CUT TO THE QUICK (1993)
Kestrel is the reigning dandy of London in the 1820's, famous for his elegant clothes and his unflappable sangfroid. One night he rescues a young aristocrat named Hugh Fontclair from a gambling house, and in gratitude Hugh invites him to be the best man at his wedding. But when Kestrel goes to stay with the Fontclairs at their sumptuous country house, he is caught in the crossfire of the bride's and groom's warring families. Soon, discord erupts into murder. In a world without fingerpriting, chemical analysis, or even police, murder poses a baffling challenge. Undaunted, Kestrel sets out to solve the crime. With the help of his Cockney manservant, Dipper, a (mostly) reformed pickpocket, Kestrel delves beneath the Fontclair's respectable surface. What he finds is a trial of crime, deception, and forbidden lust leads him at last to the killer.
BROKEN VESSEL (1994) Winner of the 1994 Historicon's Gargoyle Award for Best Historical Mystery
No detection team was ever more mismatched: Julian Kestrel, the debonair and elegant regency dandy, and Sally Stokes, a bold and bewitching Cockney prostitute and thief. But one night fate throws them together, giving them the only clue that can unmask a diabolical killer. It all starts in London's notorious Haymarket District, where Sally picks up three men one after the other and nicknames them Bristles, Blue Eyes, and Blinkers. From each of them Sally steals a handkerchief -- and from one she mistakenly steals a letter that contains an urgent appeal for help as well. But which man did she get the letter from? Who is the distraught young woman who wrote it? And where is she being held against her will? These questions take on a new urgency when Sally finds the writer of the letter -- dead. Luckily, Sally's brother is none other than Dipper, reformed pickpocket and now valet to gifted amateur sleuth Julian Kestrel. The authorities dismiss the girl's death as suicide, but to Kestrel it looks more like murder. To prove it, he must track down Bristles, Blue Eyes, and Blinkers, and find out which of them had the dead girl's letter. Sally uses all her ingenuity and daring to help Kestrel solve his case.
WHOM THE GODS LOVE (1995)
Julian Kestrel, a debonair man-about-town in early Victorian London, is asked to investigate the murder of Alexander Falkland. The charming aristocratic victim's distraught father turns to Kestrel when it seems that the Bow Street Runners have failed to turn up any clues. Nothing has been taken from the elaborate house, no one could have entered unnoticed in the middle of one of Falkland's famous parties, and everyone professes to have been on the best of terms with the deceased. An erudite correspondence with his father shows that Falkland was a man of depth and intellect; he had also cultivated the socially risky acquaintance of a Jewish investment advisor. Falkland had doted on his beautiful wife, and both humored and neglected his adolescent brother-in-law, who benefits financially from the death. Kestrel works efficiently with Bow Street Runner Peter Vance, who supplies added information about an unidentified woman found murdered only a week before Falkland's death. As Kestrel delves into the case, he begins to find many people without adequate alibis, including Alexander's lovely widow. He is baffled by the solid wall of silence that he encounters; intrigued by the protective behavior of the servants; and, finally, starts to piece together Falkland's true character. With flair and quick-moving drama, the amateur detective is able to make the necessary connection between this murder and that of a servant in an abandoned brickfield. Kestrel, a true man of his times, treads carefully to maintain the correct conventions even as he digs deeply into the London lowlife.
THE DEVIL IN MUSIC (1997) 1997 Agatha Award for Best NovelOn a mist-shrouded villa on Lake Como, an Italian nobleman is grooming a young English tenor for a career on the glittering operatic stage. But the enigmatic singer and his fiery mentor constantly clash. Before their sojourn is over, one will die by violence, and the other will disappear. Enter Julian Kestrel, Regency dandy and amateur sleuth. Travelling in Italy with his ex-pickpocket valet, Dipper, and his friend, Dr. MacGregor, Kestrel is irresistibly drawn into this baffling murder case. Among the suspects are a runaway wife and her male soprano lover, a liberal nobleman at odds with Italy's Austrian overlords, a mocking Frenchman with perfect pitch, and a beautiful, clever woman who begins to haunt Kestrel's dreams. Soon Kestrel is caught between the shadowy Carbonari -- secret rebels against the Austrians -- and the equally ruthless Austrian-sponsored police. But at the heart of the mystery is the captivating tenor known only as Orfeo. Was he a political agent? A callous adventurer? A jealous lover? These questions take on new urgency when the murderer strikes again. And as Kestrel uncovers the truth, he risks becoming the next victim.
This was one of those series that was memorable as it was being written. Had she been able to continue, perhaps it could be one of the great ones. Bookeemonster rating: 5 out of 5.
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