Andrea Penrose: Murder at Somerset House
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.