A Body in Berkeley Square

If you are a fan of this series, which I am, you will be both pleased and a little unsettled to see that so many issues are resolved in this novel. In many instances it is much better to read series books in order so that you understand what has gone on before to build the characters into the people we encounter in this situation. I was very pleased to see that Ashley Gardner did a truly superb job of bringing new readers up to the present with this entire cast of characters with short, concise wording and descriptions. This, of all the other books I've read in this series, can truly be a stand alone. One of the failings of this series, from my point of view, is that the same characters are present in all the previous books. After finishing the last book I realized that I had definitely had enough of Colonel Brandon and his wife Louisa. I wanted them to go away! Imagine my delight when I looked at the back cover of this book and discovered that Colonel Brandon was the only suspect in the murder of Henry Turner. I did not honestly think that Ms Gardner would give him up to the hangman but it did seem pretty definite that I would get to see him wiggle and squirm for a bit. This book is difficult to review without tripping over spoilers. I read a mystery so that I can solve it, not read about the solution in a review. So, what I have said previously about the major suspect is not a spoiler. You still need to read the book to find out who the culprit was and why the crime was committed. I think Ms Gardner did a very good job of building this mystery into multiple layers. As with an onion, peel back one layer and you are confronted by the next layer. The story took me in a lot of different directions which I had not anticipated and I thoroughly enjoyed each twist and turn. I do recommend this series for anyone who wants to experience the atmosphere of England in 1817. The social and cultural layers of Regency England are another aspect of this story which I enjoyed. Knowing something of the Bow Street Runners and how they operated I did wish that more attention could have been given to Milton Pomeroy. He seemed to be included almost as an afterthought in this issue and I think Ms Gardner missed a chance there, but, all in all I can say I enjoyed the book and truly WANTED to continue reading to find out the solution. On the negative side, the revelation about Mrs. Bennington was a little too much for me to believe. I just keep wondering why the author wanted that character to become so important. Maybe the next book will answer that question. A lot of issues are resolved, yes. But, new issues take their place. I was afraid that Ms Gardner had given up on Captain Lacey but I see from her postings that she has not. I'm glad to learn that. I think the books have gotten progressively better and there are many directions in which she could take Lacey in the future.

First Sentence: At two o'clock in the morning on the fifth of April, 1817, I stood in an elegant bedchamber in Berkeley Square and looked down at the dead body of Mr. Henry Turner. Captain Gabriel Lacey is in the awkward position of proving Colonel Aloysius Brandon innocent of murder. Brandon is Lacey's former commanding officer and responsible for the end of Lacey's military career. However, Brandon is also the husband of Lacey's best friend and must save Brandon for that reason alone. Gardner does a very good job putting the reader in the period without losing the story. Lacey is a great character, smart, honorable, loyal to his friends yet determined to get to the truth. But he is also not so perfect as to be bland or annoying. The plot is tight with a wonderful twist at the end. This is a really good series in which you can become invested and want to know more about the characters and where they are going, and this is a particularly good edition to it.

This is one of the other sides of all those Regency novels I read: Captain Lacey is one of the half-pay officers that match-making mamas try to keep their daughters away from. He is also a man of great integrity, deep feeling, and an unfortunate tendency to lose his temper. Ashley Gardner is succeeding at something very difficult here. Her character is flawed, in some ways more admirable than likeable. It's a very fine line that Gardner is walking successfully. Lacey often does things that are dumb, but they are so well handled as to be part of a full human being, not cheap plot devices. I was afraid that the character James Denis was going to ruin this book by turning it into a melodrama, but a this point, I think the author is up to the task on maintaining it as a side plot, without lurching into bathos. Lacey has left the military after a dispute with his beloved and despised former mentor and commanding officer that resulted in a permanent injury to his leg. He has a respectable (but not noble) lineage, but no private income, so he has settled into cheap quarters. He has made friends with some of the ton, as well as lower class people such as an actress and his old sergeant, now a Bow Street Runner. This enables him to view society at many levels, as well as enlist the forces of the law, such as they were in those days, in his investigations. The supporting cast contains many well-developed characters with idiosyncracies and lives outside of being his sidekicks. Their relationships with Lacey and one another are sometimes complex. I also like that Lacey's life develops: he makes new friends, takes jobs, romances women and worries about his long-eloped wife and daughter. So often, series characters get stuck in a rut of repeating circumstances, but that doesn't seem to be a danger here. As a matter of taste, these novels are somewhat melancholy, but goodness triumphs often enough so that they don't get morbid. The victims and perpetrators vary as to how sympathetic they are. I am keeping all my volumes in this series, because I know that I will want to go back and reread as I go along. The reader who likes these may like these other novels, similarly of people skirtng the boundry between the middle-class and the gentry: T.F. Banks' Memoirs of a Bow Street Runner (beginning with The Thief-Taker: Memoirs of a Bow Street Runner) set in the same period; Set in the last half of the 18th century are: Hannah March's series about tutor Robert Fairfax, (I believe The Complaint of the Dove is first); Bruce Alexander's Bow Street Magistrate Sir John Fielding series, from about the same time (Blind Justice (Sir John Fielding) is first); Robert Lee Hall's American Agent Series, featuring Benjamin Franklin, (Benjamin Franklin Takes the Case (The Benjamin Franklin Mysteries) (Pine Street Books) is first).

The books in this series have gotten better and better. This latest is particularly fine. There is tremendous growth in the characters. I don't want to give anything away, but we learn signifcant facts about the flighty Marianne, and there's a development in her relationship with Grenville. Lacey resolves some of his feelings for Louisa, and starts valuing the friends we've seen him make in the previous books of the series. The plot is fine. I'm an avid reader, couple of hundred mysteries every year and if I don't see the perpetrator before the end, it's a winner. I confess I was worried. Because so many things were resolved, it read like a "wind-up" and I was afraid there'd be no more Lacey mysteries. I was pleased to find in an internet search that another of these books in coming out in 2006. Yeah!

In 1817, former military Sergeant turned Bow St. runner Milton Pomeroy shows Captain Gabriel Lacey the corpse of Henry Turner stabbed to death with the knife in his chest. Milton explains that the body was removed from the crime scene in order to not interfere with the crème de crème ball hosted by Lord Gillis. Upon seeing the murder weapon Lacey knows it belongs to Colonel Aloysius Brandon, who won it from him in a Peninsular card game. Lacey detests his former friend and superior officer Brandon, who previously told Pomeroy he has no idea how his knife ended up in Turner's chest. The sleuth is tempted to let the Colonel take the fall as he knows he could make a case since Brandon had the opportunity and the means, and a motive shortly surfaces too. Will Lacey "settle" on Brandon, who everyone from the Earl hosting the ball to Pomeroy assumes committed the homicide? By doing so Lacey would avenge several affronts Brandon did to him or will he seek justice by continuing his investigations? His traitorous gut tells him the Colonel is being framed with too much easily available proof for someone as diabolical as Brandon has become. The latest Captain Lacy Regency police procedural, A BODY IN BERKELEY SQUARE, is a fabulous who-done-it starring an ethical hero who faces a moral dilemma as he finally has the opportunity, the means and the motive to get away with vengeance. The who-done-it is so cleverly devised that crime scene investigators would cherish working such a case. However, the key to this strong entry in one of the best historical mystery series in recent years remains how hard Lacey is trying to uncover the identity of the killer. Harriet Klausner