Rating: 
Summary: Not bad
Review: I agree with a previous reviewer, this is a good plane read. If you like Anne Perry you will enjoy this book. Henry Morton is very similar to William Monk. However this book didn't quite have the "feeling of the era" like Perry's books do. A good read, but a little short of what I was expecting.
Rating: 
Summary: Bow Street Runner - Excellent!
Review: After finishing this wonderful mystery set in early
1800's London, I was delighted to see that the author,
T. J. Banks, was at work on his next Bow Street Runner
book. I absolutely love books set in 19th century London and
New York City, e.g. The Dress Lodger, The Alienist, Laurie
King's Sherlock Holmes tales...Beekeeper's Apprentice, etc.
This definitely rates among the best of this genre. I was
fascinated with the language and oftentimes unfamiliar terms
that cropped up throughout. Not only were historical events
and people (Wellington, Bonaparte, Lord Byron) included, but
the plot of this mystery was well thought out and unpredictable.
Henry Morton is a Bow Street Runner - a constable who is
brought into a murder because of his acquaintance with Arabella Malibrant, a beautiful actress of the time. The investigation takes him to the Otter, a flash house (house of ill repute)
that caters to men who enjoy young girls. The eventual
outcome hinges on the testimony of a most unlikely witness.
Banks has managed to capture this period of London's history, including a dark setting, corrupt police, public hangings,
perverse habitues of the Otter, the rich and the famous, and
a story that cries out for another Bow Street Runner tale.
Hurry, please.
Rating:
Summary: Bow Street Runner - Excellent!
Review: After finishing this wonderful mystery set in early
1800's London, I was delighted to see that the author,
T. J. Banks, was at work on his next Bow Street Runner
book. I absolutely love books set in 19th century London and
New York City, e.g. The Dress Lodger, The Alienist, Laurie
King's Sherlock Holmes tales...Beekeeper's Apprentice, etc.
This definitely rates among the best of this genre. I was
fascinated with the language and oftentimes unfamiliar terms
that cropped up throughout. Not only were historical events
and people (Wellington, Bonaparte, Lord Byron) included, but
the plot of this mystery was well thought out and unpredictable.
Henry Morton is a Bow Street Runner - a constable who is
brought into a murder because of his acquaintance with Arabella Malibrant, a beautiful actress of the time. The investigation takes him to the Otter, a flash house (house of ill repute)
that caters to men who enjoy young girls. The eventual
outcome hinges on the testimony of a most unlikely witness.
Banks has managed to capture this period of London's history, including a dark setting, corrupt police, public hangings,
perverse habitues of the Otter, the rich and the famous, and
a story that cries out for another Bow Street Runner tale.
Hurry, please.
Rating:
Summary: can't add anything more!
Review: everyone else has said it all. i will just add that this is
the most enjoyable historical mystery i have read since my
last inspector rutledge. a wonderful beginning to a series and
i look forward to the next one.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: Fast-paced, engaging, and intelligent. A great quick read. The Thief-Taker was a real pleasure. I await the next installment.
Rating:
Summary: A thrilling read. Well done.
Review: Good fun historical fiction mystery. An engrossing adventure with great historical detail for added flavor. An excellent plane or beach read.
Rating:
Summary: A thrilling read. Well done.
Review: Good fun historical fiction mystery. An engrossing adventure with great historical detail for added flavor. An excellent plane or beach read.
Rating:
Summary: Only one notch above mediocre
Review: Henry Morton is one of the most engaging and well characterized detectives in historical fiction today. A Bow Street Runner at the turn of the 19th century, Morton catches criminals for reward money--a somewhat unsavory profession in this time before Scotland Yard. From the peek behind the stage door as Morton trades repartee with his mistress, to the real-life corruption of Bow Street, to the snapshot of the uglier side of the criminal classes... The Thief Taker is a deftly written historical mystery with a great ending. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Oh, well done!
Review: Henry Morton, a tall, lean and darkly handsome sprig of the nobility from the wrong side of the blanket, has nevertheless benefited from his patrimony by being educated, at least so far as one year at university. But it is from his mother that he received the heritage that was to stand him in best stead in his career as a Runner. This was an incredible memory, coupled with a massive helping of common sense. Some years prior to the opening of this 'memoir', Henry met and was taken under the wing of the formidable John Townsend, originator of the Bow Street Runners. He is considered by most of his fellows to be of strong moral character, as well as clever. His actress lady-friend, Mrs. Arabella Malibrant, is also friendly with Arthur Darley, (younger son of the Earl of Cardiff) and it is at his home in Portman Square that the story begins to unfold. Young Halbert Glendinning arrives at Darley's home in a hackney coach, but is unable to remove himself from it to go into the house, as he is unconscious. Arabella is there, too, and immediately sends off for Henry to join them as quickly as possible. Also present is Louisa Hamilton, Halbert's fiancée. Coincidentally, there is also present a physician, who, after a somewhat cursory examination, declares the man to have died from 'natural causes'. Henry disagrees, and unknowingly sets in motion the various plots in this tangled web of deceit that will take him from rural Sussex, to the seamy flash house, 'The Otter' in Spitalfields, and even to his own appearance in the dock before his sometime employer, Chief Magistrate Sir Nathaniel Conant. Fortunate for the reader, (not to mention Henry!) the nanny-house (home of child prostitutes) is where the young and exceedingly precocious Lucy is to be found. What a treasure she is! Cleverly plotted, wonderfully well written, with engaging characters (about whom we'll want to know more, please) the resolution arrives in a totally believable way. But yet, it does impart a slightly incomplete feeling as the reader turns the final page, and closes the book. Anyone who reads and enjoys this book will absolutely want to read more about these very human, very real people. The story is as well blended together as the threads of any tapestry-a wonderful mixture of the many disparate elements of London's Regency world: high society co-existing with the underbelly in the sad parts of the great city, Wellington's victory at Waterloo, the Elgin marbles, Lord Byron and his poetry. Absolutely first rate!
Rating:
Summary: Not your father's London . . .
Review: Historical mysteries seem to be all the rage these days, but this is one of the best I've seen lately. Set in London during the summer of 1815 -- Waterloo summer -- it's the story of Henry Morton, a constable with the king's warrant, working as a semi-independent policeman out of the Magistrate's office at No. 4, Bow Street. I know something about the time and the place, and Banks seems to have made no false steps at all in his depiction of the people of a London which had a very low opinion of professional cops (who worked on commission for each felon hanged). The plot is also very well done, involving several murders, theft of antiquities, and deep corruption among the Runners of Bow Street. The principal characters -- Arabella, the actress with whom Morton has a nonexclusive arrangement, and Lord Arthur Darley, Arabella's other interest, whose open friendliness Morton isn't entirely at ease with, and young Jimmy Presley, who seems likely to make a good Runner himself if he's careful, and Sir Nathaniel Conant, the Chief Magistrate -- are introduced in such a way as to make you look forward to their future interaction. The story does not begin with the beginning of Morton's career, for he makes numerous references to events in his own past, and the author is already at work on the second volume in the series -- which I look forward to reading.
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