The Solitary House - Lynn Shepherd

If it's a batch of books on loan from my dad, you know there are gonna be period mysteries in there, and sure enough, The Solitary House is set in London, 1850. I'm not much a fan of the Victorian period myself, so if you're interested in the more tawdry aspects of the time, that could bolster it for you.

As it is, we have Charles Maddox, recently ousted from the police force, hired by a prominent lawyer, Edward Tulkinghorn, to investigate some threatening letters sent to an almost equally prominent banker, one Julius Cremorne. Charles does so, growing more curious about what it is Cremorne did that the letter writer knows of. This curiosity only intensifies once he finds the writer, who dies very shortly after Maddox delivers his name to Tulkinghorn. There are also interludes written by a girl named Hester that describe some home she was living at, which she loved dearly. This naturally connects to the rest, and even to another case Charles was working simultaneously. Nice how that works out.

As far as the story itself, the book is fine. Nothing spectacular, but solid. I had some issues with Shepherd's writing style. She goes with third-person omniscient, but it's a very coy narrator. There are nearly constant references to things that will happen, but haven't yet, or things that occurred in the past which aren't going to be discussed outright. Example: 'But for all his precautions, and all his care, this gun of his may still prove to be his undoing.' There are a lot of lines like that, talking about how Charles doesn't recognize so-and-so, but we do, or how someone's temper is bound to get them into trouble. I'm perhaps not one to criticize for making talking directly to the audience in a story, but then again, I'm not using it in stories that involve digging up baby corpses or people getting fingers cut off. It's entirely too chummy, for the subject matter of the book.

Along those same lines, there are references to people who might become notable in the future, but aren't in 1850, so the narrator doesn't bother to specifically name them, only reference them. There's a point where Charles nearly walks in front of a carriage, only to have two fellows pull him back in the nick of time. Then he has a flash of inspiration and runs off without thanking them, leaving the two to remark on his rudeness. Then we're told they are writers (or will be), and may incorporate this anecdote into one of their works some day. I don't have any idea who she's referring to, and even if I did, why should I care? Does it have any relevance to the story? No? Then don't waste my time with these cutesy-poo winks to the audience. It's not character development, because we never see them again. It hardly qualifies as world-building, other than it tells us carriage drivers don't look out for pedestrians (we've already learned that), and there are writers in mid-19th century London (no shit).

There are some of these historical mysteries that try to use real life people, because they think it's clever, or whatever. The Alienist used Teddy Roosevelt; Pale Blue Eye (which is also in the box, but I'm skipping it) which is gonna use Poe during his days at West Point. This is like an uncertain version of that. It's feels like Shepherd wants to use some notable people (or thinks she has to because everyone else does), but doesn't have the confidence to pull it off (or doesn't really want to, so she does it half-heartedly). Either have Maddox meet Dickens - or one of the Bronte sisters, or whoever - for some reason relevant to the story, or don't, but pick one and commit.