num_pages: 339
description: Julian Kestrel is the reigning dandy of 1820s London, famous for elegant clothes and unflappable sangfroid. One night he rescues a young aristocrat named Hugh Fontclair from a gambling house, and in gratitude Hugh invites him to be best man at his wedding. But when Kestrel goes to stay with the Fontclairs at their sumptuous country house, he is caught in the crossfire of the bride's and groom's warring families. Soon, discord erupts into murder. In a world without fingerprinting, chemical analysis, or even police, murder poses a baffling challenge. Undaunted, Kestrel sets out to solve the crime. With the help of his Cockney manservant, Dipper a (mostly) reformed pickpocket, Kestrel delves beneath the Fontclairs' respectable surface. What he finds is a trail of crime, deception, and forbidden lust that leads him at last to the killer.
language: English
title: Cut to the Quick
titlecomplete: Cut to the Quick (Julian Kestrel Mysteries, #1)
genres: Fiction, Historical, Mystery, British Literature, Mystery Thriller, Historical Mystery, Regency, 19th Century, Historical Fiction, Crime
ratings_count: 4189
series: Julian Kestrel Mysteries
publisher: Penguin