Customer Reviews

Rules of Engagement: A Sir John Fielding Mystery

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

In 1775 a saddened Lord Chief Justice William Murray asks a favor of Sir John Fielding, the magistrate of the Bow St. Court. William explains to John and his clerk Jeremy Proctor how Lord Francis Talley died. The aristocrat was completing work on a bill to blockade the four biggest American ports so the economic consequences will put an end to the Adams' nonsense when he left his office to take a walk. Halfway across the Westminster Bridge he suddenly leaped into the Thames; several witnesses willingly testified to that account of the suicide. William wonders why. John agrees to make discrete inquiries to learn what motivated Francis to kill himself.

John and Jeremy soon learn that Dr. Goldsworthy, is a newcomer in town whose patron is the widow of William's clerk. This leads the sleuths to wonder who would gain most by Lord Francis dying and soon realize that no member of the dysfunctional Lammermoor family grieves and some act euphoric celebrating the death of its patriarch Lord Francis.

Though the great mystery author Bruce Alexander passed away, his fans (including this reviewer) still have a treat as his wife and John Shannon completed his last Sir John novel and no one will know who wrote which part. The story line is fabulous as Jeremy is a sort of Watson looking back from near the end of the century writing about his salad days as a clerk sleuthing for his employer and mentor. Sir John and Jeremy remain true to their personalities from previous tales and the mystery of Lord Francis' death is cleverly designed. RULES OF ENGAGEMENT is a wonderful homage to a notable writer.

Harriet Klausner

Reading this book felt a little like watching the last episode of Cheers. I tried to savor every last word, knowing that there would be no more. I'm sorry we'll never learn what happens to Sir John and his court, or find out how Jeremy Proctor's life will turn out, or how Annie's acting career plays, or what happens to the Donnellys when they return to Ireland. It's hard to believe their lives won't go on somewhere. This series was such a delight.

Sadly, Bruce Alexander passed on before the final edit of this book, but his wife aided in its completion. Alexander's writing had an intellect and elegance I have so enjoyed. This is not fast paced suspense and I knew who was behind the death, but that did not diminish my enjoyment. It is a clever puzzle I enjoyed watching unfold, the sense of time and place is exceptional, and I appreciated that there was a resolution of the main characters. I very much enjoyed this book and series, and shall miss Mr. Alexander's lovely writing.

This was one of the great series of historical detective fiction. The author's writing style perfectly depicted late 18th Century England, and the mysteries themselves were always suspenseful, fun and perfectly plotted. While this one was not quite up to the earlier ones, and it really was evident that others were involved in the writing, it still merits 5 stars because it was truly a great end for characters who really began to seem like old friends. Even though the author wrote many other types of work, he will clearly live on in the readers' minds for this wonderful series.

Reading Bruce Alexander's "Rules of Engagement" truly was a very bittersweet experience for me: I was sad that this was, definitely, the very last Sir John Fielding/Jeremy Proctor mystery novelthat I would ever read, but I was pleased that I had at least this last enjoyable and absorbing installment in this series to enjoy. And on the whole, I had a very pleasurable experience.

The Lord Chief Justice, William Murray, the Earl of Mansfield, does not always turn to Sir John Fielding, the blind justice of Bow Street for help. But when Mansfield's old school friend, Lord Lammermoor, throws himself off Westminister Bridge in front of a host of witnesses (including his current mistress and Sir John's ex-cook, actress Annie Oakum) and plunges to his death, Mansfield's perturbed. Nothing about Lammermoor's private or public life gives a hint as to why Lammermoor would seek to end his life. And fearful that his friend will be condemned as a suicide and suspecting that there was something dark about his friend's death, Mansfield begs Sir John to investigate. And even though the coroner has ruled Lammermoor's death as 'death by misadventure,' several strange instances about what happened on the bridge gives Sir John pause -- like who was the mysterious, heavily cloaked man who briefly spoke to Lammermoor as he passed him? what did he say? and why did Lammermoor climb onto the railing and flap his arms before he threw himself off the bridge? Sir John suspects something dark and sinister is at the root of Lammermoor's death, but it is only when he goes to a demonstration of animal magnetism give by Dr. Goldsworthy, a student of Dr. Anton Mesmer, that he begins to get a notion as to what may have happened. And together with the help of his able assistant, Jeremy Proctor, Sir John is determined to bring the murderers of Lord Lammermoor to justice, in spite of the danger involved...

"Rules of Engagement" was a thoroughly enjoyable read, even if it was a rather easy puzzle to figure out. But I did enjoy it enormously, savouring every word, phrase and plot twist. It was well written, evenly paced and full of period detail, thus making for a very vivid and colourful read. I also liked how things were tied up, and the book ended with Jeremy's and Clarissa's marriage, and the intimation that Jeremy was now ready to begin his own law practice. "Rules of Engagement" may not be the most perplexing mystery read of the year, but it definitely was an enjoyable and engaging read, and I for one am going to miss the fact that there will no longer be any more Sir John Fielding/Jeremy Proctor mystery novels. With this series, Bruce Alexander created something special that will definitely stand the test of time and that will always be remembered as one of the better historical mystery series ever created.

The good news is that 85% of the book is high quality Bruce Alexander. It's a great story, superbly told. The bad news is that the last 15% is obviously the inferior product of a couple of stumbling amateur authors. But as bad as the last part is, a Bruce Alexander fan will still relish this book since most of it is so good - plotting, atmosphere, character development, writing technique. Don't pass it by!

I've been a fan of "Sir John Fielding" - the Blind Beak of London - and his biographer Jeremy, his ward, since I first read Alexander's "Blind Justice."

Set in the late 18th Century, before war broke out between England and the American Colonies, Alexander not only gave me wonderfully entertaining mysteries, but painted the period and intrique of the political microcosm in London's justice system.

When Alexander died (a pen name) last year, I felt I had lost a friend as well as an author I adored. Then a last manuscript was found and published, and though not as good as some of his other books, helped tie up some loose ends, gave some insight into Anton Mesmer, and gave me one final good read.

I shall miss him and his writing.

Having just finished this final installment in the Sir John Fielding 18th century London series, I have to agree with most other reviewers that this was a very disappointing attempt to complete a story only partially written by the series author before he died. It is clear that the author's enjoyable and gifted writing style stops mid-way through the book. Someone else suggested that the first nine chapters were from the series author's pen, but in my estimation it's clear that he wrote only the first seven chapters in total. Some small sections of the remaining five chapters may have been from his hand, but largely those chapters lacked the detail and clarity of events and locations we've come to appreciate. Even some of the exchanges between main characters were utterly confusing (almost nonsensical at times) and totally unlike the behavior of the beloved characters we've come to know. The plot seemed to hurry to its conclusion as events were poorly described.

Having said this, the story was one of the best in the series through chapter seven, and the final pages did at least suggest the future of some of the main characters. It's still worth reading in order to complete the series, although you may find yourself hurrying through the inferior final half of the story.

This historical mystery series has been my favorite, after 30 years of reading the genre. Yes, there were a few gaps here and there toward the end of the book, but they did not diminish my enjoyment. It's clear to me that some of the philosophising in the later chapters was a final farewell to the author, his characters, and the series. I was actually a bit teary-eyed and wanted to savor every last word of this marvelous series.

I'm a big fan of this series and always wondered who was the real name behind the pen name. I was very sorry to hear of Bruce Alexander's (Cook's) passing. His wit and writing style were outstanding and unfortunately hard to duplicate. Bruce only completed part of this book before his death, so it was finished by his widow and author John Shannon. I completely disagree with the Publishers Weekly review that says it's "impossible to tell where Alexander's words end and theirs begin." It's like day and night to me; at the end of chapter 9 the fun is over and the last three chapters are a pale imitation.

I agree with the other reviews that the solution was apparent from the start and there really was no puzzle to solve, but I would still recommend this book to true fans of Bruce's work just for the first nine chapters.