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The Sculthorpe Murder The Detective Lavender Mysteries Book 3 edition by Karen Charlton Literature Fiction eBooks

Download As PDF : The Sculthorpe Murder The Detective Lavender Mysteries Book 3 edition by Karen Charlton Literature Fiction eBooks

The Sculthorpe Murder The Detective Lavender Mysteries Book 3 edition by Karen Charlton Literature Fiction eBooks

Historical fiction with real life characters, real life events. and many surprises along the way.
Ms. Charlton admits to manipulation of time in order to have certain people or events in her novels but this only enhances the experience.
I would highly recommend this novel to anyone interested in the operating of police officers & how the Bow Street Runners of London accomplished the goals of justice.


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The Sculthorpe Murder The Detective Lavender Mysteries Book 3 edition by Karen Charlton Literature Fiction eBooks Reviews

What an excellent thriller! This series is actually based on a real person and his cases during his career at Bow Street. Yes, there is some poetic license taken, but the bones of the case, the methods used, etc. are true to the actual cases. This specific case is loosely based on a case in 1818 when a gang of robbers burst into the home of elderly William Sculthorpe and robbed and viciously assaulted him and his son. The real Stephen Lavender was called to investigate the attack.

You won't believe how many scallywags there are in this one small little town -- including the victim himself! There are lots of twists and turns and red herrings thrown at you, but if you pay attention as you read, you can figure out who the bad guys are, but it is always interesting to see how Lavender catches them.

His moral dilemmas at the end are interesting. Lavender is a bit of a nerd -- very cerebral and doesn't interact really well with people, so you could see him going either way on those. You're pretty sure which way he'll end up going, but -- well -- it could be either way.

I like the Lavender/Woods relationship. Woods is a very affable, good natured man and makes Lavender a little more human.

Anyway -- they are good books and I'm looking forward to the next one. BTW -- I got this one for my e-reader and got the Whispersync to go with it -- so, I could read when I wanted and listen when I wanted. I really like that technology!
Charlton's historical mystery series featuring Detective Lavender and Constable Woods is set in the early 1800s in England and is a very good addition to the genre. Lavender and Woods are both interesting characters and work together well to solve the mysteries they investigate. In this novel, they are called to a small village to look into the murder of an 86 year old man, who lived alone with his son. Billy, the son, has what we know today as Down's Syndrome, but in the period the book takes place, is viewed much differently. The local constables blame a notorious gang of five thugs, who have been terrorizing the area, but Lavender is not so sure. What they discover about the victim and a number of people who live in the village is disturbing, shocking. Charlton does a great deal of research for her books and provides plenty of accurate details. She based the plot loosely on an actual incident she read about in the papers of the era. Woods faces an interesting and emotional personal discovery that affects the nightmares from which he suffers, and Lavender makes decisions based upon what he feels is the right thing to do, even considering his devotion to the law. Good writing, a carefully developed plot that touches on issues that are pertinent in the present, surprising developments, and fascinating historical detail make this a fine edition to the series and well worth reading.
Disclaimer I received a download of this book as a Goodreads giveaway for the purpose of writing this review. No other compensation was offered or requested.

The Sculthorpe Murder

The year is 1810, and Bow Street Runner Detective Stephen Lavender has been called from his native London to Northamptonshire. It seems that an elderly man, William Sculthorpe, has been robbed and murdered. The most likely suspects are a gang known as the Panthers, whom the local authorities have been unable to put their hands upon. But when Lavender and his friend Horse Constable Ned Woods investigate at the request of a wealthy noblewoman, they find clues that suggest otherwise. Most notably, the testimony of Sculthorpe’s son Billy who actually saw the murderers. But he’s an unreliable witness who talks about “dark elves”, so has been mostly ignored.

This is the third Detective Lavender mystery, and I have not read the previous volumes. According to the author’s notes, her main character is loosely based on the life and activities of a real Stephen Lavender, who was an officer of the Bow Street magistrates. Likewise, this book’s case is based on one Mr. Lavender actually solved, though Ms. Charlton took liberties with even the bare bones account provided by historical records.

Billy Sculthorpe has Down syndrome (called “cretinism” in the story because Dr. Down hadn’t even been born yet, let alone started studying the condition.) Lavender quickly realizes that despite his moderate mental disability, and a vivid imagination fed by spooky stories his recently deceased Mum had told him, Billy is a talented artist and has a good memory. Billy’s testimony leads the detectives to discover clues about William Sculthorpe’s actual past and other possible motivations for his murder.

The sleepy village of Middleton and its surroundings turn out to have many dark secrets that get turned up by the murder investigation, multiplying the number of suspects. There are even ties back to London, which allows Lavender’s love interest Magdalena and other city-bound characters to make an appearance. Meanwhile, Constable Woods finds his own past catching up with him.

As often happens with historical mysteries, Stephen Lavender as the protagonist is perhaps just a little too enlightened for the times he’s living in, believing in religious tolerance and treating the women in his life with respect for their intelligence and opinions. Woods is a bit more believable as a person of the early Nineteenth Century, but not so much so as to make him unsympathetic.

I found the solution to the mystery satisfying; genre-savvy readers will spot one of the murderers very early on, and clues as to how it was done are abundant. Much of the last part of the book is Detective Lavender negotiating just how many of the crimes he’s uncovered must come to light, and which must face justice of a more subtle sort.

Possible trigger issues There’s some discussion of spousal abuse and animal abuse in the backstory, including the fact that it was even more difficult to get out of an abusive marriage in the Eighteenth Century than it is today. There are some slurs hurled by less sympathetic characters towards Billy because of his condition, a bit of slut-shaming, and anti-Catholic slurs.

Recommended to fans of the historical mystery sub-genre.

For more mystery reviews, see my blog at[...]
Historical fiction with real life characters, real life events. and many surprises along the way.
Ms. Charlton admits to manipulation of time in order to have certain people or events in her novels but this only enhances the experience.
I would highly recommend this novel to anyone interested in the operating of police officers & how the Bow Street Runners of London accomplished the goals of justice.