August 5, 2024
Penrose maintains a brisk pace in her finely wrought eighth Regency-era adventure for the Earl of Wrexford and his cartoonist wife, Charlotte Sloane (after Murder at the Merton Library). At the outset, the couple has offered their country home for the wedding of their friends Christopher Sheffield and Lady Cordelia Mansfield. The festivities take a grim turn when police discover the body of Lady Cordelia’s childhood friend, mathematician Jasper Milton, beneath a nearby bridge, with her cousin Oliver’s invitation in his pocket. Cordelia enlists Wrexford and Charlotte to investigate, and the sleuths quickly become entangled in a Gordian knot of international intrigue involving Milton’s groundbreaking mathematical theories about bridge construction. Penrose elegantly weaves insights about the period’s politics and technological innovations into a splendid mystery that offers a peek at the darker corners of Eton, the elite British boys’ school, which becomes crucial to Wrexford and Charlotte’s investigation as they learn of Milton’s connections to the school. This reliable series continues its winning streak. Agent: Gail Fortune, Fortune Talbot.
September 1, 2024
The Regency period produced many inventions. The plans for one of them provide a motive for murder. Charlotte, Countess of Wrexford, rejoices in the wedding of her best friend, Christopher "Kit" Sheffield, to mathematician Lady Cordelia Mansfield. All goes as planned until an intruder to Wrexford Manor must be driven off by Charlotte's husband, the Earl of Wrexford, and "the Weasels," two street lads educated and adopted by her family. After the ceremony, a magistrate and a surgeon arrive to announce the murder of an unidentified man with a wedding invitation in his pocket, whom they assume to be Cordelia's cousin Oliver Carrick. Hearing their description, Cordelia realizes that the dead man is actually Oliver's fellow scientist and her old friend Jasper Milton, immediately making Oliver a suspect. The four friends and the Weasels, who've been instrumental in solving previous mysteries, quickly delve into this one. Jasper had been working on ideas to improve bridges in a time when transportation is mostly for the rich. A brilliant engineer, he was also philosophically opposed to the rich getting richer on the backs of the poor. Apparently several French factions are desperate to get the plans, including one that hopes to sell them to Russia for enough money to return Napoleon to power. Since His Majesty's government and plenty of businesspeople are also anxious to get the plans, it's no easy task to figure out which of them murdered Jasper. A conference brings many of the players together, giving the sleuths a chance to search for answers. They go down several dangerous and blind alleys in their painful hunt for the truth. A complex and surprising mystery enhanced by historically accurate information about the science and society of the period.
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