The Black Hills

November 1, 2018
While it may be difficult to imagine a story that successfully combines lighthearted humor with multiple gruesome murders, Trow manages to do it brilliantly in this latest installment of the Grand and Batchelor historical-mystery series. Their latest outing, set in 1873, has the pair investigating the kidnapping of Emilia Byng, wife of London tea merchant Selwyn Byng, who claims he can't pay the ransom unless he has access to Emilia's substantial trust fund, which she's not due to receive until she turns 35. The plot begins to thicken when a woman's mutilated body is dragged from the Thames, and the detectives find that Byng has omitted vital information in his description of the kidnapping. It's hard not to like Grand, a wealthy American, and Batchelor, a British ex-journalist who's had to scratch for a living, or to fail to laugh at some of their more outrageous adventures, even as they are investigating the most brutal crimes. These qualities, added to engaging style and a gripping plot, make this one a sure bet for historical-mystery fans.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

November 1, 2019
London investigators Matthew Grand and James Batchelor return in another gripping adventure, this one set on the American frontier in 1875. General George Custer is a legend for his exploits as a soldier and for leading the men based at Fort Abraham Lincoln in the Dakota Territory during a tense standoff with the Lakota tribe, on whose land the fort stands. But Custer has made trouble for himself by accusing the U.S. president, Ulysses S. Grant; Grant's brother; and the entire government of corruption. Custer's friends fear his outspokenness may have put his life in danger. And that's when Grand, who served with Custer during the Civil War, is summoned. After an attempt on Custer's life in Washington, D.C., Grand and his loyal partner, Batchelor, travel to Fort Lincoln to watch Custer's back. When the bodies start piling up and Custer's life seems in more danger than ever, Batchelor and Grand set out to discover the truth. Realistic depictions of 1800s army life in the West, a gripping story packed with a palpable sense of danger, and a shocker of an ending make for absorbing reading.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)

November 11, 2019
Trow’s lightweight sixth Grand and Batchelor Victorian mystery (after 2018’s The Ring) takes English enquiry agents Matthew Grand and James Batchelor to Washington, D.C., where Civil War hero George Custer, now the commander of Fort Abraham Lincoln in the Dakota Territory, hires them to watch his back as he testifies before a committee in the 1870s regarding a corruption scandal involving the secretary of war. When a senator walking with Custer is killed by a runaway cab, the two detectives deduce that the intended victim was Custer. Grand and Batchelor later return with Custer to Fort Lincoln, where they gossip with the ladies at tea and take part in evening singalongs, until a soldier is shot while riding Custer’s favorite horse. Trow skillfully mines the rich vein of controversy that surrounds Custer, though the unflattering portrait of Ulysses S. Grant (“the most corrupt president we’ve had since Martin van Buren,” according to one character) will strike some readers as an inaccurate caricature of the 18th president. Those who don’t mind cardboard characters with often peculiar motives will have fun.

November 15, 2019
Victorian sleuths get a request from controversial Gen. George Armstrong Custer for help. Just as the killing of several Indians by American soldiers has prompted Chief Gall, "the worst Indian living," to stand watch conspicuously on the hills nearby, Custer is called back to Washington by the secretary of state for war himself to testify in a fraud investigation. Custer's fluttery wife, Libbie, excited to leave the frontier for the capital, insists on accompanying him. Custer sends a vague request for help to his West Point classmate Matthew Grand. Though Grand deems Custer a nearly illiterate idiot, his partner, James Batchelor (The Ring, 2019, etc.), is intrigued by the prospect of seeing the Wild West. Will Custer pay handsomely? They're in. The quartet connects in Washington, where Custer triggers government outrage when his testimony implicates President Grant's brother Orvil in corruption. It falls to Grand to convince the president to reinstate Custer in his Dakota command. Putting his own reputation on the line, Grand succeeds. Then it's off to the Black Hills with Custer, who's excited to showcase his regiment. An inept blowhard, Custer handles his command with breathtaking incompetence. There's an angry confrontation with Thompson, a belligerent soldier. Later, while scouting the hills, the company finds a dead Indian boy and, not far away, Custer's horse, Vic. Near the horse is a dead soldier, Trooper McGee. Where to start investigating? Trow's latest meanders a bit but provides juicy portraits of several historic figures.

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