A killer who once stalked Florence Nightingale’s nurses seems to be resurrected in this satisfying thriller.
The second historical mystery featuring former chief detective inspector Charles Fields revolves around the heroic work of Florence Nightingale.
In The Darwin Affair (2019), Mason introduced readers to a fictional London detective who was the inspiration for the intrepid Inspector Bucket in Charles Dickens’ Bleak House—indeed, Dickens appeared as a character. Fields returns in this book, set in 1867, no longer a member of the Metropolitan Police but working as a private detective. He’s been hired “by a member of Parliament who harbored misgivings concerning his much younger wife,” and Fields quickly determines she seems to be having an affair with a politician of the opposition party. But Fields’ surveillance leads to his discovering her body after she’s been strangled. The most disturbing detail for him is a scrap of cloth, embroidered with a rose, left inside her mouth. He’s seen such scraps before, several of them, when he was dispatched in 1855 to Crimea to investigate a series of attacks on the nurses working there under the command of the famous, fearless Florence Nightingale. Although the wounded troops revere them for their loving care, the “medical men and the military brass had no time for Nightingale or her women.” When those women start to die, Fields’ pursuit turns urgent, and he returns to London only after the man responsible is dead. Or so he thought. Now, 12 years later, women are dying again just as the issue of women’s suffrage heats up. His experience in Crimea has had lasting effects on him, not least of which is his marriage to Jane Rolly, one of Nightingale’s nurses, but now it all comes rushing back. The book’s first part, set mainly in Crimea, is compelling, in part because Nightingale herself is a fascinating character. The later section is not quite as absorbing, largely because Nightingale fades into the background as Fields chases both the killer and the connection between the two sets of crimes. It does boast a blockbuster ending in subterranean London, rich historical detail, and a cast of real characters, from Benjamin Disraeli to Dickens himself.
A killer who once stalked Florence Nightingale’s nurses seems to be resurrected in this satisfying thriller.Pub Date: May 9, 2023
ISBN: 9781643750392
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Algonquin
Review Posted Online: April 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
An enjoyable visit with an old character, but not one of Ware’s strongest.
Travel writer Lo Blacklock is back. Ten years after the events of The Woman in Cabin 10 (2016), she's attending the opening of a lavish Swiss hotel when, once again, a mystery intervenes.
A decade after she almost died on a luxury cruise and ended up exposing a murder plot, travel journalist Laura “Lo” Blacklock is trying to get back into the business post-Covid-19 and post–maternity leave. When she's invited to an exclusive hotel launch by the Leidmann Group on the shores of Switzerland’s gorgeous Lake Geneva, her supportive husband, Judah, insists that she should go, and her old boss, Rowan, says that if Lo can score an interview with the reclusive Marcus Leidmann, she’ll publish it in the Financial Times. Leaving Judah and the kids at home in New York, Lo is surprised by a last-minute upgrade to first class, which kicks off her trip in style. The hotel is appropriately awe-inspiring in both scenic location and effortless luxury, and Lo starts to put the memories of last trip’s trauma behind her, thinking that maybe she can just enjoy the experience this time. But then, at dinner, she's surprised to see at least three guests who were also on that original cruise, and when she finds a mysterious note in her room saying "Please come to suite 11 as soon as possible," she gets another shock. To quote William Faulkner, she realizes that “the past is never dead,” and soon Lo is careening across Europe on her way to England, only to find herself embroiled in another murder. The back half of the novel offers her the opportunity to continue her amateur sleuthing, and while she avoids much of the physical danger that plagued her on the cruise a decade ago, she is in very real legal trouble. This is the prolific Ware’s first sequel, and it's fun to spend time with Lo again, as she's both savvy and kindhearted. Unfortunately, the mystery is not as atmospheric and gripping as usual for Ware, though even a lesser Ruth Ware thriller is still worth reading.
An enjoyable visit with an old character, but not one of Ware’s strongest.Pub Date: July 8, 2025
ISBN: 9781668025628
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Scout Press/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2025
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.
Two killers are on the loose. Can they be stopped?
In this ambitious mystery, the prolific and popular King tells the story of a serial murderer who pledges, in a note to Buckeye City police, to kill “13 innocents and 1 guilty,” in order, we eventually learn, to avenge the death of a man who was framed and convicted for possession of child pornography and then killed in prison. At the same time, the author weaves in the efforts of another would-be murderer, a member of a violently abortion-opposing church who has been stalking a popular feminist author and women’s rights activist on a publicity tour. To tell these twin tales of murders done and intended, King summons some familiar characters, including private investigator Holly Gibney, whom readers may recall from previous novels. Gibney is enlisted to help Buckeye City police detective Izzy Jaynes try to identify and stop the serial killer, who has been murdering random unlucky citizens with chilling efficiency. She’s also been hired as a bodyguard for author and activist Kate McKay and her young assistant. The author succeeds in grabbing the reader’s interest and holding it throughout this page-turning tale of terror, which reads like a big-screen thriller. The action is well paced, the settings are vividly drawn, and King’s choice to focus on the real and deadly dangers of extremist thought is admirable. But the book is hamstrung by cliched characters, hackneyed dialogue (both spoken and internal), and motives that feel both convoluted and overly simplistic. King shines brightest when he gets to the heart of our darkest fears and desires, but here the dangers seem a bit cerebral. In his warning letter to the police, the serial killer wonders if his cryptic rationale to murder will make sense to others, concluding, “It does to me, and that is enough.” Is it enough? In another writer’s work, it might not be, but in King’s skilled hands, it probably is.
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.Pub Date: May 27, 2025
ISBN: 9781668089330
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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