Die I Will Not x S K Rizzolo, Poison Pen Press, 2014, 294 pages, ISBN: 978-Ebook
This intriguing mystery opens with a woman making her way along a street in Georgian London. From the first descriptions: “coach lamps winking out of the darkness, mud and horse muck, forced to skirt a cluster of prostitutes, a crew of young men out to enjoy themselves”, the London of this turgid and complex period slithers off the page and into our imaginations. This same first paragraph introduces a key theme of this book, “…and she paused to gaze after him thinking how lucky he was to walk in safety, to live without fear.”
This is no Barbra Cartland romance of fainting, virtuous ladies and almost always gallant gentlemen. Anchored in the obscene attacks by the Regent George IV on his estranged wife, Princess Caroline, any woman who presumed to speak out, or challenge her husband, father, brother, uncle or the status-quo was subject to a form of trolling by the gutter press of the time every bit as vicious as that experienced by women on the internet today. This was not an easy time to be a woman.
Admitted to the office of Dryden Leach, an editor of one of those misogynistic right-wing newspapers, the woman stabs him before running down the stairs and off into the fog. With this intriguing situation set up in the prologue, we now begin to meet the critical performers in the solving of the mystery.
Penelope Wolfe, in a misguided attempt to break away from her father has married the wrong man. Jeremy Wolfe, a potentially talented portrait painter, is squandering his talent and her monies in uncontrolled gambling and dissolute living. This is not simply a convenient plot device. Rampant uncontrolled gambling was the curse of the wealthier classes in the 18th and 19th centuries and many a noble family in this period had been brought to ruin by unpayable debts.
Before fleeing to Italy, Penelope’s father had been Collatinus, author of letters to left-wing newspapers attacking the Tories and the Regent. Now a new Collatinus has emerged and Penelope is concerned that she may be implicated in this new series of letters. Realising that she cannot depend on Jeremy for assistance, she turns to her old friend Ezekiel Thorogood and his legal partner Edward Buckler. Having met when helping to solve an earlier case, she and Edward have fallen in love but cannot act on these feelings for fear of bringing disgrace to Penelope.
When Dryden Leach dies, and his wife Mary, an old friend of Penelope, daughter of the Jew turned Anglo-Catholic, Horatio Rex, mysteriously disappears and is later found murdered, the baying and howling to apprehend the murderer can be heard all over London. The inference is that Penelope is somehow involved in these murders.
Penelope, with Buckler’s approval turns to an old friend from previous cases, John Chase, one of the top Bow Street Runners. Officially attached to the Bow Street magistrates' office, and paid by the magistrate with funds from central government, the Bow Street Runners have long been considered the starting point for professional policing in England. The fledgling nature of this early police force allows for a degree of fluidity of action that is not possible in modern policing. This is the third title in the John Chase / Penelope Wolfe series, nor, hopefully, will it be the last. It is not necessary to have read the earlier two books, The Rose in the Wheel and Blood for Blood, however, to appreciate Die I Will Not. The working out of the myriad turns and complexities of the case is completely contained within this volume.
S.K. Rizzolo has an MA in English literature and a life-long obsession with all things British. This meticulously researched novel presents a wide range of ideas and observations about life in Regency, England in a style which is lively and engrossing without ever becoming preachy. If you like well written historical mysteries as much I do, then I think you will really enjoy Die I Will Not. 5 Stars*****
Slight disclaimer: This is the first time I have read anything from the sub-category of Regency Mystery. I had no reason for this and in fact have several friends who write, read and praise this genre. I’m sorry I waited so long.