About book Brigade: Further Adventures Of Lestrade (1998)
Again, there is a theme that runs through the novel and, as an avid reader, I wanted to solve the riddle of how all of these victims fit together well before Lestrade got around to doing so within the pages of the novel. Alas, I found myself hooked by red herrings and wondering just how M. J. Truw would resolve the wonderful set-up in the first few pages. One sensed a relationship with the Light Brigade and Crimea throughout the novel, but it wasn’t obvious. Indeed, I found myself wondering about some of Lestrade’s associates before this one was over.Frankly, I didn’t feel like the “mystery” was entirely fair to the reader. Unless I was simply totally dense, it didn’t seem as if enough foundation was laid for the eventual killer to be unmasked (as it were). It seemed like Truw spent much more effort on his labyrinthine dead-ends and cut-backs than he did on allowing the reader to solve the mystery along with Lestrade. It was a bit like my feeling about Agatha Christie novels. At times, I desperately would have liked to have been Lionel Twain in Neil Simon’s Murder By Death and wreaked revenge on all mystery novelists who do this.On the other hand, I’ll keep reading this series because the period touches and the breaking down of the proscenium humor tends to make me forget all about the mystery per se. I love the cockney slang such as “cash carrier” for pimp, “bug hunter” as pickpocket, “cly faker” as a “roller” of drunks, “gatter” for beer, “penny gaffe” for Punch and Judy Show, and “Under and Over” as a fairground swindling game. Plus, the great cameo appearances by actual historical features are even funnier than some of the ones in the first book: Bram Stoker and Gilbert & Sullivan, as well as the mothers of Agatha Christie and Basil Rathbone. Watch for more reviews in the future; I’m addicted to this series—even if I came late to the party.
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