| Every twenty years
in Preston they hold the Preston Guild, a festival where everybody
has a good time and the organizers try and outdo previous
years. But it looks as though this Guild might be very thin
indeed as the man holding the money has been found dead, presumably
by his own hand. Philip Pimbo was a pawnbroker and moneylender
who wanted to set up his own bank, but his strongroom is locked
and the key has vanished.
If you haven’t read A
Dark Anatomy and Dark
Waters (both also reviewed on this site) do so before
reading this. It will give you the opportunity to find out
important things about the characters and setting, and also
to be entertained by a couple of good books. This is another
such, filled with the author’s trademark evocative descriptions
of everyday life in the 1740s in a rural town. Titus Cragg
the coroner tells the story as in the others, a pragmatic
lawyer who is blessed with a clever wife and lively friend
in the shape of Luke Fidelis, doctor and sleuth. As the pair
(aided by Elizabeth’s observances) try and discover
more about the mysterious co-investor and partner Zadok Moon
they uncover facts about the slave trade, a strange hidden
hoard buried a century earlier, the last scion of a once great
local family and deal with more than one body. Cragg knows
nothing about the slave trade and sensibly reads up on it
and investigates in person to discover more, making his final
disgust at it an informed decision. This and everything else
rings true about the age, making this a historical novel that
won’t only interest whodunit fans but anybody wanting
to immerse themselves in the period. There are no time travellers
in here but characters that have the authentic ambience of
people from the 1740s. This and the ingenious plot make it
a novel to savor. More please!
|
