Rating: 
Summary: What it should be.
Review: Good fun historical fiction mystery. Not as weighty as Follet's Pillars of the Earth, but doesn't need to be. It is not timeless literature, but an engrossing adventure with great historical detail for added flavor. An excellent plane or beach read.
Rating:
Summary: What it should be.
Review: Good fun historical fiction mystery. Not as weighty as Follet's Pillars of the Earth, but doesn't need to be. It is not timeless literature, but an engrossing adventure with great historical detail for added flavor. An excellent plane or beach read.
Rating:
Summary: OUTSTANDING BOOK,FIRST OF A GREAT SERIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: I am actually reading the fifth book in this series. I felt the need to come back and write about the first book. I read about this book but never picked it up until much later on. What a mistake it was not to read it right away! The story is great but the description of the period is top rate. The characters are well written. The only knock is that I finish the books too quickly. If you enjoy a good mystery then there is no doubt you will enjoy this one. the other books in the series are just as good. My only wish is that Mr.Alexander has no plans to stop the series!
Rating:
Summary: A New must-read series for me
Review: I don't consider myself a mystery fan per se, I read them strictly as novels. (If I know whodunnit, it was pretty darn obvious). This was excellent, just what I like - a convincing look at another time and place and characters that I enjoy being with.I was intrigued by the negative comments from the New Zealander (August 27, 2002). I wouldn't consider those to be "terrible" or "horrendous" blunders, but I did a little research. The curator of an exhibit of 18th - 19th century costumes told me that at this time, muslin was reserved for a finely woven sheer fabrics. I wouldn't liken it to cheesecloth, which I think of as very loosely woven, but perhaps it's different in New Zealand. It was not until the 19th century that the term began expanding to cover heavier weights of fabric. Apparently, what we would now call muslin sheeting existed, it just wasn't called muslin. In the British edition of the novel, "cotton" is substituted for "muslin". Rereading the first 30 pages, I found a reference to a thruppenny, not a tuppenny, but in either case, both coins were minted throughout the 18th century. The Standard Catalog of World Coins, Eighteenth Century, 1701-1800, 2d. ed., by Chester L. Krause and Clifford Mishler shows pictures of both minted during the reigns of Queen Anne and Kings George I thru III on page 567. According to several reference books, chiefly Daily Life in 18th-Century England by Kirstin Olsen, people of "the middling sort" used both wax and tallow candles. Tallow was notorious for it's smell, but wax candles were much more expensive, especially after the tax imposed on them in the early part of the century. Therefore, especially since the Fieldings, although comfortable, are not portrayed as wealthy, I think it very likely that wax candles would be reserved for special occasions and that the servants would use tallow candles. Those who couldn't afford even tallow candles used the lighting described by the reviewer; Mrs. Gredge may have been grateful that she wasn't expected to use rush lights. I did not find any information about spermacetti candles, although they did exist according to the Oxford English Dictionary, but I believe that they were very much more expensive than wax. The reader might be more distressed to look in the Dictionary of National Biography and find that it claims that John Fielding was blind from birth. According to the National Federation for the Blind ... and the Central Missouri State University ..., Alexander is correct that he was blinded while serving in the Navy.
Rating: 
Summary: A sophisticated mystery in 18th Century London
Review: I have now read three of Bruce Alexander's books and altho this one is the first in the series, I believe I enjoyed "Person or Persons Unknown" better. I cannot believe how thoroughly entertaining Alexander's books are. I am attempting to read all of them this summer. I am wondering who Alexander is in reality as I understand that this is a pen name for a famous? author. Alexander's books are like walking back into time during the 18th Century. Alexander has quite a grasp of the culture and thought of the period. Having studied English history while an undergraduate, I really appreciate the dedication to detail in Alexander's books. (I must ask forgiveness of the reader of this critique because I do not know the sex of the author I must use the last name instead of him or her when describing something.) I look forward to reading the other three. These books are like popcorn, once you start, it is difficult to stop until it is all gone!!!!
Rating:
Summary: A sophisticated mystery in 18th Century London
Review: I have now read three of Bruce Alexander's books and altho this one is the first in the series, I believe I enjoyed "Person or Persons Unknown" better. I cannot believe how thoroughly entertaining Alexander's books are. I am attempting to read all of them this summer. I am wondering who Alexander is in reality as I understand that this is a pen name for a famous? author. Alexander's books are like walking back into time during the 18th Century. Alexander has quite a grasp of the culture and thought of the period. Having studied English history while an undergraduate, I really appreciate the dedication to detail in Alexander's books. (I must ask forgiveness of the reader of this critique because I do not know the sex of the author I must use the last name instead of him or her when describing something.) I look forward to reading the other three. These books are like popcorn, once you start, it is difficult to stop until it is all gone!!!!
Rating:
Summary: An excellent beginning to a wonderful series!
Review: I stumbled on Bruce Alexander's series of novels concerning Sir John Fielding and his irrepressible assistant, young Jeremy Proctor, quite by accident one day as I was browsing Amazon with no clue what I wanted to read or buy. I just knew I was looking for something different and exciting, and I wanted a mystery. What I got, once I happened upon Alexander's first novel of the series, "Blind Justice", was a superior historical novel with a first-rate mystery and many-dimensional characters built in. The plot summary of "Blind Justice" you can read here, so I won't go into it again, other than to say that young Jeremy travels to London following his father's tragic death to seek his way in the world as a printer. Mistaken for a thief and falsely accused, Jeremy is brought before Magistrate Sir John Fielding's Bow Street court, proves his innocence and is made a ward of the court by none other than Sir John himself, a character who actually existed (he was the brother of Henry Fielding - author of the famous novel "Tom Jones" - and the man responsible for the founding of the Bow Street Runners, London's very first police force.) Not long after this, the body of Lord Goodhope is found shot dead in a locked library, and thus begins a partnership that is both inspiring and highly entertaining. I am now reading the fifth book in the series, "Jack, Knave and Fool", having finished "Blind Justice", "Murder In Grub Street", "Watery Grave" and "Person or Persons Unknown" one right behind the other. I can say with complete sincerity that each book brings a new and suspenseful plot combined with the author's superior eye for the details of the period. Mr. Alexander makes Georgian-era London as visible to the mind's eye as accurately as any photograph might have - the markets, the bawds on the street, the scamps and thieves and the high-and-low born people who pass through Sir John's court are most memorable and oftentimes quite humorous. The regular characters evolve well throughout the series and young Jeremy is a most reliable and mature narrator. Start your trip through Georgian London with Sir John and Master Jeremy Proctor in "Blind Justice" and, once you do, you'll be picking up the second installment, "Murder In Grub Street", soon enough.
Rating: 
Summary: Terrible research blunders
Review: I was given this book as a present by a good friend, who had not read Bruce Alexander's books herself, but had had them highly recommended. Well, I have got to page 31 of Blind Justice (no mystery yet -- and the mystery just might save the book) and have been stalled by horrendous historical blunders. Tuppenny pieces? Please! Tuppence was two pennies -- two coins. It is like someone writing about 2002 and having two-cent coins. Muslin sheets? Oh dear. Muslin was a fine, porous cloth used like cheesecloth today. (He probably meant linen.) And "tallow candle." Oh, very, very dear -- what a shame. Tallow -- sheep fat, was the cheapest lighting fuel available at the time. It was poured into dishes when melted, a wick thrust into it, and it was used by the poor for illumination. Alexander meant spermaceti candles, perhaps ... Well, to please my friend, I will read on. But I hope the plot is a lot better than the historical background.
Rating:
Summary: Good addition to the field of historical mytery fiction
Review: In the tradition of a Watson retelling the cases of his friend, Jeremy Proctor retells cases he assisted blind magistrate Sir John Fielding, founder of the Bow Street Runner police force. Refreshingly, Jeremy is only 13 when the first case, BLIND JUSTICE, starts. The storyteller, the now mature Fielding, tenderly shows his childhood assumptions and lack of knowledge (even of sex). London of 1768 comes alive through the awe and excitement of young Jeremy and the wonderful descriptive skill of Bruce Alexander. Descriptions of people are given not only from the young boy's view point, but also from the him describing the person to the magistrate and Sir John's knowledge of the person by observation with other than his eyes.
Even though the reader easily catches on to who murdered whom, the lack of young Jeremy's knowledge is the string that pulls the reader forward through the book. In order to keep some knowledge from the reader, young Jeremy is sent from the room by Sir John. Yet by doing so, the reader guesses what knowledge has been departed. It still works in this book because it is so refreshing to have a likable young protagonist.
But if this is going to be the plot mechanism standard to all the books, it will soon become tiresome. If in his second book, MURDER IN GRUB STREET, I find a slightly smarter and more street-wise kid, I will continue to read the series and watch as young Jeremy grows to manhood.
Well done. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Historical Mystery With Intriguing Characters
Review: Sir John Fielding, the "blind justice" of the title, is a welcome addition to the ranks of fictional sleuths. The description of 18th century London is most interesting, and the solution is surprising and well thought out. Highly recommended.
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