In The Coffee House Murders, masterful storyteller Ellis Blackwood, sets Abigail Harcourt and Jacob Standish on another captivating adventure bringing the post-Great Fire 1660’s London to life.
This third installment of the Samuel Pepys Mysteries finds the famed diarist, the Clerk of the Acts to the Navy Board and adviser to King Charles II, for whom the series is named, charging his young inquisitors with another mission – to find his missing pocket watch.
The seemingly innocuous task soon takes a dangerous turn when the pair put their sleuthing abilities to work upon discovering the murder of a wit and parliamentarian, which they had met in Rose’s Coffee House on the Strand, the very coffee house the two had frequented the previous night.
After the investigation leads to an adjacent royalist-clientele coffee house, the Gilded Bean, it becomes clear treachery is afoot. In order to protect the crown and Pepys, who has no idea of his inquisitors activities, they must break into Westminster. If caught, the consequences are deadly. If they do not break in, the consequences are the same, save for who will die.
I love the way Abby and Jacob’s confidence and skills continue to grow and though not yet romantic, how they’ve come to rely on each other.
In this third installment in as many months, Blackwood continues to impress with his ingenious plotting, characterization, and richly detailed setting, painting another brilliant whodunit. I highly recommend The Coffee House Murders to fans of historical fiction, historical mysteries and British mysteries.
I received an advance reader’s copy of The Coffee House Murders, courtesy of the author and Vintage Mystery Press. Order online or buy now at your favorite independent bookstore. Mine is Sellers Books and Art in Jim Thorpe, PA.
If you’re interested in learning more about Samuel Pepys, his diary is available online. Pepys’ diary entries from 1665 are also woven into the narrative of the Pulitzer Prize-nominated The Great Plague by Dorothy and Lloyd Moot (for which I was privileged to host a C-Span BookTV episode).
Review by Di Prokop
More Mystery Please