Review:- DAVID DICKINSON – “Death in a Scarlet Coat ”

Year Published: - 2011
Where the book was from:- Pensby Library
ISBN: - 978-1-84901-459-5
Pages: - 342pp
Genre: - Historical crime
Location:- English counties, 1909
How I came across it: - Trying to catch up with this series
Rating: - ***** ****

One sentence summary:- Lord Powerscourt investigates the mysterious death of aster of the Hunt, Lord Candlesby, who arrived at the opening hunt of the season as a corpse draped across the back of his horse.

Describe the plot without giving anything away:- When Lord Candlesby arrives at the Hunt meeting dead only three people see the body and to avoid fuss the doctor is pressured into declaring it to be death by natural causes. In practice his death is caused by something far from natural and identifying what killed him is almost as hard as finding out whodunit. The Earl had so many enemies that Powerscourt is spoiled for choice when he is asked to start investigating.

General comments:- I think David Dickinson’s Powerscourt series is among the best historical fiction I have read. Whilst this was not the best of the series – and the culprit slightly predictable – it was nevertheless a most enjoyable read.

I am surprised that I have only read one of the Lord Francis Powerscourt Series since I started this blog – Death on a Holy Mountain. Prior to that I had read
1. Goodnight, Sweet Prince (2002)
3. Death of an Old Master (2004)
4. Death of a Chancellor (2004)
5. Death Called to the Bar (2006)
I therefore want to read -
2. Death and the Jubilee (2002)
6. Death on the Nevskii Prospekt (2006)
8. Death of a Pilgrim (2009)
9. Death of a Wine Merchant (2010)

Quotations:
Youth is always at a premium in the House of Lords. You know, people who can stand up unaided, walk without sticks, eat with their own teeth, that sort of thing.

Then he noticed that Disraeli had written some novels. That put a black mark against him in Richard’s book. Men should not write such things. If they had to be written, surely it was a job for a woman. Far better that they should not be written at all.

After a couple of days Lady Lucy would ask them about the men they had loved, the men they had married, the men they wished they had married, the men they wished they had never seen.

AUTHOR Notes:- see Death on a Holy Mountain