Both men were involved in the Revolutions-Per-Minute Society, a scientific group dedicated to making radical improvements in the speed and cost of transportation throughout Britain. Is someone plotting to steal Milton’s designs? And why has her cousin disappeared?
Wrexford and Charlotte were looking forward to spending a peaceful interlude in the country, but when Lady Cordelia resolves to solve the mystery, they offer their help, along with that of the Weasels and their unconventional inner circle of friends. The investigation turns tangled and soon all of them are caught up in a treacherous web of greed, ambition, and dangerous secrets. And when the trail takes a shocking turn, Wrexford and Charlotte must decide what risks they are willing to take with their family to bring the villains to justice . . .
Comment: This is the 8th installment in the Wrexford and Sloane series by author Andrea Penrose, featuring a couple who is often involved in solving mysteries surrounding the death of someone that they might be familiar with.
In this story Charlotte and Wrexford are hosting the wedding of their friends Christopher "Kit" Sheffield and Cordelia Manfield, and all seemed to go well except one cousin of the bride could not arrive on time. Then, news of a body washed up after a storm reaches them and the police shows up asking questions and everyone fears the dead man might be Cordelia's cousin Oliver but an information about the dead man's body is enough to prove that no, the deceased is Jasper Milton, a friend of Cordelia and of her missing cousin. Wrexford and Charlotte decide to investigate when sudden new clues point out to the possibility of a plan by a french group of radicals wanting to get their hands on revolutionary plans Milton had for bridges in his possession so they could sell them and pay for the rescue of Napoleon. At the same time the investigation is ongoing, other people are killed in what seems suspicious circumstances. What might be going on and is Cordelia's cousin the actual culprit?
The installments in this series are sequential and a lot of what happens when it comes to the lives of the protagonists and their friends and family members develops in a way which assumes the reader does have that knowledge already. The mysteries being investigated, however, are presented and solved book by book, which means that, technically, one could read them randomly. I still think it's better to read in order, but that is not a deal breaker for a new reader, for instance.
I liked this story because it's part of yet another series I'm following and that has now reached comfort status for me. The characters are familiar, their relationships more or less established, and the main couple is married and happy. If there is one thing I could complain about is that while the domesticity among all the characters (Wrex and Charlotte, their adopted wards, their friends and so on) is appealing and allows the reader to appreciate things from time to time about how lucky their lives have evolved until the current point, I still feel this element of the story is rather bland at times.
I'm especially thinking about the romance, to be honest. Wrex and Sloane trust each other, they suit each other and in the first books, when they were still getting to the point where they would be comfortable with one another at a personal level before they became a couple, this was fine. Now that they are married and from what we see, in love, I kind of wanted more demonstrations. I'm not saying the intimacy should be graphic, but more than sweet thoughts and proper behaviors.. yes. More passion in an obvious way, I'd say.
The plot wasn't the most engaging one, but I always feel curious to see how things will go and, more importantly, how they think about the clues until they unravel the mystery. It's also a huge plus to see them all plan things together and which steps each person will take, so it's all a team effort. I suppose the wards (kids, in fact) have bigger roles than what might be necessary, but that is overlooked by their personalities and obvious cleverness.
Mrs Penrose is a good writer and clearly likes to investigate all the themes she uses in her books, even more so to adapt facts correctly to her fictional stories. I didn't know much about how one went on to invent techniques about the math needed to build bridges. This is all fascinating and the author's notes at the end are interesting too. Perhaps, the stories have a bit too much emphasis on correctly use the theme to the point some information is a bit boring, a bit too technical for the type of story we are reading. It's great the characters are smart and focused on investigating and in understanding the whole situation by having technical data but... not always very fictionally alluring.
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