The Solitary House

Just a few paragraphs into Lynn Shepherd's The Solitary House (#276) I was immersed in the sights, the sounds, the smells and the evil fog of 1850 London and I knew I was in for an exceptional story. 

Charles Maddox is a young private investigator working on his latest case trying to trace the whereabouts of a young girl missing for sixteen years.  His scant leads have all turned into a series of dead ends, so he is surprised and flattered to receive a summons to the office of Edward Tulkinghorn, one of London's most prominent and feared attorneys.  One of Tulkinghorn's clients, a powerful financier, has received a series of anonymous and threatening letters.  Charles' job will be to find the person responsible and furnish Tulkinghorn with his name, no more.

But Tulkinghorn has chosen the wrong man for the job; Charles manages to locate the author of these threatening letters with the help of his aging uncle, a revered Regency era "thief taker", but it also occurs to him to wonder why Tulkinghorn has bothered with such a mundane matter himself, and what proof of wrong-doing the letter writer has against Sir Julius Cremorne.  Pursuit of the truth is everything to Charles, and the reason he lost his job with the police Detective unit.  His great uncle Maddox during his lucid moments between attacks of dementia is able to help Charles in his search  .  As the layers within layers are revealed and witnesses disappear, Charles realizes that the stakes for finding the truth come with such a high price for all concerned he will have to choose his course wisely.

I've never been a fan of Charles Dickens, except for his A Tale of Two Cities, but after reading The Solitary House I'm going to have to read Bleak House, on which this book is based.  If you're already a Dickens fan, you'll enjoy this book even more with its familiar characters and allusions.

The elder Maddox was featured in Ms. Shepherd's first novel, Murder at Mansfield Park, which I understand is written in the style of Jane Austen (Yes, I've already requested that from the library!).  Charles Maddox will return in another book due out in 2013 called  A Treacherous Likeness, also based on Dickens' work.  I've found another "must read" author with Lynn Shepherd.