M.R.C. Kasasian

This is the first in a new series (the Gower Street Detective) featuring personal detective Sidney Grice & his ward, 21 year old March Middleton. After the death of her father, an army doctor, March has little choice but to accept his offer to come stay with him in London.
Her mother died young & March spent her childhood following her father in his travels, assisting with medical care on the battlefields. This unconventional upbringing has turned March into an intelligent, "modern" woman who show more is quietly rebellious with a penchant for sneaking cigarettes & sips of gin. She's all too aware of the glass ceiling for women in 19th century England but is initially overwhelmed by the hustle, smell & grinding poverty of Victorian London.
And by Grice. Where to begin....odd, eccentric, socially inept, fastidious, clever, brutally blunt, condescending, vegetarian, addicted to tea....they all apply. He's also rather small with a deformed leg & a glass eye that tends to fall out when he's upset. He has become the preeminent detective in the city, famous for cases he's solved. (At some point, all readers will draw the inevitable comparisons to Holmes & the author doesn't shy away from this, adding a cheeky passage between March & Dr. Conan Doyle where he muses about writing a book using her guardian as inspiration for a clever, crime solving character.)
As March tries to get her bearings, a woman comes to Grice pleading for his help. Her son-in-law has been arrested for the horrific murder of her daughter but she believes him innocent. She has no money....will he take the case? Absolutely not. Grice doesn't believe in pro bono work but March feels compassion & offers to pay. Game on.
What follows is a story that unfolds on two fronts. First, a convoluted murder mystery that finds Grice & March traipsing through filthy back alleys & dealing with unfortunate souls & dead bodies as they hunt for clues. There are plenty of red herrings & the author does a good job of slowly doling out information that changes the trajectory of the case. Even though I figured out who the "bad guy" was early on, I had no idea of the scope of their crimes or motivation 'til all was revealed in the final few pages. They'd end up paying for their sins but in an unconventional way.
Second, it's also the story of our two main protagonists as the ground work for their relationship is developed. March is no spineless, swooning woman, thank God. Her intelligence & progressive beliefs frequently ruffle the feathers of the conservative Grice, a man who is very comfortable with the status quo where women play a decidedly lesser role. Their continuous verbal sparring provides moments of comic relief as well as comments about women that while true to the period, will no doubt have some readers grinding their teeth.
We are also given hints about March's past in passages form her diary & the mysterious letters she keeps hidden away. There was a fiance, a great love who has died & we know March feels grief & remorse but we never learn why. Perhaps in book #2?
London is portrayed as a glittering city with a dark side. The ruthless class system keeps everyone in their proper place: the haves in their stately homes, the have nots in their dank, smelly rooming houses & abandoned buildings swimming in rats & sewage.
There are colourful peripheral characters that flit in & out of the investigation, notably Inspector Pound from the police service. He doesn't exactly like Grice but is in awe of his abilities & gradually develops a grudging respect for March ("It is a pity you are so poor & plain. And a shame you have such intelligence & spirit, Miss Middleton. You might otherwise make a man an acceptable spouse"). High praise indeed. Their encounters hint at a possible future romance if he can let go of some of his stuffy notions.
All in all, an entertaining & atmospheric Victorian detective story. The murder investigations will keep you turning the pages but it's the characters who will have you waiting impatiently for the next book. show less

I just received an electronic ARC of The Mangle Street Murders last week and the book was released on Tuesday, so I spent last night racing through it in hopes of posting a timely review. Lucky for me, there’s enough going on in this Holmes-ian tale to make a one-night reading enjoyable.

March Middleton is a recently orphaned young woman, plain of face and quick of mind who has arrived in London to live with a guardian who has appeared in her life rather abruptly. This guardian, Sidney show more Grice, is a bit like a non-comic, non-drinking W. C. Fields interpretation of Sherlock Holmes: misanthropic, self-righteous, mercenary, and absolutely brilliant. Of course, he does not approve of March’s proclivities for smoking and taking the occasional nip nor does he want her to join him in his work as a personal detective (that’s personal, not private, as he is frequently reminding others who are less precise than he). March, of course is determined to maintain her vices and to join in the detecting.

The book’s first half deals with Grice’s pursuit of a husband accused of his wife’s murder. The man is found guilty and executed, much to the horror of March who is certain he’s innocent. From that point, the plot grows more complicated as March battles with her guardian and worries about her role in this miscarriage of justice.

Kasasian crafts an ending of the satisfactory-unsatisfactory variety. The bad end badly, though not necessarily by legal means, and those defending the law show a willingness to abandon the pursuit of justice when doing so is convenient. In this sense, the book is both a period romp, but also a somewhat more serious piece. That seriousness is also apparent in both the author’s attention to the conditions of London’s poor and in March’s longing for a former fiancé who was a soldier and who—we gather, though we’re never told so specifically—died miserably in India, where March worked as an assistant to her father, a military surgeon.

The book also contains a lovely nod to Conan Doyle, which will be appreciated by fans of Holmes.

In all, this is a good start to what I anticipate will be a series. Grice’s unpleasant character grows wearisome, but a crack or two appear in his armor by the book’s close, and March’s determined independence throughout is a delight. Add this book to the pile of mysteries you save for rainy-day or summer-vacation reading—it will give you several hours’ pleasure. show less

The Curse of the House of Foskett – Bang on!

Welcome back to the grumpiest yet best personal detective of the Victorian era, Sidney Grice, along with his ward March Middleton. The Curse of the House of Foskett is the brilliant follow up to his hit debut The Mangle Street Murders. MRC Kasasian has created and continued with the most delightful new crime duo who are rapidly becoming cult heroes amongst crime readers.

Once again the plot is sharp yet funny and fresh with March being the show more ‘straight man’ to Grice’s comedic lead while getting the job done. Once again Kasasian has shown that he is comfortable writing historical crime fiction with wonderful and evocative prose bringing every page alive placing you in the midst of the story.

Grice’s reputation has been dashed by his previous case and the national press are making him a laughing stock and people do not wish to employ him. It is not until a member of a Final Death Society, turns up unannounced and tells him he is being employed to investigate the deaths of all its members. Then he has the temerity to die on his study floor which draws Grice and Middleton in, especially when he learns one of the Society’s members is Baroness Foskett someone Grice has respected and known personally since childhood.

As the bodies start to pile up across London Grice wants to protect the Baroness at all costs, but she is having none of it. Her son Rupert had once been a close friend of Grice’s and he will do whatever he can to protect her. While all around Grice murder continues he slowly puts together the clues to reveal at the end who is the murderer.

Kasasian prose is so descriptive and evocative you can see the smog and the smells of the docks on the Thames. You can hear the hustle and bustle of Victorian London with the horses on the cobbles, not only their hooves but the rose growing presents they leave. The street urchins running around everyone a target, really a case of; “the rich man in his castle, the poor man at his gate”.

Once again Kasasian has written a winning historical crime novel which can be enjoyed time and time again. With a sneaking jealousy of how Grice treats people and the wish that you could do it too and live to tell the tale. With this novel the cult of Sidney Grice and March Middleton will continue to grow. show less

On the day Sidney Grice is called away to solve a murder in Yorkshire, his ward March Middleton receives a letter from a previously unknown relative who invites her to visit him at his house, Saturn Villa, and spend the night there. In the morning March contacts Inspector Pound, believing that she killed her uncle during the night, though when the police turn up the supposed victim is alive and well and no trace of the slaughter of the night before can be found. In a bizarre series of events show more March is accused of several murders and it falls to Sidney Grice and Inspector Pound to find out the truth and save March from being hanged as a murderess.

What a shame that mine is the first review for this title as I would like to know why others have rated this book so low – unless they are entering the Gower Street Detectives series with this, the third, volume, surely anyone will have realised that it is an affectionate yet effective send-up of the Victorian detective genre, with its overblown plot, incredible coincidences and deductions plucked as if from thin air, as it may appear to the amateur. Yes, the plot is utterly preposterous but also fiendishly clever and tense at the same time, with March's experiences extremely terrifying, and I will have to reread it just to pick out the clues I missed the first time. What makes this series stand out, however, is the verve with which the story is being told, the very dark humour, the amusing interplay and a hint of tragedy and vulnerability at the centre of the likeable and engaging (in Sidney Grice’s case also deliberately irritating) protagonists. I love this series and am being gifted with volume no. 4, The Secrets of Gaslight Lane, for Christmas – I can’t wait. show less