DEATH IN THE DARK WALK (Mystery-John Rawlings-England-Georgian) – VGLake, Deryn – 1st in seriesHodder & Stoughton, 1994, UK Hardcover – ISBN: 0450607011First Sentence: It being such a delicate night, all stars and moon and silk soft breeze, John Rawlings, well satisfied with the day’s events and having kissed his father goodnight, stepped forth from number two Nassau Street, so named in honour of the marriage of the Princess Royal to the Prince of Orange-Nassau, and hailed a chair to take him to the river.*** John Rawlings, the adopted son of a nobleman and a newly independent apothecary, is celebrating the completion of his indenture in Vaux Hall Pleasure Garden, when he hears a woman cry out and is the first to her body. With his acute memory and powers of observation, Sir John Fielding, the Blind Beak of Bow Street, asks Rawlings to be an official investigator in finding the killer.*** I loved the Bruce Alexander novels and Deryn Lake’s book is somewhat reminiscent of those. I have read a couple other books in the series and liked them well enough to find the rest so I could read the series from the beginning. Rawling is a likeable young man with a very close relationship to his adopted father. The back story of their relationship is lovely without being cloying. Lake clearly knows her geography and period very well and shares that knowledge with us as part of an interesting story. While one of the story threads was fairly obvious, I didn’t mind as the subtle humor of the character made the thread work. I’m glad to have finally read the first book and I look forward to reading the rest of this series.
