Body in Berkeley Square #5 [review]
A Covent Garden Mystery #6 [review]
Death in Norfolk #7 [review]
A Disappearance
in Drury Lane [review]
|
The Book |
Berkley
Prime Crime (Penguin Group USA) |
December
2005 |
Paperback |
0425207285 |
Historical
Crime [1817, London] |
Amazon |
The Reviewer |
Rachel
A Hyde |
Reviewed
2006 |
|