MASKING THE TRUTH

In Parker’s debut historical thriller set in 19th-century England, a plucky bounty hunter is on the hunt for a murderer as an East India Company agent looks into opium smuggling.

In London, Scarlett Pembridge is trying to track down a serial killer known as the Matchstick Mangler due to the fact that matches have been found at the scene of each crime. Pembridge is a Bow Street Runner—part detective, part bounty hunter—who works for her father’s skip-tracing business. In the course of her investigation, she meets Andrew Green, an agent for the East India Company who left China as the Opium Wars broke out and is now assigned as a plant in the Metropolitan Police, whose presence on the streets is increasing as a result of the Peel Act. Green is tasked with helping to shut down opium dens throughout London so that his superiors can corner the market on laudanum themselves. Pembridge begins her search for answers at the local matchstick factory with John Turner, a young man who has information on the Mangler. Meanwhile, Green tries to track down a missing dockworker named Tobias Wells, who was an informant on opium smugglers for the police. Green and Pembridge soon realize their cases may, in fact, be connected. Parker skillfully executes his story with straightforward prose and fully formed characters. Pembridge’s expertise in bounty hunting, typically a male-dominated field in this period, makes her an engaging character, as does her impressive ability in hand-to-hand combat. Similarly, Green’s growing distrust of his handler and his frustration with his restrictive role add necessary side conflicts to the Matchstick Mangler and opium smuggling plots. The dynamic between Pembridge and Green is one of the story’s more enjoyable aspects; their initial suspicion of each other is compelling, as are their opposing investigation styles; Pembridge, for instance, is rather accustomed to bringing her suspects in dead.

An entertaining crime novel that makes good use of its historical setting.