Customer Reviews

Death in the Peerless Pool

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It's unfortunate that Amazon has the wrong image posted, but this review is for Deryn Lake's "Death in the Peerless Pool."

First Sentence: `Last one in is an oaf, called Samuel cheerfully, and breaking into a sprint dived into the Peerless Pool, sending up a vast spout of water which cascaded back on to the tranquil surface with the bright abandon of a royal firework.

On a hot summer day in London, Apothecary John Rawlins and his friend, Summers, join others for a swim in Peerless Pool. To their shock, they find the body of a woman who had been severely beaten, chained, weighted down and tossed into the pool to drown. Sir John Fielding, head of the Bow Street Runners, asks for Rawlins help to find the killer. What they don't expect is for the trail to take him to a lunatic asylum, among the beau monde of Bath, and on the trail of someone who has been stealing children.

I so enjoyed Bruce Alexander's series and was saddened when it ended with his passing. Now I have found Deryn Lake and John Rawlins, a character inspired by the real-life detective to invented carbonated water in England. Lake's attention to period detail is meticulous and yet, sadly, the plot is very current. The author plays a bit with the reader in that several of the characters know of an important clue but the reader is given time to either remember it, go back and find it or wait; fortunately, not to long, for it to be revealed. The story is not action driven, but involves you with the plot, period and the characters. I really want to start this series at the beginning. Highly recommended.

Deryn Lake is a pseudonym of a well know historical novelist. Among the books she has written are the popular John Rawlings Mysteries, Death on the Romney Marsh, Death at the Apothecaries' Hall, Death at the Devil's Tavern and others. As all her titles are preceded by the word death, this is a pretty good indication regarding the contents of the books and very good historical murder mysteries they are. `Deryn Lake' live near Hastings, in East Sussex

For those who read Deryn Lake's excellent Georgian mysteries the character of John Rawlings is now an old and trusted friend and the author's clean writing style makes the pages fly by. The books are good, well researched historical murder mysteries, they are what they are and do not pretend to be anything else. Good escapism for the reader, away from the bumps and grinds of everyday life.

The John Rawlings books that pair the young London apothecary with older and wiser John Fielding, the magistrate, better known as the Blind Beak are becoming more and more popular. John Rawlings is spending less and less time at his apothecary shop and more and more time helping John Rawlings solve some of the crimes that a large city such as London attracts. The discovery of a body in a popular bathing area, sees Rawlings once more using his powers of deduction in an attempt to bring the perpatrator to justice at the end of the hangman's rope.