Murder at King’s Crossing (A Wrexford & Sloane Mystery)
This Wrexford and Sloane Regency mystery, eighth in the series, entangles the exhilarating family of the Earl of Wrexford and his (secret editorial cartoonist) wife Lady Charlotte (née Sloane)—and their adopted sons, those scamps! —with another Penrose exploration of how science and technology galloped forward at the time. Of course, a murder takes place—this time of someone clutching an invitation to the wedding that Wrex and Charlotte host for their friends Christopher Sheffield and Lady Cordelia Mansfield. The victim is an engineer rumored to have a radical new design for bridges, but how did he lay hands on the invitation, and why?
The Weasels—those adopted sons—not only have permission for the sleuthing this time, but also grow in number. Lady Charlotte explains, “Ours is an unconventional family… What binds us together is love.” That love is for each other, but also for the friends whose lives are being upended by inventions and discoveries.
Value is at the heart of the crime. It takes an insightful entrepreneur like the Earl of Wrexford to see why: “If someone has come up with an innovation that allows bridges to span wider distances … all sorts of new routes are possible, changing the time it takes to travel—which in turn would have great economic implications.” He adds, “I, for one, can’t begin to put a price on what that patent would be worth.”
So, there’s motive. Investigating means and opportunity will put Charlotte’s family-of-choice at risk. As Wrex tells the boys, “M’lady has given us strict orders that at the first sign of trouble you are to blow the whistle and then scarper.” Did he really think the boys would do that, though?
