HISTORICAL CRIME
THE SECRETS OF WISH TIDE by Kate Saunders (Bloomsbury £14.99) SAUNDERS is the latest successful author to write a story inspired by a character from a muchloved classic.
one of the major protagonists is based on a minor figure in Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield. It’s a clever concept, and it works even if the reader is unfamiliar with Dickens.
I can’t name names, because it would give away the plot. But it is saunders’ own invention — the widowed, genteel lady detective Laetitia rodd — who is the real star of this show. It’s 1850, and Mrs rodd goes undercover to investigate a young woman being pursued by a suitor whose wealthy father believes the girl to be unsuitable.
Murder, mayhem and rather gothic melodrama are all treated with wry composure by the redoubtable Mrs rodd. Along the way, she finds time to give us details of rabbit puddings, carriages and bonnets.
The whole book has the cosiness and wit of a sunday evening costume drama. Think Lark rise To Candleford. I was left greedy for the return of Mrs rodd in the next of the promised series. You’D have to have a heart of stone if the end of this book didn’t leave you in tears.
Happy or sad ones? well, it would be a sin to give away the ending when its award-winning author has worked so brilliantly to maintain tension and mystery on every page of this highly original story.
Marcel Despres is arrested for murdering his wife in the politically volatile Paris of 1899. The twist is that he suffers from a condition which means he cannot forget any detail of his life.
The investigating detective finds himself at the centre of a high-powered political conspiracy that gives a vivid insight into the history of the period. The doctor charged with the man’s medical assessment is tantalised by philosophical questions about memory and truth.
Best known for his children’s books, on the evidence of this Marcus sedgwick is a name to remember for any age. THE UNSEEING by Anna Mazzola (Tinder Press £14.99)
LAWYER edmund Fleetwood is asked by the courts to investigate the truth behind
the case of a seamstress, sarah, who has been convicted of the murder of another young woman the night before her marriage.
The problem is that sarah, while protesting her innocence, refuses to go into the details of what did actually happen.
But Fleetwood is no simple hero. He is a deeply flawed character — we first encounter him in a gambling den — and the question of whether he can raise his game provides much of the tension.
This is explicitly a costume drama set in the grimy London of 1837. The mix of history and crime is sometimes unconvincing, and the historical detail can feel a bit Velcroed on.
But it’s an intriguing story, and the threat of a miscarriage of justice, as well as the frailties of an imperfect advocate, keep the suspense going.