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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
a mesmerising read,
By tregatt (Portland, Oregon) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Poor Tom is Cold (Hardcover)
Although I knew from almost the very beginning that a murder had been committed and who did it, this novel still managed to captivate my attention. This is the third novel in the William Murdoch mystery series set in Victorian Toronto, and it is as riverting and as compelling as the first two books.A young constable, Oliver Wicken, is found dead on his beat, with a bullet in his head from his own gun, and a suicide note on his body. William Murdoch is asked to investigate Wicken's death; and in spite of the coroner's desire to wrap things up quickly, and Murdoch's own niggling doubts about the suicide, William Murdoch is determined to do his best find out the truth about Wicken's death. But his initial investigations only seems to confuse the issue further: Murdoch finds quite a few people that can testify that Wicken was in his usual excellent spirits; however he also finds evidence that Wicken did indeed have a sweetheart and that he did meet her on the night of his death, thus giving credence to Wicken's suicide note. In the meantime, in the house ajoining the one in which Wicken's body was found, the Eakin family are having problems of their own. Nathaniel Eakin's third wife, Peg, fears that someone in the family is trying to poison her, and has barricaded herself in her room, refusing to come out or to eat. Just as Murdoch arrives to ask if anyone in the Eakin household had seen or heard anything that might shed light on Wicken's death, Peg is being carted off to the local asylum. Little does Murdoch realise that Peg is at the center of all that is going on around her. And as each chapter ends, the suspense and the anticipation mounts: will Murdoch get to Peg before it is too late? This is a very atmospheric novel. Maureen Jennings's stark and bleak descriptions of the Canadian winter actually made me feel chilled to the bone. And the chapters where she describes the treatment that is meted out to poor Peg at the asylum is chilling and horrifying. Peg's feelings of helplesness and hopelessness are palpable to the reader, and is a testimony of Maureen Jennings's talent and art. And although this is not a conventional murder mystery -- the murderer is glaringly obvious even if his motif is not at first; also Maureen Jennings has set up the plot is such a way as to make the reader an omniscient one -- this is still a suspenseful novel. The reader is invited to eagerly read on as Murdoch follows the faint strand of evidence that leads him to all kinds of eccentric characters and all over Toronto. A mesmerising read indeed.
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Police procedural in Victorian Canada,
By
This review is from: Poor Tom is Cold (Hardcover)
Police Constable Wicken is dead--an apparent suicide. Still, Acting Detective Murdoch feels that things don't fit. Who was the woman who so conveniently testified about Wicken's broken heart? And what possible connection could Wicken's death have with the nearby home--a home where Peg Eakin has apparently taken leave of her senses in a paranoid fit?Two things make POOR TOM IS DEAD stand out from the crowd. Murdoch and the fine turn of the (previous) century detail. Murdoch is a human character, fully rendered. His toothache is a nice detail, his frustrated love for his neighbor adds both human interest and historical detail about the then-current chasm between religion and class. Author Maureen Jennings has obviously researched her history--the details of police procedure, treatment of the insane, and class/race distinctions ring true. Better, she integrates these details into her novel so subtly that I didn't feel lectured to.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very well crafted mystery,
This review is from: Poor Tom is Cold (Hardcover)
In Toronto, Patrol Sergeant Hales asks acting detective William Murdoch to see if he can find a missing officer, Oliver Wicken, who was not where he was supposed to be during the shift inspection. William, suffering from a toothache, finds a dead Oliver in an abandoned house. Oliver has a bullet wound in his head, a note implying he just lost his sweetheart, and the gun placed in a strange position on his legs. The coroner believes suicide and browbeats that idea to the juror at the death spot and the inquest. Only William, who knew Oliver and after meeting the deceased's mother, has doubts.Her husband dying, her terrorizing adult stepchildren, want Peg Eakin declared insane by Dr. Ferrier so she cannot inherit. They have her locked away in an asylum. Meanwhile William investigating the death of Oliver finds himself involved with the Eakin family as they seem to show up at every step of his inquiries, even being members of the jurors. Anyone who enjoys a rich historical fiction novel with a powerful nineteenth century police procedural as its core will want to read POOR TOM IS COLD. The story line is exciting, but what makes the novel fascinating is the descriptions of the Canadian late 1890s justice system. They are interwoven and are key elements of the plot. Maureen Jennings depicts Toronto's nineteenth century police-legal processes as a major part of a vivid tale. Harriet Klausner
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