Reviews

• An airplane book. I read it flying over the Pacific. Great series.

• A beautifully written and meticulously researched portrayal of the Beau himself and a superb reconstruction of his era as well as an intriguing mystery complete with multiple suspects and red herrings galore. There are many historical personages featuring as amateut sleuths in mystery fiction, some work- viz Gyles Brandreth's Oscar Wilde series, some, I will not mention them for I'm sure they have their fans, are I think not quite so successfully portrayed. This is not the case with this series. Here we meet the true essence of the Beau, generous, kind, intelligent, principled, ironic and self-deprecating. The sense of his times is immaculately portrayed without being too over-powering and every character- even the minor ones- emerges fully fledged. I am sure that if the doyenne of the Regency period fiction - Georgette Heyer, who also wrote detective fiction, - had read this she would have applauded the style the writing and the mystery. What a find this series is. I found it while Kindle surfing and am now about to download the rest of the series immediately--- that's how good I think it is.

• With some rather good humour thrown in and some very close to life real characters - historical ones. My favourite character I think has to be the cat, he tops everything he's involved in in a way only a cat can!

• After a slow start, Beau Brummell receives a gift of the first Siamese cat in England. Both the period story and the cat story are very well done. I liked it so much I started the second book in the series right away when normally I only read the same author 6 months apart. If you like cats you will like this book.

• This Regency historical mystery casts dandy supreme Beau Brummel as a crime solver. His great friend the Duchess of York has recommended a lady's maid to a friend and she is the prime suspect in the murder of that odious woman. To protect her reputation, Beau steps into to find the real culprit. I did enjoy the mystery, I did enjoy the cat, I am not sure I enjoyed the cat being so key in pointing out clues. I will be putting the next on my to read list, but am not totally sold just yet.

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