Anne Perry. Bethlehem Road (1990) A “Victorian” mystery, quite well plotted, with adequate but somewhat unbelievable characters. The author provides helpful explanations for artefacts and customs, which I think mar the narrative, and the dialogue is often too modern American in idiom. There’s also a tremendous amount of clothing lore, which I suppose delights the apparently intended audience - middle-brow American women of a certain age and sensibility, who want to fantasise about being ladies a hundred-odd years ago. The detecting is perfunctory; the ‘tec’s wife is a lady, which gives her an entree to the upper class that he can’t access in the same way. I may read another of these if I find one at 10 cents at a yard sale. * (2005)
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