Death Called to the Bar - Softcover

Dickinson, David

3.88

189 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1569475504 ISBN 13: 9781569475508

Publisher: Soho Constable, 2008

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Someone is killing eminent lawyers; Lord Francis Powerscourt is summoned to investigate discreetly.

Queen's Inn is London's youngest and most fashionable Inn of Court. During a feast on February 29, 1902, senior barrister Alexander Dauntsey collapses into his soup and dies. He has been poisoned. Soon after, his friend Woodford Stewart is shot dead, and Lord Francis Powerscourt is summoned to discreetly investigate the matter of the murdered barristers. His inquiries take him into the heart of legal London where the wills of the dead can reveal the crimes of the living. It takes him to the center of a troubled marriage where lack of children imperils everything. And it takes him to Calne, a mysterious house in the country where the glorious past is boarded up and the treasures of generations hide beneath the dustsheets.

There are many suspects: a jealous wife, a mistress fearful of being jilted, a work colleague beaten to the senior role in the Inn, and a cuckolded husband who writes books about poisons. Powerscourt himself is put in grave danger before he finally solves the mystery of Death Called to the Bar.

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About the Author:

David Dickinson has an honors degree in Classics from Cambridge. Working for the BBC, he became editor of Newsnight and Panorama, as well as series editor of Monarchy. He is the author of eight mysteries in the Lord Powerscourt series. He lives in Barnes, West London, UK.

Review:

A cracking yarn, beguilingly real from start to finish... you have to pinch yourself to remind you that it is fiction - or is it? -- Peter Snow Dickinson textures his canvas with historical detail as thick as the oil paint on one of his favourite paintings by Turner. * Kirkus Reviews * This is detective fiction in the grand style; the characters and the plot soar upwards and carry us in their wake. Powerscourt's debut in this intoxicating book is the start of a gilded life in the archives of crime. -- James Naughtie In this excellent novel, Dickinson weaves a tale of blackmail and murder among the royals late in Victoria's reign... Dickinson's knowledge of the arts, history and literature is nothing if not exhaustive, and adds enormously to the overall background... One hopes to see more of Lord Powerscourt and his friends in the near future. * Publishers Weekly *

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