Last Nocturne

December 21, 2009
In this less than satisfying period mystery from British author Eccles (Untimely Graves
and 12 other titles in her Supt. Gil Mayo series), the suicide of artist Theodore Benton in 1909 London leads Scotland Yard to re-examine the death of Eliot Martagon, the owner of the gallery that displayed Benton's work. At the time, the police were unable to identify a motive for Martagon's blowing his brains out. The investigators—Chief Insp. Philip Lamb, Oxford-educated and a believer in scientific detection, and his detective sergeant partner—are remarkably slow to suspect foul play in either case, placing them several steps behind the reader from the outset. Just as their inquiry gets going, the action shifts to Vienna two decades earlier, to explore the history leading up to both deaths. Solid prose compensates only in part for flashbacks that dilute the suspense.

December 1, 2009
A Viennese contretemps leads to murder in Edwardian London.

In 1909, Grace Thurley, disengaging herself from her fianc, departs Birmingham to take up a position in London as secretary to wealthy widow Edwina Martagon and companion to her artistic daughter Dulcie. The family scion, Guy, recently returned from the subcontinent to settle his father's affairs, quickly develops an attachment to Grace and just as quickly confides family secrets to her: that papa may have fathered an illegitimate child while scouting Vienna for treasures for his art gallery; that mama is being blackmailed about letters written to papa by some woman; and that papa's vehement anti-firearm sentiments make his suicide by gunshot seem peculiar. Chief Inspector Lamb, who also suspects murder, is convinced that Martagon's decease is linked to another suspicious death, that of artist Theo Franck, whose work was on exhibition in Martagon's gallery. Artwork is examined. Parenthood is questioned. Lust, love and bohemian goings-on in Vienna are recounted. Meanwhile, a banker makes calf's eyes at a certain Mrs. Amberley, who tries her best not to precipitate a scandal she's powerless to stem.

Vienna in all its fin de si'cle glory will make readers long for the possibility of time travel in this mystery-cum-pastry from veteran Eccles (Shadows and Lies, 2007, etc.).

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Starred review from January 15, 2010
A woman dies one night in the snow in Vienna; some time later a young man on the brink of success falls to his death in London, an apparent suicide, while a happily married man shoots himself. It is 1909, and Chief Inspector Lamb is unsatisfied, sensing he's only glimpsing the surface of the case. Worse, he had met and had liked one of the victims. VERDICT Introduce a cast of intriguing characters who might have stepped out of a Josephine Tey novel, add a complex, twisty plot in the best tradition of classic British mystery, throw in psychological suspense worthy of Barbara Vine, and you know that you have been reading a master. Fans of British historicals and of Eccles's Gil Mayo procedurals will want this.

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