Gunpowder, treason and plot…

November 1926 and Guy Fawkes Night is approaching. At the Tower of London, preparations are in place for the annual fireworks display, but a shadow has already been cast – three of the six ravens that guard the tower have been found dead. And if the ravens ever leave the tower (in little raven coffins or otherwise) then the realm will fall…

Inspector Graves and Constable Carver are dispatched to the Tower, and soon find themselves investigating something more than bird-murder. One of the beefeaters has been found tied to a chair and shot in the head. As Graves hunts for the killer, a second murder occurs – a murder that would have been impossible to commit…

A bit late with this one – it’s been out for the last three weeks – but I’m glad I got round to it. It’s the third book from author J S Savage following The Mystery Of Treefall Manor (also featuring Graves and Carver) and Sun, Sea and Murder. Both of these – and this one – are traditional mysteries, following that old tradition that seems to have gone out of style these days, namely including clues for the reader to play along with.

I saw an interesting anecdote that the author posted on ex-Twitter, concerning spotting a more famous author and offering him a review copy of this one that Savage happened to have on him. He politely declined, saying he had too many other books to read. That may well be true, but said author (whose identity I correctly deduced) really should have read this because a) it’s great, b) authors who need to publish independently need support and c) it might teach said author what a clue is.

So, if any book agents read this, then I do suggest you take a look at this book and the author’s other works. With the current upsurge in crime fiction “for fans of Agatha Christie”, it’s nice to see authors who actually understand that and would do well with the biggest audience possible.

Right, enough plugging, what about the book itself?

Graves and Carver form a good duo, very much in a teacher-student relationship, with Graves willing to both criticise inexperience and praise insights. Graves has a past that comes into play in this one in an interesting (if somewhat coincidental) way. The story keeps moving with an interesting impossibility for the second crime – how can someone be shot by a gun that the detective was looking at hanging on a wall at the time of death? The killer’s plot makes a twisted sense, and I think there’s plenty of things that the reader will miss.

It’s rare that I say this, but I do wonder if a longer word count would have helped. The reader could do with some mental breathing space at times and things get quite hectic in the second half, with some clues feeling like they were flashed past the reader a little too quickly. In Christie, when we are reminded that the window-cleaner was left-handed, the reader can always remember being told that, but here there were a couple of things that I’m taking on trust that they were mentioned. They will have been, but I didn’t recall them, even when reminded.

That’s a minor point – it’s always a bit harsh to compare anyone to Christie’s ability to lay a clue because nobody could do it like her. Like the other two books, this is a well-constructed and intriguing mystery and a nice impossible crime that I don’t recall seeing before. Definitely check this one out, mystery fans. You won’t be disappointed.