Cut to the Quick

Rating:
Summary: A Love Affair
Review: Upon discovering Julian Kestrel and Kate Ross, I was in love. The writing style is for readers who want an intellectual experience with their mystery. The hero is historically interesting ( an English dandy) and emotionally interesting as well ( certainly not the typical private eye). The outcomes of all four Kate Ross books make sense, there is no gratuitous violence, and the writing does not insult your intelligence. I never write reviews, but I wanted other mystery readers to discover this under-valued writer.

Rating:
Summary: A marvelous introduction!
Review: Writers are frequently told to summarize the entire plot of their book into one sentence; it is indeed an excellent exercise. That being the case, 'Pride goeth before a fall" could be the condensed theme of this dazzling mystery by the late Boston attorney, Kate Ross.

The book jacket claims her detective, Julian Kestrel, as a worthy addition to the ranks of the 12th Century Brother Cadfael and the 1920's Lord Peter Wimsey, excellent company indeed. Kestrel is an inhabitant of London in the 1820s; a dandy lacking a gentleman's education, family, title or riches. During that era, façade was all important, when hours might be spent in tying one's cravat just so. Perhaps ten years after the self-exile of Beau Brummel, style over substance was still given too much emphasis.

This first novel is redolent with the sights, sounds and smells of the era, as we've come to know it from the books of Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer. Two years before the beginning of this book, Kestrel is the unwilling victim of a pickpocket. Because the theft was of a valuable (although only to him) pocket-watch, Kestrel chases the thief and finally brings the miscreant down with a well-placed toss of his walking stick.

Impressed with the Cockney lad's sense of personal integrity--he made no excuses for himself, but accepted his fate stoically--Kestrel refuses to press charges, and takes the lad into his employ. Dipper becomes a valet, but bemoans to his new employer, "When you got a gift, even if it was the Devil give it to you, you get a hankering to use it now and again." It is only by a brief return to the underworld of Dipper's London to uncover information available nowhere else that Kestrel is able to solve the mystery presented to him during a stay at Bellegarde, for centuries the country home of the Fontclairs.

Kestrel is not burdened with the pride of the Fontclairs. Good thing, too. They have more than enough for the entire country. It is easy to understand why England has been invincible for centuries with just this kind of back-bone, which prizes personal honour above all, while seemingly ignoring the deception and lust which lay just under the surface.

Kestrel had rescued the Fontclair scion, Hugh, from a gambling den one night, and then, to his surprise, is invited to be groomsman for Hugh's upcoming wedding. The bride, Maud Craddock, and her father, along with Kestrel are the only outsiders present. Hugh's parents, Sir Robert and Lady Cecily; his uncle, Sir Geoffrey, a retired colonel lamed during Boney's war; and his son, (who is also Hugh's cousin,) Guy, and Lady Catherine, Robert and Geoffrey's sister, along with a young woman, Isabelle, who is actually cousin to Sir Robert rather than Hugh, make up the family. Lady Catherine has a husband and a home of her own, but she much prefers Bellegarde. She was, after all, born a Fontclair.

Lady Catherine is so prideful and bitter, she becomes the most obvious choice of villain; the wonderful character whom one loves to hate. On the other hand, Sir Geoffrey, who is responsible for the situation that makes a marriage by blackmail possible, is so wounded, both physically and emotionally, that you hope he is somehow found innocent, even when proof upon proof of his involvement is provided.

Maud and Hugh are tentatively drawn to each other, but the burden of the arranged marriage, the failure of which can only lead to the downfall of the Fontclairs, nearly destroys them, not to mention the balance of the family. Lady Catherine, spitting and spiteful, has hoped for an alliance between Hugh and Isabelle, but Isabelle has always been drawn to the carefree, penniless Guy, who is barely aware of her existence.

The mystery comes when an uninvited and unidentified young woman is found, having been stabbed to death, in Kestrel's assigned bed. Without fingerprints, chemical analysis, or any of the other resources known to today's Scotland Yard, Kestrel sets out to discover not only who she was, but why she was left in his bed.
Ms. Ross skillfully keeps track of her myriad characters, and the somewhat sprawling plot; the denouement is a surprise. Her use of the language of the time provides a wonderful and colorful image of what the London and England must have been like during that age of elegance. This book is elegance personified.

Rating:
Summary: A marvelous introduction!
Review: Writers are frequently told to summarize the entire plot of their book into one sentence; it is indeed an excellent exercise. That being the case, 'Pride goeth before a fall" could be the condensed theme of this dazzling mystery by the late Boston attorney, Kate Ross.

The book jacket claims her detective, Julian Kestrel, as a worthy addition to the ranks of the 12th Century Brother Cadfael and the 1920's Lord Peter Wimsey, excellent company indeed. Kestrel is an inhabitant of London in the 1820s; a dandy lacking a gentleman's education, family, title or riches. During that era, façade was all important, when hours might be spent in tying one's cravat just so. Perhaps ten years after the self-exile of Beau Brummel, style over substance was still given too much emphasis.

This first novel is redolent with the sights, sounds and smells of the era, as we've come to know it from the books of Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer. Two years before the beginning of this book, Kestrel is the unwilling victim of a pickpocket. Because the theft was of a valuable (although only to him) pocket-watch, Kestrel chases the thief and finally brings the miscreant down with a well-placed toss of his walking stick.

Impressed with the Cockney lad's sense of personal integrity--he made no excuses for himself, but accepted his fate stoically--Kestrel refuses to press charges, and takes the lad into his employ. Dipper becomes a valet, but bemoans to his new employer, "When you got a gift, even if it was the Devil give it to you, you get a hankering to use it now and again." It is only by a brief return to the underworld of Dipper's London to uncover information available nowhere else that Kestrel is able to solve the mystery presented to him during a stay at Bellegarde, for centuries the country home of the Fontclairs.

Kestrel is not burdened with the pride of the Fontclairs. Good thing, too. They have more than enough for the entire country. It is easy to understand why England has been invincible for centuries with just this kind of back-bone, which prizes personal honour above all, while seemingly ignoring the deception and lust which lay just under the surface.

Kestrel had rescued the Fontclair scion, Hugh, from a gambling den one night, and then, to his surprise, is invited to be groomsman for Hugh's upcoming wedding. The bride, Maud Craddock, and her father, along with Kestrel are the only outsiders present. Hugh's parents, Sir Robert and Lady Cecily; his uncle, Sir Geoffrey, a retired colonel lamed during Boney's war; and his son, (who is also Hugh's cousin,) Guy, and Lady Catherine, Robert and Geoffrey's sister, along with a young woman, Isabelle, who is actually cousin to Sir Robert rather than Hugh, make up the family. Lady Catherine has a husband and a home of her own, but she much prefers Bellegarde. She was, after all, born a Fontclair.

Lady Catherine is so prideful and bitter, she becomes the most obvious choice of villain; the wonderful character whom one loves to hate. On the other hand, Sir Geoffrey, who is responsible for the situation that makes a marriage by blackmail possible, is so wounded, both physically and emotionally, that you hope he is somehow found innocent, even when proof upon proof of his involvement is provided.

Maud and Hugh are tentatively drawn to each other, but the burden of the arranged marriage, the failure of which can only lead to the downfall of the Fontclairs, nearly destroys them, not to mention the balance of the family. Lady Catherine, spitting and spiteful, has hoped for an alliance between Hugh and Isabelle, but Isabelle has always been drawn to the carefree, penniless Guy, who is barely aware of her existence.

The mystery comes when an uninvited and unidentified young woman is found, having been stabbed to death, in Kestrel's assigned bed. Without fingerprints, chemical analysis, or any of the other resources known to today's Scotland Yard, Kestrel sets out to discover not only who she was, but why she was left in his bed.
Ms. Ross skillfully keeps track of her myriad characters, and the somewhat sprawling plot; the denouement is a surprise. Her use of the language of the time provides a wonderful and colorful image of what the London and England must have been like during that age of elegance. This book is elegance personified.

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful addition to anyone's mystery (or other) library.
Review: _Cut To The Quick_ is a well written, suspenseful book that keeps you guessing with every page turn. Her wit and charm come through, especially in the lead characters of Julian Kestrel and Dipper. I hope to see many more books by this wonderful new author