A Fever of the Blood

Starred review from February 6, 2017
Murder, potions, curses, an asylum, a devastating snowstorm, and late-Victorian manners and morals—all figure in
de Muriel’s delicious witches’ brew of a mystery, the worthy sequel to 2016’s well-received The Strings of Murder. In this outing, the mismatched detectives Insp. Ian Frey and Adolphus “Nine Nails” McCray—“a lanky Londoner who fancies himself a duke, travelling with a scruffy Scotsman who wears ridiculous clothes,” as one character puts it—chase an escapee from an asylum who has poisoned his nurse with strychnine. The duo start in Edinburgh and end on the desolate moor of Pendle Hill, infamous home of the real-life Lancashire witches, who were executed in the 17th century. The well-paced and suspenseful plot hurtles readers through a centuries-old conspiracy coming to a head in 1883, marked by eerie questions of occult powers. But the most impressive aspect of the novel is its detailed, vivid characters, driven by powerful emotions and full of surprises. Agent: Maggie Hanbury, Hanbury Agency (U.K.).

Starred review from February 1, 2017
In 1889, Lord Joel Ardglass escapes from Edinburgh's lunatic asylum. He is known informally as Lord Bampot, which is Scottish slang for idiot.He may have committed a murder, so inspectors Adolphus "Nine-Nails" McGray and Ian Frey search for him. There's a clever plot and no shortage of twists and turns, but the colorful characters are what make this novel such a pleasure. Frey narrates--he's a British CID assisting the Commission for the Elucidation of Unsolved Cases Presumably Related to the Odd and Ghostly. McGray is "a scruffy Scotsman who wears ridiculous clothes" and lost the ring finger on his right hand, earning him his nickname. The two don't always get along--Frey calls McGray "the witchcraft-nonsense expert" and a "filthy...sheep-offal-stuffed...hare-brained Scot!" The detectives chase Ardglass on an eventful train ride and survive poisoning by foxglove. Frey is covered in a foul substance from a witch's bottle, and a "middle-aged lady with a plumed hat glared at [him] as if faced with a tray of manure." They encounter horribly contorted poisoning victims and never touch the bottled frog McGray says is "so poisonous ye'd die from touching it with yer fingertip." Throughout, they try to puzzle out the meaning of "marigold," written amid a page of scribblings. "The worst thing you can do to yourselves is find it out," Frey hears. The Scot's colorful voice pops off the page as he gets the best lines: challenged about his investigation, McGray barks, "Doing my job, ye stinking hag." About the upper class, "these people only marry commoners to avoid harelip." He wants to capture Ardglass alive, but it's a mission fraught with peril. "If ye live through this," he tells Frey, "ye might have a future writing tacky novels." More fun than a plateful of haggis: a delightful read.

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December 1, 2017

Inspectors Ian Frey and "Nine Nails" McGray are called to the local asylum in the middle of the night in this second installment of the historical detective series set in late 19th-century Edinburgh, Scotland. One of the nurses is dying of strychnine poisoning, though many believe that she was cursed by witches. McGray is a bitter alcoholic in charge of the two-man police department (referred to as "The Elucidation of Unsolved Cases Presumably Related to the Odd and Ghostly") and haunted by his sister's madness and incarceration at the asylum. Frey, a sharply dressed Londoner in exile, attempts to forget that his fiancee left him to marry his brother. The men are a mismatched duo, and teens will appreciate their darkly amusing verbal give-and-take, which drives much of the plot. As McGray and Frey investigate the poisoning, they learn of an ancient curse by a coven of witches, all of whom may still be alive. This chilling foray into insanity, vengeance, and the power of suggestion is full of nonstop action, with plenty of plot twists to keep readers guessing. VERDICT Give this volume to teens who enjoy a soupcon of madness with their mysteries. Fans of Justine Larbalestier's My Sister Rosa or Arthur Conan Doyle's "Sherlock Holmes" tales will appreciate this one.-Gretchen Crowley, formerly at Alexandria City Public Library, VA

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