Book blurb:  London, 1812. At a fashionable address in leafy Mayfair, a far cry from Detective Stephen Lavender’s usual haunts, a man is found dead in his room. He has been brutally stabbed, but the door is locked from the inside and the weapon is missing.

The deceased is David MacAdam, an Essex businessman with expensive tastes. As Lavender and Constable Ned Woods travel between London and Chelmsford seeking to understand MacAdam’s final hours and unearth the grisly truth, they uncover a tangled web of deceit behind his stylish facade. The unusual circumstances of MacAdam’s death are nothing compared to the shady nature of his life and it seems the house on Park Lane is at the heart of a dark conspiracy.

But when a second body turns up, everything they think they’ve learned is thrown into doubt. Can Lavender and Woods find out who’s behind these shocking murders before more lives are ruined?

Barbara’s rating: 5 of 5 stars

Series: Detective Lavender #5
Publication Date: 2/12/19
Number of Pages: 313

This series just keeps getting better and better. The characters are wonderful, the writing is outstanding and the plots keep you guessing to the very end! You can read this as a stand-alone, but to appreciate the full richness of the characters and their relationships, you really need to begin at the beginning.

Stephen Lavender is a Principal Officer at Bow Street and he works with Constable Ned Woods in his investigations. Sir Richard Allison is a renowned physician who works with Bow Street on occasion. He is arrogant and expects to be treated like royalty whenever he deigns to work with Bow Street. So, imagine Lavender’s shock when Sir Richard requests his assistance on a case. It is right down Lavender’s alley. The victim, David MacAdam, was found in a room that was locked from the inside, the window was warped and couldn’t be opened and there were no other possible points of entry. It couldn’t be suicide because there was no murder weapon to be found.

Suspects abound and the victim isn’t what he appears to be. None of the witnesses are telling the truth – some are outright lying and others are omitting vital pieces of information. Lavender definitely has his work cut out for him with this one.

When a second victim turns up, it complicates the case even further. Of course, there are personal worries and complications as well – Lavender is awaiting the birth of his first child and Ned is concerned about his weight and takes extreme measures to fix it.

The suspects will blow your mind – you have everything from aristocrats to con artists to loan sharks. What they get up to will keep you flipping the pages as fast as you can to see what happens next.

Definitely a good read!

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