Wrexford & Sloane #9
Murder at Somerset House is the ninth book in Andrea Penrose’s Regency mystery series featuring the Earl of Wrexford, a chemist and amateur detective, and his wife Charlotte Sloane, who, under the pseudonym A.J. Quill, is England’s most famous political cartoonist. It is an attraction of opposites: scientist and artist. Wrexford uses logic and the scientific method to solve crimes, while Charlotte uses intuition and her artist’s eye. Gradually, though, they learn the value of the other’s method and will occasionally adopt it when confronted with a crime. One of the strengths of this series, besides the central couple’s developing relationship, is that each book deals with a different aspect of Regency science and technology, or inventions that were originally thought of during the Regency period, but not developed until later. Recent books have covered such topics as steamships, locomotives, and suspension bridges. In this book, the development of an electrical telegraph (not fully realized until 1838), is central to the plot.
In addition to the two very strong leading characters of Wrexford and Charlotte, their friends and extended family members play important roles in the series. These include, most of all, three mischievous boys, known collectively as the Weasels, who are the couple’s wards: Raven and Hawk, two former street urchins, and Peregrine, a boy of mixed race who is the heir to an earldom and whose nearest relative rejects him because his mother was of African descent. The boys have numerous adventures throughout the series and help Wrexford and Charlotte solve crimes. Another couple, Sheffield and his wife Cordelia, are good friends to Wrexford and Charlotte. Sheffield is an investor in a shipping company, and Cordelia is a mathematician who tutors Raven and encourages his talent for mathematics. Other regulars in the series are Charlotte’s aunt Alison, a formidable elderly lady, Basil Henning, a surgeon who is often called upon to perform autopsies of murder victims, and two servants, the cook/housekeeper McClellan and Wrexford’s valet and laboratory assistant Tyler.
This book takes place in 1815 and begins shortly before Napoleon’s escape from Elba. Wrexford and Charlotte are enjoying a quiet life for once, and are relieved that the war is over, or so they think. Then a scientist and member of the Royal Society, Boyleston, is murdered at the Society’s headquarters at Somerset House shortly after a contentious meeting where he is accused of collaborating with French scientists when the countries were still at war. Boyleston was about to demonstrate his latest invention, which was rumored to be an electrical telegraph. Wrexford agrees to investigate the murder when a relative of one of his friends is arrested, and Wrexford is certain the man is innocent.
Shortly afterwards, a government agent, Pierson, who has worked with Wrexford on previous cases–the two of them maintain an uneasy relationship–warns him off of investigating the murder. He knows the man who was arrested is innocent, but it turns out the murder itself was a red herring to distract from what is really going on: a French plot against England, which involves the financial market and hinges on whether or not the French have developed an electrical telegraph. Such an invention would revolutionize the world and would give the nation possessing it a huge advantage in war, enabling people to send and receive messages on the battlefield almost instantaneously.
Wrexford’s new assignment is to look for potential French operatives in London and to discover whether or not the French have, in fact, developed an electrical telegraph. One of the prime suspects is a French artist who Charlotte meets at a reception, but then she sees him and another Frenchman get murdered by a third man, with a French accent, who keeps his face covered and runs away from the scene. The Weasels do some investigating on their own, in a warehouse near the scene of Boyleston’s murder, when a man shoots at Raven. Luckily, the boy is unhurt, but the shooter matches the description of the man who killed the two Frenchmen. Raven also notices financial papers on a desk in the warehouse.
The news of Napoleon’s escape from Elba, and with it the renewal of war, turns the characters’ lives upside down. It turns out the French spy and the electrical telegraph are parts of a much deeper plot: a scheme to bring down the financial market and ruin England’s economy before the government can raise a loan to finance an army to fight Napoleon. There are hints that a high-ranking government official may be a traitor. Sheffield and Cordelia are acquainted with the financial genius David Ricardo and they, along with Raven, who goes undercover as a messenger boy at the London Stock Exchange, help him rescue England’s economy from disaster. Along the way, we learn how the stock exchange worked. Penrose’s descriptions are great, and even those of us who don’t know much about finance will be able to follow along and at least understand the basics of a very complex system.
While all these various plots are happening, involving murder, espionage, war, and potential financial disaster, a shattering discovery is made about Wrexford’s own family. In the previous book, a German gentleman named von Münch, who helped Wrexford in previous cases, even though Wrexford doesn’t completely trust him, hinted that Wrexford’s father had a mistress, but wouldn’t explain any more. Now it turns out the rumors were true, and a girl named Eddy, who prefers to dress as a boy, shows up at Wrexford’s house along with her governess. Eddy is Wrexford’s sister, the daughter of his father and his mistress, an Irish horse trainer who died at sea, leaving the girl orphaned. Now the governess is too ill to take care of Eddy, so Wrexford and Charlotte agree to take her in.
Eddy has an uncanny ability to communicate with animals. Wrexford, with his scientific mind, is skeptical about her ability, which tastes of mysticism, at first, but he cannot deny that she is the only one besides him who can ride his spirited stallion. Also, she raises messenger pigeons on the roof of the house and–not to give away too much–the pigeons will play a role in the battle to come. Eddy is a delightful character, and there is a hint of a future mystery, about finding the proof that her mother and Wrexford’s father were secretly married after the death of Wrexford’s mother. The governess insists they were married, but the marriage document was destroyed in the shipwreck that killed Eddy’s mother. There might be further proof in France, and I have a feeling that, when the war is finally over, Wrexford and Charlotte will be going there to look for it.
Hawk and Peregrine are welcoming to the newest member of the family, but Raven has a hard time adjusting to Eddy’s presence, and he spends most of his time with Sheffield and Cordelia and, later, with Ricardo at the Stock Exchange. I love the way Penrose writes about Raven’s gradual acceptance of Eddy as part of the family. Now there are four Weasels, one of them a girl, and I am looking forward to seeing what kinds of adventures they will have in future books.
I highly recommend the whole series. It is one of my favorite Regency mystery series, along with Darcie Wilde, Celeste Connally, and another author, Katharine Schellman, who I don’t think I’ve reviewed for Aunt Agatha’s before. Like Penrose with Peregrine, Schellman includes characters of mixed race and shows how they were discriminated against. Another aspect of Penrose’s series that I love is the way she includes actual historical figures, but not as the main characters, and incorporates them into the mystery. In this novel, I have already mentioned David Ricardo, who plays the largest role among the real people, but we also meet scientists Michael Faraday and Francis Ronalds, as well as author Jane Marcet, who wrote books explaining science to general readers, including women. I think it’s best to begin with the first book in Penrose’s series to see how Wrexford’s and Charlotte’s relationship develops, and how the Weasels become part of the family. But each book stands alone, and this one certainly could be read on its own. I hope Wrexford and Charlotte have many more adventures ahead. — Vicki Kondelik