Airs and Graces

February 20, 2012
Set in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1737, Southey’s sixth Charles Patterson mystery (after 2011’s The Ladder Dancer) offers a chilling mix of murder and the paranormal. During a January blizzard, musician sleuth Charles Patterson and his well-born wife, who are engaged in a snowball fight, spot a woman descending a rope from a bridge to the mudflats below. Moments later, the couple hear a child screaming from the upholsterer’s shop on the bridge. At the shop, they find a six- or seven-year-old girl the only survivor of a slaughter that includes the upholsterer and most of his family. An adult sister recently returned from London, Alice Gregson, fits the description of the fleeing woman. A series of hindrances stymies Charles’s subsequent investigation, including Alice’s disappearance in the snowbound town—perhaps into the spirit world Charles and only a few others can access. Historical fans will find a lot to like. Agent: Juliet Burton, Juliet Burton Literary Agency.

March 1, 2012
A musician has come up so far in the world that he's quite a determined sleuth. Winter 1737. Charles Patterson is living with his wealthy and beloved wife Esther in Newcastle-upon-Tyne when the couple and their friend Hugh Demsey, a dancing master, spot a young woman climbing down a rope from a bridge onto the frozen river. Minutes later, they arrive at a shop on the bridge, where they find a terrified young girl screaming and the rest of her family slaughtered. Charles rushes after the departed woman, but all he finds is a tarnished old coin. Because the constable is ill, Charles, who has experience in solving murders, is asked to oversee the investigation. The murder victims are nasty Mr. Gregson, his wife and younger daughter and his apprentice Ned. Missing and presumed guilty is his daughter Alice, who had recently and unhappily returned from London. But Alice's other sister, Mrs. Fletcher, insists that she is innocent. His investigations entangle Charles with Balfour, the architect for the new assembly rooms; a thief taker who insists the killer is a man he has chased from Kent; and his patron Heron, who becomes obsessed with the ancient coins found in the cellar of a burnt-out building. Apparently he is not the only one interested, since Charles and Hugh are both attacked for the few artifacts they have found. At length Charles must follow Alice to the spirit world to get answers in an exceedingly complex case. This pleasing latest case for Charles (The Ladder Dancer, 2011, etc.) combines plenty of historical details, a teasing puzzle and a touch of the supernatural.

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February 15, 2012
Southey continues her quirky historical series featuring eighteenth-century musician-sleuth Charles Patterson. After several members of the Gregson family are gruesomely murdered in their sleep, Charles and his delightfully unconventional wife, Esther, out for a moonlit romp in the snow, witness a woman fleeing the scene of the heinous crime. Although the good citizens of Newcastle Upon Tyne are convinced that the culprit is the Gregsons' oldest daughter, capricious and arrogant Alice Gregson, Charles has his doubts, especially after he meets Alice's surviving sister. Sensing something ethereal as well as sinister is afoot, Charles relies on his unique ability to move between two worlds existing side by side in order to investigate the crime. This series is distinguished by the paranormal twist that accompanies each mystery.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)