Review: Jolly well done first book
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 1, 2013
As an aficionado of period mysteries, Sherlock Holmes and Charles Dickens, this book gratified on several levels.As is my wont, I do not often read synopses until I finish a book thus was surprised to see the book noted as being set in 1868 ---insofar as I could tell, my copy did not bear any year reference---I had to puzzle out the timeframe, figuring out that because of a reference to "A Tale of Two Cities" it at least was set after that book's  publication in 1859.I liked both Inspector Drewes and Constable Withers and found their characters well-defined; the psychological assessments and dry humor came across appropriately.There were a handful of minor typos (fine for find,"when did he been a customer," and the occasional missing letter or word but no particularly egregious errors.The story involved an extremely convoluted plot which allowed the reader to make educated guesses about certain aspects but not in regard to some of the more complicated situational developments.