Watchers of the Dead

May 1, 2019
A reporter's work in the African Colonial Service offers him insights into a series of murders reportedly committed by cannibals. At the opening of the Royal Courts of Justice in 1882, Alec Lonsdale learns that Alexander Haldane, barrister and newspaper owner, has been hacked to death in the basement. This is just the first of several deaths attributed to the Kumu cannibals brought over from Africa to spice up the opening of the British Museum's Natural History Branch. Tim Roth, Lonsdale's friend from Africa, has not breathed a word of this story, but Hulda Friederichs, Lonsdale's clever and ambitious fellow reporter on the Pall Mall Gazette, somehow knows about it. Lonsdale is constantly dogged by Henry Voules, whose wealthy father got him a job on the Echo, a rag willing to print his ridiculous stories, including a pack of lies about Roderick Maclean's recent escape from Broadmoor, where he was confined after trying to shoot Queen Victoria. Lonsdale, who lives with his barrister brother, Jack, is becoming more uncertain about his feelings for Anne, the fiancee he fears is becoming more like her narrow-minded sister, Emelia, Jack's fiancee. He's also being pressured by their father, Sir Gervais Humbage, a snob who abhors Lonsdale's profession. The next victim is professor Dickerson, who brought the Kumu from the Congo and squired them about the country. Despite the mounting pile of bodies, all killed the same way, Scotland Yard insists they were not murdered and assigns the case to their dullest detective. Lonsdale, Hulda, and Inspector George Peters, the Yard's star detective, quietly continue to investigate. At least four of the murdered men were members of the Garraway Club, which includes a group calling themselves Watchers, who rumor suggests are preparing a nasty surprise for Christmas. Beaufort's second puzzle for his journalist sleuths (Mind of a Killer, 2018) is thronged with real-life characters and almost too many twists and turns for comfort.

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May 20, 2019
At the start of Beaufort’s intriguing second Victorian mystery (after 2018’s Mind of a Killer), Pall Mall Gazette reporters Alec Lonsdale and Hulda Friederichs are covering the opening of London’s new Natural History Museum in December 1882 when they discover Professor Dickerson, the museum’s leading zoologist, chopped to death in the basement. The obvious suspects are three members of a cannibalistic African tribe, who have been transported to London to serve as living museum exhibits and disappeared at the same time Dickerson was last seen alive. Lonsdale and Friederichs discover that the professor is the latest in a series of murders targeting prominent men who belong to a mysterious group called the Watchers. When the pair search Dickerson’s home, they find a letter referencing an “unspeakable Happening” the Watchers have planned for Christmas Eve. Meanwhile, Lonsdale is disquieted by tension with his well-born fiancée. Despite some convoluted plotting, Beaufort (the pseudonym of Susanna Gregory and Beau Riffenburgh) offers a vivid, nuanced vision of late-Victorian Britain. Readers fascinated by the era will find much to savor. Agent: Euan Thorneycroft, A.M. Heath (U.K.).

May 15, 2019
London 1882. Pall Mall Gazette reporter Alec Lonsdale finds himself once again involved in a challenging murder case. He's been invited to the opening of the stunning new Natural History Museum, which features not only stuffed animals but also actual living cannibals straight from Africa! Things go awry, however, when the museum's chief zoological collector is found dead in the museum basement, and the museum staff discover that the cannibals have escaped. But that's only the beginning. Several more murders, all involving well-known men, occur. Lonsdale and his fellow reporter Hulda Friederichs know the murders will make an incredible front-page story, and they dedicate themselves to cracking the case. When they discover that the victims were all members of a famous gentlemen's club and that they had all visited the Broadmoor Asylum for the insane, the pair realize things may be just a bit more complex than they imagined. A suspenseful story full of surprises, engaging characters, and an intriguing look at life in Victorian London.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)