The Mangle Street Murders: The Gower Street Detectives, Book 1 [Unabridged] [Audible Audio Edition] Author: | Language: English | ISBN:
B00HYFS966 | Format: PDF, EPUB
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The first in a charming, evocative, and sharply plotted Victorian crime series starring a detective duo to rival Holmes and Watson.
After her father dies, March Middleton has to move to London to live with her guardian, Sidney Grice, the country's most famous private detective. It is 1882, and London is at its murkiest yet most vibrant, wealthiest yet most poverty-stricken. No sooner does March arrive than a case presents itself: A young woman has been brutally murdered, and her husband is the only suspect. The victim's mother is convinced of her son-in-law's innocence, and March is so touched by her pleas she offers to cover Sidney's fee herself.
The investigation leads the pair to the darkest alleys of the East End, and every twist leads Sidney Grice to think his client is guilty. But March is convinced he is innocent. Around them London reeks with the stench of poverty and gossip, the case threatens to boil over into civil unrest, and Sidney Grice finds his reputation is not the only thing in mortal danger.
Direct download links available for Download The Mangle Street Murders: The Gower Street Detectives, Book 1
- Audible Audio Edition
- Listening Length: 9 hours and 3 minutes
- Program Type: Audiobook
- Version: Unabridged
- Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.
- Audible.com Release Date: February 6, 2014
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00HYFS966
I just received an electronic ARC of The Mangle Street Murders last week and the book was released on Tuesday, so I spent last night racing through it in hopes of posting a timely review. Lucky for me, there’s enough going on in this Holmes-ian tale to make a one-night reading enjoyable.
March Middleton is a recently orphaned young woman, plain of face and quick of mind who has arrived in London to live with a guardian who has appeared in her life rather abruptly. This guardian, Sidney Grice, is a bit like a non-comic, non-drinking W. C. Fields interpretation of Sherlock Holmes: misanthropic, self-righteous, mercenary, and absolutely brilliant. Of course, he does not approve of March’s proclivities for smoking and taking the occasional nip nor does he want her to join him in his work as a personal detective (that’s personal, not private, as he is frequently reminding others who are less precise than he). March, of course is determined to maintain her vices and to join in the detecting.
The book’s first half deals with Grice’s pursuit of a husband accused of his wife’s murder. The man is found guilty and executed, much to the horror of March who is certain he’s innocent. From that point, the plot grows more complicated as March battles with her guardian and worries about her role in this miscarriage of justice.
Kasasian crafts an ending of the satisfactory-unsatisfactory variety. The bad end badly, though not necessarily by legal means, and those defending the law show a willingness to abandon the pursuit of justice when doing so is convenient. In this sense, the book is both a period romp, but also a somewhat more serious piece.
This first book in The Gower Street Detectives series shows a lot of potential for what is to come. These main characters are now well established by this book in their relationships with each other and their Victorian environment. Sidney Grice, the "personal" detective, verges on the ridiculous at times, but the author managed to pull him back from that abyss for me just in the nick of time and by the end of the novel he had become quite an endearing character. March Middleton was a more complex character for me and I really enjoyed watching how she settled into the environment of London as well the eccentric household of her guardian. Inspector Pound began as the obligatory bumbling policeman and ended up being a character I really liked. By the end of the novel it had become apparent to me that this series will rest very firmly on the shoulders of this young woman who was highly instrumental in solving not only the Mangle Street murders, but those of Slurry Street as well. In the process of figuring out all the twists and turns involved in the crimes a cohesive unit of three have taken steps to become a crime solving force to be reckoned with.
I think the novel comes closest to being described as a parody of the Conan Doyle novels and yet this author has been so clever that I was able to simply enjoy this story and stop drawing comparisons to the Holmes/Watson/Lestrade formula. The characters present in this novel are truly different from those and have personalities and a vitality all their own which had me continuing to read to see if I could come out with the same conclusion they reached for who the murderer (or could it be murderers) might be. The humor in this novel is not subtle and at the beginning I laughed outright at some of the situations.
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