The Backward Boy

February 24, 2020
Set in Edwardian London, Cameron’s middling fifth Denton mystery (after 2019’s The Haunted Martyr) finds the author and former Union Civil War general comfortably settled in a house whose back garden conveniently abuts that of his lady friend, Janet Striker. Janet, an emancipated New Woman who aspires to be a lawyer, has been taken on by a solicitor “as a kind of novice.” Only three days into the job, Janet is already bringing her work home, in the person of Amelia-Anna Snokes. The distraught Mrs. Snokes pleads with Denton to help her husband, Arthur, who has been taken into custody by the Metropolitan Police and is likely to be charged with stabbing widow Bella Wilcox to death. Even though Mrs. Snokes swears Arthur was with her at the time of the murder, the police don’t believe her. Denton does a little digging into the matter when he’s not busy trying to come up with the plot of a new novella. Some distinctive characters and amusing moments compensate only in part for choppy pacing, minimal detecting, and a hasty resolution. This outing is for diehard fans only.