Book Review (Fiction):The Secrets Of Wishtide

The Secrets Of Wishtide

A Laetitia Rodd Mystery     

Kate Saunders

Bloomsbury 2017                                                              336 Pages

England, 1850.

Sherlock Holmes had the street urchin Wiggins and the Baker Street Irregulars to assist him in his cases. Frederick Tyson, a celebrated Victorian criminal barrister, has his sister, the redoubtable widow Mrs Laetitia Rodd.

This relic of a much-loved archdeacon, the late Reverend Matthew Rodd, is not quite the harmless old biddy that she seems. Reduced to shabby genteel poverty by the passing of her husband, the resourceful Mrs Rodd avoids the usual fate of being a poor relation dependent on more prosperous relatives, by working as an independent private investigator for her much younger brother. As she says - “My work could be described as the Management and Prevention of Scandal (my brother used to enjoy making up facetious advertisements for my services – ‘Blushes Spared and Broken Commandments Mended!’).” The teasing yet affectionate relationship between these siblings is easily among the best-drawn characterizations in the book.

The Secrets Of Wishtide is narrated in her compassionate yet sensible voice, alternated with letters updating brother “Fred” on developments on their latest shared case. Intelligent, intuitive and observant, 52-year-old “Letty” Rodd is quite the expert in accurately reading people.  Thanks to her years as a clergyman’s wife, she’s also very adept at passing discreetly and unobtrusively through varied strata of Victorian society. In this she’s aided by her supportive landlady and confidante, elderly Mrs Mary Bentley, whose extended working-class clan provide a useful network of informants and helpers.

Hired by her brother to investigate the antecedents of an unsuitable widow, Mrs Helen Orme, who has attracted the affections of Charles Calderstone, the sole male heir of wealthy industrial magnate Sir James Calderstone, Mrs Rodd travels to Wishtide, a country estate in the frozen wilds of deepest Lincolnshire. Her investigations turn up more than she bargained for – in the form of plentiful skeletons in the Calderstone’s own cupboards.

Attempted blackmail is followed by the murder of the unfortunate Mrs Orme by persons unknown and then by a string of very suspicious unnatural deaths reminiscent of those in the works of Wilkie Collins. Mrs Rodd’s initial assignment morphs swiftly from discreet scandal containment to investigating serial murder, assisted grudgingly by the piratically-named Inspector Thomas Blackbeard of Scotland Yard. Former actress and journalist Kate Saunders is a clearly a fan of Charles Dickens; for the late Mrs Orme’s back story is lifted lock, stock and barrel  from the James Steerforth-Little Em’ly subplot in David Copperfield – but with significant changes, as the author explains in an afterword.

Ms. Saunders is obviously both fascinated and very knowledgeable about  Victorian England;  this shows in the depth of domestic and other detail expertly woven into this well-plotted whodunit with its many intricate twists and turns. The home comforts so precious to Mrs Rodd in her straitened circumstances can be seen in her simple delight in these directions for a well-made “Smoking Bishop” a fragrant warm cocktail of red wine, port and spices that helps keep winter chills at bay: “...first stick a lemon with cloves and sugar-lumps, roast it beside a medium fire until caramelized, then place in your pan of wine to simmer gently for twenty minutes.” 

However, the author takes care that The Secrets Of Wishtide doesn’t tip over into an Agatha Christie-like cosy murder. Apart from having to count every penny, the dogged Mrs Rodd has to contend with the many discomforts of a harsh Victorian winter, not to mention delving into the depths of bleak London slums and a condemned cell within Newgate prison. Unlike Christie’s spinster Miss Marple, this sometimes harrowing investigation is not conducted from the comfort of a warm parlor but right down on the ground.

And looming ominously behind the many orchestrated killings is the unseen presence of a shadowy master criminal known as “The Prince”. Hot on his murderous trail, Laetitia Rodd could very well count among his many victims...