David Lassman

This is the second novel in this Regency era murder mystery series featuring Jack Swann and set in Bath. Once again I am reading this during a visit to this lovely city. The characters are interesting and colourful, and the plot is a little arcane, though novel, with several other threads going on in the background, in particular linking back to Swann's childhood and his father's murder. The digressions on Bath history and architecture are interesting to me, though some readers might find them intrusive and too diverting from the main narrative. Jane Austen also makes an appearance as a friend of Jack's adopted sister Mary. Good stuff, and I hope he writes more.… (plus d'informations)

This murder mystery novel is set in very early nineteenth century Bath, and I read most of it during a trip to the lovely city over the bank holiday weekend. It is a good read, and Jack Swann shows promise as quite an interesting sleuth. I am not sure if I would have read it but for the Bath connection; the descriptions of Bath history, architecture and life interested me because of my love for the city, though a reader without such an interest might find them a little intrusive - they do slow the narrative down a bit at points. Overall, a very good read and I will certainly read the following books in the series.… (plus d'informations)

As far as I can tell this is the first book in the series but it feels like the second or third. The Regency Detective was written by two authors and I’m guessing I could split the book fairly closely on who wrote which parts. There was the story that was the driving force of the book, and there was the history which gave background and ambiance. There was lots of cool history and there was a bit of ‘ya, ya, let’s get on with the story’. At times it really felt like the mystery was just a way for them to convey their knowledge of the location where the story was taking place. That got irritating. I like Jack and I am certainly willing to try the next book in the series. I hope by then the writing has evened out a bit and the story flows smoothly.

This is supposed to be a mystery series and we get 3 mysteries in this book. Who killed Jack Swann’s father, who does Lockhart work for (the man courting Jack’s sister) and who did the murders. The first is an obvious several book arc and I didn’t really expect it to end in this one. The second has some kind of overlap with the first. The 3rd is where I dropped the stars down to 3.5. The 3rd mystery, the one that gets solved doesn’t even begin until almost 2/3rds of the way through the book. It felt like “Oh ya! We need to give them a mystery that is actually solved in THIS book!” In many ways this book felt like an episode, instead of a full book.

Jack Swann is a man on a mission. When he was 12 he witnessed the murder of his father, and he has been trying to find the murderer ever since. He was adopted by the family his father worked for and grew up with his ‘sister’ Mary. After Jack was old enough, he set himself up as a detective (along the lines of Sherlock Holmes, without the chemical dependencies). He has made a name for himself and is doing quite well with the business. He can pick and choose his cases, but he never passes up a case that might relate to the murderer of his father. This is how he ends up going to Bath.… (plus d'informations)