The Island

November 1, 2016

England and the world are in mourning. It's June 1870, and Charles Dickens has been found dead at his summer home. George Sala, one of the Victorian era's great journalists, is convinced the author was murdered and hires enquiry agents Englishman James Batchelor and American Matthew Grand to investigate. In probing Dickens's life, the two private investigators discover he was not quite the upstanding gentleman many thought he was. Was he addicted to opium? Was he a cross-dresser? Did Dickens actually pen his masterpieces or use a ghost writer? Writing in the florid prose style of the period and incorporating historical events and people adds authenticity and verisimilitude to the action in Trow's latest series outing (after The Circle). VERDICT This will attract devotees of Ed Gorman's series featuring Civil War--era Secret Service Agent Dev Mallory as well as fans of Michael Kilian's "Harrison Raines" mysteries.

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2016
Detecting duo Grand and Batchelor return in an atmospheric murder mystery set in 1870 London. World-famous author Charles Dickens has just died, and George Sala, Dickens' good friend and biographer, wants Grand and Batchelor to investigate the great author's death, as Sala is convinced Dickens was murdered. Although the detectives are skeptical, Sala is offering a generous reward if they can prove Dickens was killed, so they decide to accept the case. When they dig into Dickens' life, they find it bizarrely unorthodox; the man was a womanizer, he employed very odd staff, and, at the time of his death, he was living with his wife's sister in what appeared to be quite friendly circumstances. But Grand and Batchelor aren't the only ones looking into Dickens' death; they soon realize that the field of investigators is quite crowded, what with a former cop, a pair of American tourists, at least one other private detective, and even Dickens' agent involved. Despairing of ever making headway in the puzzling case, the pair find themselves grasping at one tenuous lead after another with little progress. It's only when they follow the unlikeliest lead of all that they finally crack the case. Good fun, gentle humor, historic detail, plenty of twists, and a likable pair of heroes make this a book well worth reading.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

December 1, 2017
London-based inquiry agents James Batchelor and Matthew Grand (The Angel, 2016) return in another keep-'em-guessing adventure set in the late 1870s. Matthew's sister is getting married in Maine, and Matthew asks James to go with him to the wedding. James is ready for a break, but what he thought would be a pleasant visit turns into a nightmare when, the night before the wedding, a maid is found dead, her head bashed in. The nearest police are in far-away Boston, so James and Matthew, as experienced detectives, decide they must carry out at least a preliminary investigation. But the situation goes from bad to worse when another murder takes place, the killer employing the same grisly method. The complex plot is gripping and more than a little chillingthough with agreeable flashes of subtle humor. Welshman Trow is a veteran of the historical-mystery genre, and he knows to mix period details and distinctive characters in just the right proportions.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

October 30, 2017
Trow’s emotionally unengaging fourth Victorian mystery featuring American Matthew Grand and Englishman James Batchelor (after 2016’s The Angel) is long on conjecture and short on detection. In 1873, the two private enquiry agents travel from their base in London to Grand’s childhood home near Rye, Maine, to attend the wedding of his younger sister, Martha, to devastatingly handsome Hamilton Chauncey-Wolsey. The evening before the ceremony, the personal maid of the bride’s matron of honor is found with her head bashed in. Since the local constable died six months previously, Grand and Batchelor step in as investigators until the police from Boston can arrive. The jaunty enquiry agents are soon busily interviewing all the servants, family members, and guests they can round up, including writer Mark Twain, who’s been grafted onto the Grand family tree. No one has a clue whodunit until the killer takes a shot at Batchelor and the penny drops. Those who like serious sleuthing in their mysteries will have to look elsewhere.

November 1, 2017
Two Victorian private eyes find their fourth case--or rather it finds them--in New England.The surprise engagement of enquiry agent (and ex-Civil War captain) Matthew Grand's little sister, Martha, provides an excuse for him to take a holiday and bring fellow sleuth, ex-journalist, and thoroughly British James Batchelor to Rye, New Hampshire, for the wedding. Although the best that Martha and Matthew's devoted nurse can say about the groom is that he's handsome, she knows that for Martha, the wedding is coming not a day too soon. At the elegant prenuptial dinner party in the Grands' seaside home near the Isles of Shoals, Martha insists on wearing tightly laced stays to hide her expectancy from her groom, her parents, her uncle Josiah (who's probably too drunk to notice in any case), Isles of Shoals native Celia Thaxter, and Mark "Uncle Sam" Twain. The party is disrupted when Martha faints from her stays, her mother faints from the surprise arrival of Matthew's seafaring cousin, and Martha's matron of honor faints when she sees her maid with a bashed-in head. Matthew and James, who find the corpse first, miraculously manage to hide the unfortunate event and close off the crime scene until after Martha's wedding. The nearest police are in Boston, and they're so slow to respond that Matthew and James undertake the interrogations of the houseguests, at least until Celia trips over another corpse with a smashed skull and finally gets the attention of the Boston police chief. But the worst is yet to come: a beacon summons detectives and suspects alike to the island of Smuttynose, where the lighthearted tone is darkened by a brutal scene inspired by a true-life crime.Although Trow (The Angel, 2016, etc.) puts modern slang into the mouths of his 19th-century characters and seems less consistently interested in history than in his other series, he's still good for a witty and clever tale.

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