Good morning, Saloners! It’s been quite a while since I posted one of these. I’m very happy to be back and I’m looking forward to reading your posts.

My recent interest in Sir John Fielding is the result of a book I just read, Blind Justice by Bruce Alexander. I saw a brief review of the series on the Ann Arbor District Library blog and was immediately intrigued. I’m not generally a fan of mysteries as a genre, but I will read them if there is some value added, e.g. an interesting setting or a heartthrob of a detective. What piqued my curiosity about this one is, of course, the historical context. I may not be a huge fan of mysteries but I am always in the mood for a good historical novel!

There are two things I look for in a good historical novel in addition to the usual stuff. First, exposition. How does the author clue me in to the background, customs, culture, etc., of a historical period I’m not familiar with? I want it to be done imperceptibly, if at all. Please don’t give me big long paragraphs of explanation. Give me instead, say, a wide-eyed innocent narrator who’s new in town. As the character learns, so do I, and the author doesn’t have to be pedantic. Blind Justice accomplishes this very nicely with a first person narrator who happens to be a charming thirteen-year-old orphan newly arrived in London Town. A charming thirteen-year-old orphan, moreover, who knows how to set type. Dude!

And second, the language. Does the writing feel authentic for the period? Does it give a good flavor? I am no expert on Georgian England. I’ve never read Tom Jones or Pamela and I have no idea if the writing style is accurate. All I can say is, it felt pretty good. Flowery and ornate enough to be believable, but still quite easy to read. I found a couple of solecisms (e.g. hung instead of hanged) but I suppose they could have been deliberate.

As a historical novel, this book succeeds quite well. As a mystery… well, it wasn’t bad. The final solution was a possibility I’d considered, and I suspect it would have been even more obvious to someone who reads a lot of mysteries. But it didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the book at all. In fact I am very eager to continue following the fortunes of Sir John Fielding and his thirteen-year-old orphan typesetter assistant. The second book is called Murder in Grub Street and I’ve got it on hold already.