It was okay- ending predictable- too overt- however- the historical background was interesting. ( )

Welcome in Scotland in 1865.

Inspector Allerdyce is one of the people in the Edinburgh's police force that cares for his work and is more than unhappy when he is pulled from the day-to-day work to search for a missing husband. Of course it is not a John Doe - it is the Duke of Dornoch and he is not exactly the faithful husband that everyone believes him to be. And this is how starts this Victorian story. What follows is a mix of murders, schemes and Scotland during the reign of Queen Victoria. The veterans of the wars in India and Crimea are back home, a huge number of families are sent to Canada and not everyone survived this trip and the gap between the poor and the rich is bigger than ever. And this is the background in which the story takes place.

Sim manages to recreate the Scotland of these times although some of the ways to tell the back-stories are almost unbelievable -- it just sounds as too much of a coincidence someone to have been in India, to have lost a brother in Crimea and his father to have died on the ship to Canada. The stories are fascinating, it's just the whole bundling that does not really work for me. The trip that Allerdyce makes out of the city is a nice touch, allowing us to see the same territories which history we already heard about. And the occasional look into the families of the time (both the one of the Inspector and of his sergeant) adds a layer of credibility of the story and of the fascination of the whole world.

The book starts really slow and it takes a while to actually start moving in some normal speed. For most of the book it is an engaging book. Until the very end - the end, the reason for all that is happening just falls flat. I was prepared to believe anything but not this. It does make sense, it just does not fit the story - at least for me. I even would have preferred the last letter to have been skipped entirely and the reasons to have been left to the imagination of the reader.

A few notes for the physical representation of the book: Snowbooks produce a gorgeous cover again. However the first sentence of the description at the back of the book gives up the surprise what happens after about 100 pages in the book. Not that it is so bad but I would have preferred not to know it.

3 stars out of 5 for the book and if the author ever writes another book for the Inspector, I will check it. ( )