Genre: Historical, Mystery, Romance
LGBTQ+ Category: Gay
Reviewer: Ulysses
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About The Book
Will and Jack Merrit are set a simple task: Journey to an island in the Bristol Channel to attend the reading of a will. Why? No-one knows.
Charles Marisco can guess what’s in his father’s will. Everything will go to his twin brother, Simon, because he was born first. However, Charles has other things on his mind, namely, his best friend, Barrett Newton, a man he would like to know more intimately.
A storm-lashed castle, a remote island, and a cast of eccentric characters set the stage for Will and Jack Merrit’s most baffling case yet—one that grows deadlier as the body count rises.
This is the fourth book in the Delamere Files series. The books should be read in order.
The Review
It was a dark and stormy night…
With open eyes Jackson Marsh has decided to take on the archetype of all mystery settings: a brooding castle on a rocky island in the middle of a stormy sea—during an extended thunderstorm. It takes a moment until it all dawns on you—through Marsh’s elegant, vivid language.
Will and Jack are handed a peculiar but seemingly straightforward case by Jimmy Wright—who has to attend Alfred Tennyson’s funeral as a pallbearer with Lord Clearwater. For Jack, it’s a chance to prove himself to Jimmy and his Lordship while looking out for his littler brother. For Will it’s his first full-on case, as well as a bunch of new puzzles to solve and a host of new experiences.
A deceased baron has required that two outside observers be present at the reading of his will, to be opened a year to the day after his death, in the presence of his twin sons, the very slightly elder of whom is the new Baron Templar. The place is Templar Castle on Templar Island, off the coast of Devonshire.
The author has great fun setting up the whole mystery, and even more fun tracking Will and Jack’s odyssey to Templar—introducing the peculiar cast of characters, one of whom is an old school friend of Earl Clearwater. It is not just the action—right down to exploring the creepy old castle, parts of which date back hundreds of years—but the psychological development of both of the Merrit brothers, and their interactions with the Marisco twins along with the late baron’s staff on the island.
In this fourth book of the Delamere series, there is a lot of attention paid to the details of Will Merrit’s “condition.” His preciseness, which is revealed to the reader through his own eyes, seems to be a kind of obsessive-compulsion. The way the author lets us into Will’s mind is done with great tenderness, building up our respect for Will’s huge intelligence, but also reminding us what Will goes through every day of his life just to manage mundane tasks.
By contrast, Jack’s sometimes blundering protectiveness continues to be a source of friction between the brothers, which in no way lessens the powerful bond of love between them.
For all its trope-like set-up, the action in the book is always a little surprising, as the narrative unfolds at the startling finale. The characters are all kept guessing, just as the reader is, right to the end. It is a very satisfying read, leaving you hungry for more.
5 stars.
The Reviewer
Ulysses Grant Dietz grew up in Syracuse, New York, where his Leave It to Beaver life was enlivened by his fascination with vampires, from Bela Lugosi to Barnabas Collins. He studied French at Yale, and was trained to be a museum curator at the University of Delaware. A curator since 1980, Ulysses has never stopped writing fiction for the sheer pleasure of it. He created the character of Desmond Beckwith in 1988 as his personal response to Anne Rice’s landmark novels. Alyson Books released his first novel, Desmond, in 1998. Vampire in Suburbia, the sequel to Desmond, is his second novel.
Ulysses lives in suburban New Jersey with his husband of over 41 years and their two almost-grown children.
By the way, the name Ulysses was not his parents’ idea of a joke: he is a great-great grandson of Ulysses S. Grant, and his mother was the President’s last living great-grandchild. Every year on April 27 he gives a speech at Grant’s Tomb in New York City.
