RANDOM JOTTINGS

Lat year I read Murder most Welcome by this author, reviewed here, and now we have the second in what is turning out to be a Regency fiction/murder mystery series which, you have to admit, is an intriguing juxtaposition.

In Death is the Cure we follow the continuing adventures of Charlotte Richmond, left a young widow af the end of Murder most Welcome and happy to be so as her dead husband was a pretty unpleasant character.  Elaine Knightley married to, yes Mr Knightley (love this  – me and Jeremy Northam anybody…), is an invalid and goes to Bath to take the waters and try a new treatment and Charlotte accompanies her.  They take rooms at Waterloo House, and establishment run by a Mrs Montgomery where a disparate collection of lodgers are gathered.  Amongst the guests, as Mrs Montgomery prefers them to be called, is an American gentleman, a Mr Tibbins who seems to have an inordinate interest in his fellow residents.   They, in turn,  exhibit strong signs of discomfort and annoyance when he talks to them and makes veiled references to their past and before too long he is attacked in the street, where Charlotte finds him, and he reveals to her that he is a member of Pinkerton Detective Agency and sent to Bath on an important case.

Charlotte has an interest in visiting Bath which has nothing to do with accompanying her friend, but a longing to discover more about her background as her mother was born in this city but abandoned as a child and taken into an orphanage.   She enlists Mr Tibbins help on her behalf and he points her in the direction of a source of information where she might find out more about her birthright.   As she is discovering more about her past she comes back to Waterloo House and finds Mr Tibbins has been stabbed, and is dead.

So, we have the classic situation – a collection of suspects all under one roof and all of them with a motive for murdering the inquisitive Mr Tibbins.  Running alongside this mystery and Charlotte's involvement with the guests is the secret of her family background and the mystery surrounding an emigre French count also residing in Waterloo House with his son and grandchild. 

Lots of intriguing hints and clues for the reader to puzzle over as well as the Austen references which I enjoyed so much in the previous book.  This time we meet Mrs Smith, a resident of Bath – and of course, it was a Mrs Smith who Anne Elliot in Persuasion went to visit on her stay in this city, much to the disgust of her father Sir Walter "A Mrs Smith. A widow. Upon my word Miss Anne Eliot you have the most extraordinary taste".

I do like seeing if I can spot these Austen references but only came across this one – wonder if there are any more lurking that I have missed?

Great fun and I spent a happy afternoon reading this curled up indoors away from the snow and cold outside. My thanks to Nicola for sending me a copy.