On the eve of the Battle of Waterloo, in England, Colonel Richard Kinsmere decides to entertain and distract his grandchildren with the story of his grandfather, Roderick “Devil” Kinsmere at the court of King Charles II.

It’s a story of adventure, of duels, of heroisom, of night-time rides and perilous ship journeys. A tale of murder in the dark – and also a tale of the enchanting Dolly Landis, a lady with more involvement in the tale than might first appear.

How was Devil Kinsmere involved in preventing a war and the destiny of England itself? Well, sit back and listen to the story…

When I recently reviewed The Murder Of Sir Edmund Godfrey, I cited it as the earliest historical mystery novel, but as someone reminded me, I had forgotten this one. Same author though – when Carr wrote it, it was suggested he adopt yet another pseudonym.

It’s also as rare as snake’s wings so reading it involved a trip to the Bodleian, but unfortunately it coincided with the onset of a stinking cold – still got it the next day – so I did have to read it pretty quickly. You’ll be pleased to know that I managed not to sneeze over the book though. If you want to read it, then Carr did re-write it as Most Secret, released in 1952, and the re-write does seem pretty minimal. It was mostly tidied up to remove anachronisms – “hands in his pockets” replaced with “fingers in his belt” for example – and the dialogue was completely re-written apparently. But the plot is still the same.

Carr does cover himself for the anachronisms in this one by owning up to them at the start, given that the tale has been written up by the great-great-grandchild of Devil, but I guess they bothered him enough to rewrite them later – this edition wasn’t a success, mainly because no one had a clue who Fairbarn was and it was, to an extent, a new genre.

Having said that… it’s not exactly great. It reminds me a bit of Captain Cut-Throat, but that’s a much better book. Carr has clearly done his research, but he overdoes it. Compare it to Paul Doherty who, as, say, Athelstan might spot a pickpocket being punished by having his fingers nibbled by ferrets and a prostitute having a pair of wooden underpants nailed to her pelvis (or something actually historically accurate) whereas here Carr does whole chapters that don’t have any link to the plot before getting back to the story (which, by the way, does take an age to start).

The murder and murderer is pretty inconsequential – Douglas Greene names them without a spoiler warning in his biography of Carr , as, in fact, does Carr in one of the later chapter titles – but the mystery is, I suppose, who the mastermind is. Although, and this may be due to my cold fugue, I didn’t notice the existence of such a character until they get named by their henchman. So it’s not really a mystery, certainly not a locked room, it’s primarily an historical adventure.

There is the typical Carrian romance – I hate you, I hate you repeated a few times before a marriage proposal – but it does contain one of the most… blatant sex scenes that I’ve seen in the detective genre. If I may quote:

“After some considerable time, he knew that he was even more in love than he had believed. Some time after that, he was certain of it. Fifteen or twenty minutes later, it was an assured or everlasting matter. During the ensuing half-hour, he began to feel that he could take considerable pride in himself. (In fact, there is nothing puts us in quite so good a humour with ourselves, and why not?)”

That’s a really weird thing to say to your grandkids about your grandfather, no?

So, what to take away from this? It feels like Carr learning his trade when it comes to writing historicals – after this and Edmund Godfrey, it’s about fifteen years before he comes back to it with The Bride Of Newgate which is a much better book. There’s currently a copy at Sotheby’s that has an expected auction price of £1500 – if you’re desperate to read it, then just get a copy of Most Secret instead, as there are affordable ones out there… Although you also won’t get the weird chapter titles such as “How the Sly and Crowded World came to Dance and Devil Kinsmere Heard of a Secret Conspiracy”…