Review: It was nice to read new material about Captain Lacey.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 07 5, 2011
If you are at all familiar with the Captain Gabriel Lacey series of historical mysteries written by Ashley Gardner, you can't help but be glad to see this novella made available on Kindle.  If this is your first venture into the London of 1817 for this cast of characters, you will be in for an extremely good representation of the full length novels.This story takes place about a month after Lacey has successfully concludedThe Sudbury School Murders (Captain Lacey Regency Mysteries), book four in the series.  Lacy is attending a party to celebrate the complete recovery from a wound sustained by his patron and close friend Lucius Grenville when the size and enthusiasms of the crowd drive him to seek solitude in Grenville's private room.  There Lacey encounters a weeping lady who tells him her sad tale of how her maid has been arrested for the theft of her diamond necklace and it appears that she will be convicted and hanged.  Captain Lacey is, after all, really quite a softie at heart and he agrees to help Lady Clifford.This is an excellent novella which manages, in the short time available to it, to place almost all the continuing characters from the full length novels into this puzzle.  The writing was very good and very representative of why I have enjoyed all six of the novels in the series even though they have varied somewhat in strength.  I did think that the solution to the theft was a little weak and I would have liked something more substantial for what happened with the necklace.The last book in this series was published first in 2006, so it has been a long dry spell with nothing new about Lacey and his friends and adversaries.  I understand that a new title in the Captain Lacey series will be released soon.  I'm definitely looking forward to that.