Quick, enjoyable read. A bit troubling, but not altogether surprising about the lengths British royals may go through to insure the monarchy continues. In this book, Queen Victoria is dead and King Edward hasn’t been crowned yet. The mystery centers around his first borne son, presumed death to the world, but in this book takes the stance that Albert Victor did not die, but was put in exile by his family due to his mental instability and the scandalous behavior of most of his life. Again the emerging field of forensics is featured in this book – fingerprinting and ballistics. Fingerprinting is gaining acceptance finally and Scotland Yard in fingerprinting all incarcerated criminals to start building up a data base. Still not really accepted yet in the court system; neither is ballistics, but Sir Charles, the cutting edge in this series with respect to using forensic science, recognizes that bullets can be used to identify the guns used. Even blood typing is mentioned (O, A, B AB) and even distinguishing between human and animal blood. Of course the relationship between Sir Charles and his wife, Irish-American Lady Kate is why I am drawn to this series. Both are ahead of their time. Besides loving each other, they also seem to accept, respect and rely on each other. Charles often gets called in by now King Edward to help with problems the royals or their friends are embroiled in and Kate is Charles helpmate not only in life but solving the mysteries. Certainly I will continue with this series. Hasn’t disappointed, so far.
The plots in this series are good and the characters are well-drawn, but I'm finding the author's frequent references back to her (their) own previous volumes in this series to be a little self-congratulatory, especially when it's to explain how clever and brilliant the characters were. It also feels a little like a sales pitch.Each book in this series has some real, historical characters in it. A frequently recurring "real" character is Prince Albert ("Bertie") -- meaning that the story often involves royalty and the extreme upper crust of society, whose lifestyles I mostly disapprove of, and who don't interest me anyway.In this book, Charles Sheridan, Lord Sommersworth, and his wife Kate are spirited off to Scotland to deal with an as-yet-undisclosed crisis. It apparently involves espionage and foreign relations, as another "real" historical character is Friedrich von Holstein of the German Foreign Ministry, and events are obviously leading up to WWI, though the war is still more than a decade in the future.This book is going on the "did not finish" pile. I'm starting to sour on Kate, and I'm getting really tired of plots involving the Royal Family.
Do You like book Death At Glamis Castle (2004)?
This entry picks up threads that are somewhat unresolved from two previous books and interestingly you almost know what happens in the book from the beginning from different points of view. The story itself focuses more on Charles and Kate picking up the strands you the reader already have. Our guest star is Prince Albert Victor, who was officially dead by the time of this story, but there is a brief cameo by the Queen Mother as it takes place at her ancestral home. Interesting look at German British relations leading up to the first world war and a whole lot of fun Bonnie Prince Charlie references.
—Argum
do you remember that saturday night live skit with will ferrell and some chick where they play over-erudite nature lovin' academics who are always having sex in hot tubs?yeah, i'm pretty sure this novel was written by the real life version of that.robin page, apparently, is the pseudonym of a husband-wife writing team from texas. this novel is apparently a continuation of previous ones that i had not read and therefore did not get references to at all. the book is full of people named things lord percival charles henry alfred wulfric fluffington IV of pembroketonshire, and, yet, oddly i felt stupider for reading it.
—Lauren Fidler
