{"id":4526,"date":"2022-08-22T06:50:15","date_gmt":"2022-08-22T13:50:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=4526"},"modified":"2022-08-22T06:50:15","modified_gmt":"2022-08-22T13:50:15","slug":"vanessa-riley-murder-in-westminster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/vanessa-riley-murder-in-westminster\/","title":{"rendered":"Vanessa Riley: Murder in Westminster"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Sometimes all it takes is a small change in point of view to make a huge difference.\u00a0 Vanessa Riley\u2019s lively historical mystery set in 1806 London sets itself apart from the several other Regency historicals out there at the moment, simply by creating a black main character.\u00a0 At the time the black population in London numbered up to 20,000, out of a population of about one million.\u00a0 They were referred to as Blackamoors and included Africans and East and West Indians.\u00a0 (Riley\u2019s notes at the back of the book are invaluable.)<\/p>\n

Her main character is Lady Abigail Worthing, a young Blackamoor married to a naval officer.\u00a0 Through her marriage she saved her family from debt, but in the process became estranged from her sister.\u00a0 Her husband is rarely home (not at all in this novel, but I\u2019m thinking he might appear in future installments), so when her neighbor\u2019s wife is discovered murdered in their mutual back yard, she is forced to deal with it alone.\u00a0 She and the neighbor have a prickly relationship, but they give each other a mutual alibi and spend the rest of the novel becoming more comfortable with one another, while solving the crime.<\/p>\n

1806 is a very specific year.\u00a0 Abigail is a fierce advocate of abolition (unsurprisingly) but in 1806, black rule in Haiti had temporarily stopped all abolitionist efforts. One thread of the novel finds Abigail attempting to connect with William Wilberforce, a well-known abolitionist, and often failing for one reason or another.\u00a0 I am thinking this thread may also be picked up in future novels. The other recurring thread was Abigail\u2019s search for her sister.\u00a0 I am hoping that one will also be picked up in the future.<\/p>\n

Abigail\u2019s personal journey find her mostly occupied with her neighbor\u2019s murder, however, and the investigation takes her further into the woman\u2019s backstory and connections.\u00a0 The investigation is carried out with the help of her well-placed godfather, who helps her with background research; her friend and cousin, Florentina, and the official investigator, Lord Duncan.\u00a0 Because Abigail has helped him in the past on some minor crimes, he is willing to listen to her.<\/p>\n

Abigail has a smattering of her mother\u2019s gift of second sight and another smattering of plain old intelligence that allows her to analyze events and evaluate them clearly.\u00a0 In short, she\u2019s a perfect detective.\u00a0 Even though she is a woman of color, she is also a woman of means married to a naval hero, so she can access most places and speak to the people she needs to speak to.<\/p>\n

Riley\u2019s storytelling gift is strong and her prose is lovely and evocative.\u00a0 She made me see 1806 London in an entirely new way \u2013 I\u2019m a fan of Jane Austen as well as Dianne Freeman and many others \u2013 but she gave me the gift of an expanded perspective, along with a really well told mystery.\u00a0 The denouement is particularly clever and includes both grim irony and a dandy twist.\u00a0 I\u2019m hoping this will be a long-lived series and that I can visit with Lady Abigail again soon.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sometimes all it takes is a small change in point of view to make a huge difference.\u00a0 Vanessa Riley\u2019s lively historical mystery set in 1806 London sets itself apart from the several other Regency historicals out there at the moment, simply by creating a black main character.\u00a0 At the time the black population in London … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[887,891,892,10,162,893,889,888,890],"class_list":["post-4526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-1806-london","tag-abolitionist","tag-cranky-neighbor","tag-historical","tag-kensington-books","tag-lady-abigail-worthing","tag-murder-in-westminster","tag-vanessa-riley","tag-william-wilberforce"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4526"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4526\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4558,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4526\/revisions\/4558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}