Summons to Murder by J C Briggs

I am glad that I am ending my year with a book by J C Briggs. I've not always been successful in getting the books but am very appreciative to Sapere Books for sending this on to me. 1851 London - Detective Sam Jones and Charles Dickens are good friends. They also know a kind of fatalistic feeling that they are working against great odds. Especially when one of the aristocracy is involved. London is not kind to the poor and helpless, the system of law and justice is weighted heavily in favour of the rich, the famous and the powerful. Depicting London at its worst one could be forgiven for thinking that this is not part of the developed world even in 1851 - the primitive way of living, the squalor and dirt and illness found in the slums of London cheek by jowl to the houses of the rich and famous was in itself upsetting to read about. The callousness and indifference of those who had it all to those who worked for them and came from the lower economic and social classes was immense and hard to even read about. Here the two men have to find a murderer of a friend of theirs. Pierce Mallory was found with a gunshot wound to his head, deemed as a suicide but Dickens knows that this is not the case. Uncovering a story of bigamy, murder, cruelty (forcible incarceration of a wife in an asylum) and using his wits and cleverness to acquire more and more wealth our suspect is a legal luminary much respected and feared by his peers and a member of the aristocracy to boot. Getting him acquitted is not going to be an easy task. The story is both of the historical and mystery murder genre and covers both in great detail. The plot is complicated the suspects and victims are many but the story weaves a good tale to keep the reader engrossed. Sent by Sapere Books for an unbiased review, courtesy of Netgalley.