The White Crow

This is the third of a series called "Beacon Hill Mysteries." They have all been good, but this is the best of the lot. The late Victorian age was a time when science was stretching into the technology of daily life, and the very air was alive with possibility. Boston, on the other hand, had a stultifying rigid caste system. Despite a great admiration for science, those who experimented too much stood the chance of becoming "ruined" and no longer being accepted into polite society. Our characters in this mix are Addington Ames, the middle aged and stuffy older brother of Caroline Ames, thirty six year old spinster, and their boarder, Dr. MacKenzie, invalided from the Army by a Sioux bullet. The characters are beautifully drawn and set solidly in their period with no anachronistic issues. The first book in the series is "The Death of Colonel Mann." The second is "Murder at Bertram's Bower." Each book is better than the last. I am looking for more.

I enjoyed this book, and immediately sought out Peale's other titles. Rich in historical detail, and color. The mystery plot, however, seems a little bit of an afterthought.

As usual Cynthia Peale did not disappoint me! And I am so glad. I enjoyed The White Crow as much if not more than the first and second books in the series. Her characterizations are excellent (and not just the main characters!), the plot is entertaining and well-planned, and the way she captures old Boston at the turn of the century is nothing short of brilliant. I feel that I am there learning about what Boston was really like. To find this atmosphere of a Boston past in a modern-day book is amazing. I am eagerly awaiting a fourth in the Beacon Hill series. Please!

Part of the charm of the three novels in the Beacon Hill series is that the environment is spot on. One should never attempt to write characters into an historical environment without first doing some basic research, and Ms. Peale has this angle very well covered. The mystery the author has contructed is also very interesting, involving the major fads of the day (both spiritualism and the telephone). Once more, Ms. Peale brings Victorian Boston to life in a vivid and appealing fashion.There are some weaker moments, however, which are rather distracting. The late-night confrontation between Ames and the villain is pure melodrama, and for all of the action, it is actually rather disappointingly pedestrian. The same could also be said for the climax. Just to nitpick, there is also at least one somewhat minor error regarding how to survive when immersed in cold water. A character thinks the only way to survive it would be to swim furiously, but doing so will bleed off far more body heat than you could possibly generate, leading to hypothermia (pretty much what happened to many of the Titanic's passengers). But, the character's thinking was in keeping with the times in which the story is set, so we may easily overlook this goof.Since so much more of the novel works then does not work, I think it would be fair to say that this is a very good purchase, especially for those of us already hooked on the characters. The characters make natural progress in their world, evolving and becoming even more and more natural (Addington pursues the elusive Serena Vincent, while Dr. MacKensie is even so bold as to finally ask Miss Ames to go walking in the park!). The entire question of spiritualism is deftly handled, neither overly favorable of the practice, or overly critical. The characters are delightfully "in character," as it were.One can only hope that the series will move beyond a mere trilogy. It would be quite unfair of Ms. Peale to offer us such interesting characters and not allow us to continue to share in their domestic worries, social dramas, and criminal investigations.