Spoiler's Prey

September 15, 2024
A battle between tradition and new ideas leads to unrest and murder in 1748 England as the movement to enclose farmland takes off. A letter from his friend Dr. Luke Fidelis urges Titus Cragg, Lancashire's county coroner, to come to the little town of Ingolside, which Fidelis fears has been the site of a murder. Fidelis is attending Mrs. Lumsden, mother of the local squire, whose determination to enclose land the villagers rely on for grazing and growing food will bring them to ruin. Cragg stays with a relative while he investigates--much to the squire's disapproval--the case of a man found dead in the town marketplace. John Lavenham, a documents expert looking into land holdings, had arrived with surveyor Wilkin Tree as part of Lumsden's plan to throw people off their land. When Fidelis examines the corpse, he finds damaged lungs, bruises, and a postmortem gunshot wound. Before he died, Lavenham escaped a fire that destroyed an inn where he was drinking, but there's much confusion about how he was rescued and whether the fire was arson. Investigations lead Cragg to believe that Lavenham was forging documents that gave Lumsden the right to seize the land he wanted. After hearing testimony, an inquest delivers the verdict of accidental death from smoke inhalation, leaving many questions unanswered. A farmer forced off his land sells his wife for money to emigrate, and a boxing match held in town stirs up mixed emotions. Lumsden, meanwhile, uses every dirty trick to carry out his plan as Cragg and Fidelis search for the truth. A minor mystery greatly enhanced by fascinating historical details.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

September 27, 2024
In the late spring of 1748, Titus Cragg, coroner for the county, joins his friend and colleague Dr. Luke Fidelis in Ingolside, Lancashire, to conduct an inquest into the death of John Lavenham. Lavenham and a surveyor had been hired by Squire Lumsden to review land documents. The Squire supports enclosure of the traditionally held common lands, opposing his ailing mother in the matter. Upon examination of the body, Fidelis determines that the cause of death is not consistent with the position in which the body had been found. As Cragg prepares for the inquest, which takes place just before the celebration of Whitsun Ales, a village fair, he probes the deep division among the Ingolside residents about the matter and manner of enclosure. The complexities of English law for land tenancy, along with the investigative details Cragg and Fidelis are able to establish while using the methods of the time, make for a satisfyingly complex tale of deceit and revenge. Ninth in the long running series (after Hungry Death, 2022), this will appeal to fans of British historical mysteries.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.