Convicted Innocent
The Bobby and The Priest, no. 1
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4.0 • 2 Ratings
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Publisher Description
London, 1887. Three men vanish. One is a poor clergyman, one a workaholic policeman…and the last is a man on trial for murder.
David Powell’s day is flipped head over heels when he stumbles upon an assault-in-progress, and then gets nabbed by the attackers for intervening. Clergymen aren’t supposed to have adventures like this, but David has before and has always laughed in the face of adversity.
This time, however, not even his best mate’s presence can cheer him. Bit by bit, David loses everything he holds dear – until he doesn’t know where to turn to find hope in the darkness.
Horace Tipple, a police detective, has hounded the Harker crime family for years. He now has a young Harker on trial for murder, and the case is strong enough to bring down all the Harkers. But the man escapes from prison, and Horace fears this will undo every shred of evidence against the family.
As he races after the murderer, however, Horace begins to fear that some greater plot is afoot. Evidence suggests the young Harker’s escape is linked to the disappearance of two other men: one of Horace’s police sergeants and the sergeant’s best friend, a priest.
And if Horace can’t see through whatever the game is, innocent men may die.
Customer Reviews
Sweet read.
I was looking for romance when this came up. Although interesting, no romance.
Great read! Off the beaten path
Loved it! When fantasy is what's popular, it's nice to read something that moves and moves well against the trend. Sometimes with indy works (or even a LOT of the time), a reader dreads the inevitable typos and poor edits. This novella, however, is pretty solid in construction and the characters and plot are well developed.
The action of the plot takes place over the course of three days, or thereabouts, in Victorian London, and the story is told from a few different points of view. As the series title suggests, one of the main characters is a London policeman and the other is a Catholic priest. That the second title character is a priest might turn some
readers away immediately. But this character, David Powell, is an ordinary guy fighting ordinary (if dramatic) demons. His struggles with his self-identity and purpose, particularly when his back is against the wall, are painfully familiar and draw the reader’s sympathy. I found myself cheering for him often - and sometimes wanting to smack him for being too human.
As for the other title character, Lewis Todd, he isn't given a POV. According to the author's website, prequels to this story are to be expected, and we'll presumably hear more from him in those stories. Even so, there's enough about him as told from the POV of the other characters that I want to get to know him more.
And Horace Tipple reminded me a bit of the title character in Foyle’s War (BBC) as played by Michael Kitchen. Perhaps he was the author’s inspiration?
Downsides to Convicted Innocent: even though I gave this 5 stars, there are a few things that are a bit jarring. First, the story is very quick. Not counting the Prologue and Epilogue, the whole thing occurs in just three days. This doesn’t make it unbelievable and there are no inexplicable leaps as the characters chase down a murderer and solve a quasi-mystery, but I kind of wish the author had taken the time to make a full-length book. Next, the character development of the bad guys left me wanting more. Initially, anyway. Perhaps I’ve just been spoiled by villains monologue-ing their plans to the world, so a story without the gratuitous “this is how I did it and why: so suffer, ye mortals” made me go back and read it again. Next, there’s a dearth of strong female characters. True, the various settings of the story don’t allow for it, but I should hope this isn’t indicative of the rest of the series. I will be disappointed if it is. Finally, I don’t think people talked like that 125 or so years ago. True, I’ve
read many novels set in the past where the author tries to mimic the styles of address from that time period, and the result is stilted, unnatural, and clunky. This author avoided the stiltedness, but perhaps the dialogue is a bit too modern.
All in all, a good read and highly recommended.