February 2, 2009
Yesterday was Sunday, my "read a mystery all day" day, and this week I read one by an author I've never read before. The book was The Detective Wore Silk Drawers by Peter Lovesy, and is one in a series of mysteries involving Sergeant Crib. Cribb is a detective from late nineteenth century London, assigned to the newly-created Criminal Investigation Division, of Scotland Yard. In this novel Cribb finds a headless body washed up on the shore of the Thames. A close look at the body reveals it to be the corpse of a bare-knuckled fighter. But how can this be? Bare-knuckled fighting has been outlawed for years in England. Cribb uses a new investigative method -- going undercover -- to uncover an evil conspiracy of fighting promotors, utilizing the boxing skills of a young and well-born constable to go inside the training grounds of an illegal boxer-mill (and I'm not talking dogs).
The Detective Wore Silk Drawers is great fun, fast-paced and smooth, with plenty of intriguing details about nineteenth century London and its entertainments. There was no depth of character or plot but that's not to say the cast wasn't interesting nor the plot without twists: there was enough of both to hold my interest and keep me reading straight through to the finale. I learned plenty, all of it fascinating, about the predecessor to today's sport of extreme fighting, the bare-knuckled boys of Victorian England.
I will read more of Lovesy's Sergeant Cribb mysteries. I find that all book lovers -- those who read for pleasure -- like a good mystery. My favorite mystery writers are Martha Grimes, Donna Leon, Deborah Crombie, and P.D. James for serious thrills; C.J. Sansom and Barbara Cleverly for the best historical thrillers ever; and Nancy Atherton, M.C. Beaton, Dick Francis, and Aaron Elkins for fun and fast thrills.
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