A Death Along the River Fleet
A Mystery
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5.0 • 3 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
A mysterious woman with no memory. A young maid turned amateur sleuth. Can Lucy Campion unravel the secrets of a nobleman's daughter before it's too late?
In 17th-century London, Lucy Campion, a ladies' maid turned printer's apprentice, encounters a ghostly figure on Holborn Bridge. The specter is revealed to be a young noblewoman, clad in a blood-spattered nightdress and unable to recall her identity. As the townspeople whisper of possession, Lucy takes the woman under her wing, seeking the help of a physician.
With Lucy's aid, the woman begins to piece together the chilling events that led to her appearance on the bridge that fateful morning. But as the truth unravels, it becomes clear that the young woman's safety hangs in the balance. Lucy finds herself entangled in a plot with far-reaching implications, forcing her to decide just how far she'll go to protect her newfound charge.
In Death Along the River Fleet, Susanna Calkins paints a vivid portrait of Restoration-era England and a young woman pushing against the confines of her society. This absorbing historical mystery promises a gripping read for fans of British sleuths and atmospheric suspense.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
At the start of Calkins's sluggish fourth mystery set in 1660s London (after 2015's The Masque of a Murderer), printer's apprentice Lucy Campion encounters a bruised, bloodstained, and incoherent woman on a bridge while crossing the Fleet River. She brings the stranger to the home of her friend Dr. Larimer, who notices rope marks and signs of medical bloodletting before diagnosing hysteria and traumatic amnesia. After the doctor arranges for Lucy to care for the patient in his home, she's revealed to be Octavia Belasysse, an epileptic noblewoman believed dead by her dysfunctional family. When Octavia's brother turns up missing and a murdered corpse is found near where she was wandering, Constable Jeb Duncan, Lucy's beau, suspects that the noblewoman may be criminal as well as victim. Calkins deftly evokes period attitudes toward mental illness, but with a pivotal character too impaired to generate much suspense or action, the first half of the story doesn't do justice to Lucy's resourcefulness or the author's full gifts.
