Lord Francis Powerscourt is called in by the household of the Prince of Wales when in 1891 Prince Eddy his eldest son is found murdered.
At times there was a bit too much description which for me slowed the pace of the story but still an enjoyable mystery. ( )

Queen Victoria is on the throne. The Prince of Wales is being blackmailed via threats sent to him in notes with letters cut from two different newspapers. Lord Francis Powerscourt, investigator extraordinaire, is called in to solve the case. He and his small circle decide that since the only thing the Prince of Wales has on him that could possibly be of use to a blackmailer is already widely known, the blackmailer is targeting the behavior of his son, Prince Eddy. So they set to work looking for something in Eddy's past that might be of interest to a blackmailer. Boy, do they ever find it. Just as they are investigating, Prince Eddy is murdered and the family is urged by the highest councillors in the land to put out a story that he had succumbed to pneumonia so that they might avoid scandal & at the same time do discreet investigations into the motivations for killing the prince.

Powerscourt finds himself involved in a scandal that if released, would rock the monarchy itself. Nothing to do with Jack the Ripper, but a very satisfying mystery indeed.

This is the first in a series about Powerscourt; the writing is good but a bit tedious -- I think the author could have come to the core(s) of the mystery a lot sooner than he did. I did like how he made the characters very real to the reader; I liked how he set up the suspense aspect, but I think he is overly wordy and that is not a good point in a novel of mystery & suspense. ( )