Worm in the Blossom
Worm in the Blossom, the third Sam Plank Mystery, delivers a well-written tale of crime for 1820s London constable, Sam Plank, to unravel, with a little help from his wife, Martha, and his protégée, constable Wilson. For this novel, the author has focused on the seedier side of life in the capital with a plot of blackmail and skulduggery. She maintains many of the secondary characters from the previous books, all of whom are well portrayed and greeted by the reader with a fond familiarity as they reappear, which is the joy of a well-plotted series.
Susan Grossey is a very talented wordsmith; however, choosing to deal with the delicate subject of youth prostitution and the deflowering of young girls was never going to be an easy task. As much as I enjoyed the book as a whole, I found myself questioning its historical authenticity — even for the main linchpin of the plot — which was somewhat distracting. For instance, the age of consent was ten to twelve for girls and not changed to thirteen until 1875. Middle-class outrage at the thriving underworld of youth prostitution did not rally to raise it to sixteen until as late as 1885.
The novel has an overall realistic feel, well populated, if not on the edge of saturated, with the vernacular of the locale and time, but the core subject of youth prostitution was seen through 21st-century eyes and morals rather than those typical of the period. Does all that matter? To readers who know the nineteenth century well and read to enter a believable world of the past, accurately written and portrayed, then yes; but to readers who seek a well-written mystery, and who are not concerned with the facts, this is a good novel produced to a conventionally published standard, which fans of Sam Plank will greatly enjoy.
