On the one hand, I have to wonder if this book suffers from being the low point of a long-running series. On the other hand, the characters, while distinctive, aren't memorable except in the ways that grate. The two protagonists are thoroughly modern. You can tell they are modern because they believe in things such as independence of women and Darwin and fingerprinting. The locals/yokels talk in phonetic accents with plenty of apostrophes in place of skipped vowels and more "b'aint"s than I ever thought I'd see in my life.The mystery isn't much of one. I don't even mean in that it was easily guessed, but rather I never got a sense of urgency or ... well, mysteriousness. The actual murder suffered from having the main suspect written off already. Lord Charles was convinced he was innocent of the crime he was sent to prison for and therefore innocent of any crime thereafter, and we knew he must be right since, as one of the characters points out, he's smarter than Sherlock Holmes. But rather than go out of their way to prove as much (or anything at all) all the evidence just falls into their laps and then it's case closed.I don't think I'll be going back to see if I like earlier books better.
This is the eighth book in the Victorian Edwardian mystery series with Kate and Charles heading off to the famous Dartmoor prison. Charles is there to help set up a fingerprinting system at the prison. While there, he also wants to investigate an infamous murder in which he believes the accused did not commit the crime. The pair are joined by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle who has come to the area to work on his novel about Sherlock Holmes which will become the Hound of the Baskervilles. While at Dartmoor, there is a prison break, including the man Charles believes to be innocent. A murder occurs on the moor and they now have 2 murder cases to pursue. Patsy, daughter of their neighbor, and now a world traveller/photographer plays a role in the story. This was a good, but not great mystery and I found the title characters to be a little flat in this book. Hopefully, the next in the series will improve, but I still really enjoy all of the historical and period detail that is placed in these stories.
What do You think about Death At Dartmoor (2003)?
I love this series...set in England around the turn of the last century....Queen Victoria is dead, the strict Victorian morals are relaxing, an Irish American woman inherits property in England and isn't quite sure how she fits in to the societal constraints, so she doesn't. The books are historical fiction/mystery, but a lot more history. This one takes place in Dartmoor...and Arthur Conan Doyle is working out the plot for The Hound of the Baskervilles. The books each center around a place, an event or a item (automobile, hot air balloon) that was important at that particular time....very good stories, enjoyable, easy to read, but you feel a bit smarter when all is said and done.
—Michele
