Review:- David DICKINSON – “Death and the Jubilee ”

Year Published: - 2003
Where the book was from:- My own copy
ISBN: - 1-84119-584-7
Pages: - 344pp
Genre: - Historical Fiction
Location:- Victorian England – 1896/7
How I came across it: - Bought it so as to read all the series
Rating: - ***** ***

One sentence summary:- The second of the Lord Francis Powerscourt novels and a rattling good cosy historical crime.

Describe the plot without giving anything away:- London is preparing for Victoria’s Jubilee but the Germans are and Irish are planning surprises. When a headless corpse is discovered in the Thames Lord Francis Powerscourt is called in to investigate in this second novel of the series.

General comments:- A fairly standard and slightly predictable Powerscourt mystery but it would probably have been better if I had read the series in order.

Quotations:- There is a lovely line which laughs at modern government policy – bearing in mind it was written in 2003 or earlier, before the government rescue of RBS etc. – it is the PM speaking:
“It is not and cannot be the business of government to bail out financial concerns whose imprudence or wickedness has left them unable to meet their obligations. I do not need to tell you, Rosebery, the outcry that would erupt in the House of Commons if members felt that taxpayers’ money was being used for these purposes.’

AUTHOR Notes:- David Dickinson was born in Dublin. After receiving a first class honours degree in Classics from Cambridge he joined the BBC where he became editor of Newsnight and Panorama as well as being series editor on Monarchy, a three part programme on the current state and future prospects of the British royal family. David now lives in Barnes, South West London, Somerset or France according to which source you read!

Review:- David DICKINSON – “Death on the Nevskii Prospekt”

Year Published: - 2006
Where the book was from:- Pensby Library
ISBN: - 9781845296711
Pages: - -pp
Genre: - Historical Crime
Location:- St Petersburg 1906
How I came across it: - Continuing the series
Rating: - ***** ****

One sentence summary:- Another in the fine Dickinson tradition of mixing the real atmosphere of the place and time with a rollicking good mystery.


Describe the plot without giving anything away:- Lord Francis Powerscourt has been retired for a while at the request of Lady Lucy who wasn't happy seeing him so nearly killed last time out. He needs no coaxing out of his retirement once Lady Lucy is convinced of the error of her weays and Powerscourt heads for St. Petersburg, where a British diplomat has been discovered dead on a bridge spanning Nevskii Prospekt. It would seem the man knew a secret — and it proved fatal. As Powerscourt paces the Winter Palace and ponders the mystery, other matters press in on him. With Russia on the brink of revolution, he must make his escape, before time runs out on him too.

General comments:- The sixth in the series. I am currently reading Death of a Pilgrim and then only have Death of a Wine Merchant and Death and the Jubilee to read. I’ve ordered these two from Abebooks having been unable to get Death and the Jubilee via the library.

Quotations:- (Took back to library before remembering to copy them out)

AUTHOR Notes:- see Death on a Holy Mountain

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

Review:- David DICKINSON – “Death on the Holy Mountain”

Year Published: - 2008
Where the book was from:- Pensby Library
ISBN: - 9781845296032
Pages: - 312pp
Genre: - Historical Crime
Location:- Ireland, 1905
How I came across it: - Serendipity
Rating: - ***** *****
One sentence summary:- In 1905, Lord Francis Powerscourt investigates a series of art thefts from stately homes of the Protestant gentry in Ireland.

Describe the plot without giving anything away:- Powerscourt’s investigation is hampered by the fact that none of the gentry will reveal the contents of the blackmail notes he assumes they have received. Meanwhile, some local folk are building an oratory on the top of Croagh Patrick – hopefully in time for the annual pilgrimage to the summit. With his friend Johnny Fitzgerald Powerscourt slowly closes in but discover that their own patriotism is called into question.

General comments:- Humour, excellent writing, a wonderful summary of the Irish question and a cosy crime plot to boot – what more could one ask for from a book?

Lord Francis Powerscourt Series
1. Goodnight, Sweet Prince (2002)
2. Death and the Jubilee (2002)
3. Death of an Old Master (2004)
4. Death of a Chancellor (2004)
5. Death Called to the Bar (2006)
6. Death on the Nevskii Prospekt (2006)
7. Death On the Holy Mountain (2008)
8. Death of a Pilgrim (2009)
9. Death of a Wine Merchant (2010)
10. Death in a Scarlet Coat (2011)

Quotations:
And he knew that one of the many divisions into which the world’s population was split – those who can whistle and those who can’t, those who adore Venice and those who complain about the smell, those who can order drinks in theatre bars at the interval and those who can’t – was the distinction between those who can unwrap parcels neatly and those who can’t. Powerscourt knew his wife Lucy would have the thing open, the string tied neatly in a ball, the box itself virtually intact and the available for reuse in a minute or two.


He looked around the library once more, filled with words, millions of them. the most dangerous word in Ireland, he decided, inspecting critically a section devoted to theological works, was God. God or [perhaps Nation. On balance, he thought, God had it.


... genteel poverty, eking out the tea leaves for another afternoon, water the only drink in the house apart from the cheap whiskey which her father consumed to ease his sorrows. Even then he diluted it so heavily that the taste of the whiskey was like a noise heard far away, remote and distant as though a visitor was tiptoeing away from your house in the dark.


“No pain, no poem. I’ve never had much to do with the women myself,” he admitted, “too temperamental for me, but I’ve always understood that the one thing they’re good for is a bit of inspiration for the poetry writing classes when the normal things like drink have failed.”


“Too much history, that’s the trouble with Ireland,” said Powerscourt. “Pity you can’t sell bits of it off to some of these new places where they haven’t got any at all.”

AUTHOR Notes:- David Dickinson was born in Dublin. After receiving a first class honours degree in Classics from Cambridge he joined the BBC where he became editor of Newsnight and Panorama as well as being series editor on Monarchy, a three part programme on the current state and future prospects of the British royal family. David now lives in Barnes, South West London, Somerset or France accortding to which source you read!