Death at Dartmoor

Sir Charles and Lady Kate Sheridan are invited to a seance the home of Sir Edgar and Lady Duncan near Dartmoor prison. Sir Charles has business at the prison anyway to fingerprint the prisoners. He's especially interested in a prisoner there who plead guilty to a charge of which Sir Charles is fairly certain he's innocent and which can be proven with the new fingerprinting method. Also a guest at the seance is Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries. Three prisoners escape, two are captured; Sir Edgar is murdered. The community immediately assumes the escaped prisoner is guilty. Sir Charles, Doyle, and Lady Kate set out to find the truth of the murder. While I enjoyed the book, I would have preferred that the show more historical figure of Arthur Conan Doyle have been left out. Paige seems to be somewhat critical of the abilities of Holmes through the voices she gave her characters. The novel seemed a bit longer than it needed to be. show less

Charles is recruited to a project to fingerprint prisoners at Dartmoor Prison. He is interested in a prisoner who seems innocent from other evidence but pled guilty to the murder of his wife. An escape from the prison, the murder of a local landowner, death of one of his tenants and Dr. Doyle, writinge what will be The Hound of the Baskervilles, complicate matters. But all ends well.

This was a rather tedious book--the first of a serious. Victorian in scope. I felt as if I trudged thru it.

Book number ? in the series. I have enjoyed following the story of Lord and Lady Sheridan and the life and and times of the Victorian period. Each book has a fanous figure from the era worked into the story. This time Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was working on his story The Hounds of Baskerville.

Enjoyable little historical fiction mystery series.