Wed 8 Dec 2021
A Mystery Review by LJ Roberts: ROBIN BLAKE – Secret Mischief.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[7] Comments
Reviews by L. J. Roberts
ROBIN BLAKE – Secret Mischief. Cragg & Fidelis #7. Severn House, hardcover, May 2021. Setting: Lancashire, England, 1746.
First Sentence: It was on a breezy Monday in April 1746 that I received a letter from a townsman of Ormskirk.
A letter from a townsman of Ormskirk sends County Coroner Titus Cragg, and his friend Dr. Luke Fidelis, to the farm of Richard Giggleswick. There they find Geoffrey, the farmer’s potent boar, has been shot. Several days later, they are asked to return but now it is Giggleswick who is dead; murdered. They discover Giggleswick was one of six people involved in a Tontine; an agreement where each member contributed an amount of money to be claimed by the last surviving member. The one person who did not join was attorney Ambrose Parr.
One learns about a great deal about the legal system of the 18th century. This was a time when the accused had no right to subpoena witnesses, have their lawyers argue the case for them, or testify on their own behalf. This was not a time when justice was served, especially for the poor. The period is presented in stark and painful accuracy.
There are a fair number of characters, several of whom, though relevant, are dead before the story even begins. One that had the potential for being interesting, Giggleswick’s daughter, is shuffled off almost immediately. Of our two protagonists, Titus comes across as weak and rather incompetent. He leaves his judgment up to the intuition of his clerk. Rather than conducting a full investigation, he is influenced by the opinion of others until it’s too late. Fidelis, especially for a doctor, is bigoted and judgmental, willing to cost a life.
The period is well conveyed, from the descriptions to the dialogue which has a sense of the time without being uncomfortable. In general, a plot involving a tontine can be suspenseful, but the author waited late into the story before creating any real sense of grave danger. Although there are several twists, they aren’t effective enough to save the story.
Secret Mischief is a muddled, rather unpleasant take on And Then There Were None, with the protagonists being annoyingly weak, and the ending patently absurd.
Rating: Poor.
December 8th, 2021 at 9:22 pm
I was more impressed by the research than the writing or plot.
December 8th, 2021 at 9:27 pm
This is a series that’s brand new to me. I haven’t been reading historical mysteries for some time now, nothing like I used to. I might give this series a try, but this one doesn’t sound like the place to start.
December 9th, 2021 at 10:49 am
Tontines turn up fairly regularly in novels – more often than they ever did in reality, I suspect. The great Tontine tale is The Wrong Box by Robert Louis Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne.
December 9th, 2021 at 9:24 pm
There is another good Victorian novel called THE TONTINE, and bestselling historical novelist Thomas Costain wrote a book called THE TONTINE.
At least part of the plot of Eugene Sue’s THE WANDERING JEW involves a tontine and the plot of a wicked Jesuit to see the Church gets the money.
They exist today only in the sense of surviving partner policies which are almost as popular in mystery fiction as tontines once were.
They weren’t uncommon at one time though despite the seeming invitation to abuse murder was indulged in less in life than fiction.
December 9th, 2021 at 10:13 pm
One of my favorites, P.G. Wodehouse, also wrote about an unusual tontine – a bunch of millionaires set up a fund to be given to the last child of theirs that marries. The title of the book’s American edition is another mystery cliche, The butler did it.
Don’t recall coming across any tontines in the pulps. But then I haven’t read too much Detective Story or Flynn’s in the teens and twenties, where I’d expect to find them.
December 10th, 2021 at 12:50 am
… or perhaps murder was detected less in life than fiction in the past, David Vineyard. Except when people were caught literally red-handed it was very hard to prove murder.
December 11th, 2021 at 1:56 pm
I did enjoy other books in this series. Every author has a book that just doesn’t work. This was Blake’s, unfortunately.
Some authors who wrote excellent books set in this time period are:
Bruce Alexander’s Sir John Fielding series
Susanne Alleyn’s Aristide Ravel series set in 1786 Paris (start with “The Cavalier of the Apocaplyse”)
Deryn Lake’s John Rawlins series
Beverle Graves Myer’s Tito Amato series.
All are very good reading.