Book description
This well imagined, carefully detailed, and cleverly plotted debut
draws on actual historical events of 1811 London. Regency London knows
Constance Tyrone as the conspicuously celibate founder of the St.
Catherine Society, dedicated to helping poor women. One wet November
evening a carriage mows down Constance outside her office. Curiously,
while her corpse's one foot is bare, the other is shod in a clean satin
slipper despite the muddy road. Why was a gentlewoman abroad in the
night? And if she died under the wheel, whose hands bruised her neck and
stole her monogrammed crucifix? Dismissing the idea of an accident, Bow
Street Runner John Chase forms an unlikely alliance with Penelope Wolfe,
wife of the chief suspect. A young mother paying the price for an
imprudent marriage, Penelope is eager to clear her husband Jeremy, a
feckless portrait painter whose salacious drawings of the victim suggest
an erotic interest. Chase's first task is to learn the identity of the
mysterious benefactor who goes bail for Wolfe while Penelope traces the
victim's last movements. Barrister Edward Buckler, intrigued, shakes off
his habitual lethargy and joins their investigation. As horrifying
murders on the Ratcliffe Highway claim all London's attention, the trio
discovers that it won't be easy to unravel the enigma of Constance
Tyrone, a woman who revives the legend of martyred St. Catherine. Set
in Regency London, this thoughtful and thought-provoking debut offers a
large cast of characters and a wealth of historical detail in a tale of
murder, intrigue and the 19th-century English justice system. When a
young lady well known for her work among the destitute women of Soho is
found dead, presumably run over by a hansom cab, John Chase of the Bow
Street Runners investigates. Chase discovers strangulation marks on Miss
Tyrone, and at first, evidence points to Jeremy Wolfe, an artist whose
drawings of Miss Tyrone in the guise of St. Catherine cause a sensation
in the courtroom. Wolfe's wife, Penelope, joins forces with Chase and
the attorneys Thorogood and Buckler to clear Wolfe and uncover the real
culprit. But readers likely won't simply ask whodunit; they'll also seek
answers to a number of questions the book leaves unanswered. Why, for
example, does Penelope want to pursue Miss Tyrone's charitable work when
such work exposes her to disease and she has a child of her own to
support? What is the nature of Buckler's strange malaise? Solid
research--particularly into the forensic technology of the day--centers
the book, but the faintly sketched background characters and the dream
sequences that herald the denouement fail to advance the plot and seem
ill-considered in comparison. At a time when the fear of infectious
disease has reentered the collective conscious with a new intensity,
Rizzolo provides oddly relevant mystery fare in this talented but uneven
first novel. S. K. Rizzolo was born in Aspen, Colorado, but raised in
Saudi Arabia and Libya where her father was employed in the oil
industry. Returning to the United States for high school and college,
Suzanne earned an M. A. in English. Currently a high school teacher, she
lives in Los Angeles with her husband and daughter. The Rose in the
Wheel, a mystery set in Regency England, was her first novel.
