Genre: Historical, Mystery
LGBTQ+ Category: Gay
Reviewer: Ulysses
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About The Book
“We have his sisters. Involve your catamite, and they will die before the shortest day.”
A sinister abduction, a menacing threat, and an imminent deadly showdown propel Lord Clearwater and his loyal coachman, Andrej (Fecker), into a covert mission to rescue two innocent young girls. The pressing question looms: Where could the captives be hidden? The enigmatic clue to their whereabouts lies entwined within the verses of a Tennyson poem, while the relentless march of time threatens to extinguish their hope.
James is entrusted with deciphering the cryptic message, but his responsibilities multiply when Inspector Adelaide makes an arrest. With his master’s mysterious disappearance, James is thrust into a whirlwind of code-cracking, courtroom battles, and a valiant quest to salvage Archer’s tarnished reputation.
With a mere three days to unearth the elusive answers, all signs point to a location shrouded in secrecy, a place known solely to the poet Tennyson himself, and a formidable adversary presumed to be deceased. Yet, amidst the relentless pursuit of truth, doubt begins to creep in—what if James’ deductions are wrong?
“Fallen Splendour” weaves an intricate tapestry of intertwined mysteries, serving as the fourth instalment in the riveting Clearwater Mysteries series. It’s highly recommended to embark on this literary journey from the beginning, commencing with “Deviant Desire.”
The Review
Hoo boy. This one’s a pip. By that I mean it changes from a gentle comedy of manners to a anxiety-inducing, hair-raising, double-barreled race against time.
The comedy of manners centers on the staff of Clearwater House in London, where everyone is preparing to decamp for Christmas to Larkspur Castle, the ancient country seat of the Viscounts Clearwater. Thomas, the butler, has gone on ahead to the country with the housekeeper, maids and cook. The footman, James, is staying behind to assist Lord Clearwater and his personal secretary, Silas Hawkins, pack and prepare for the long train trip on the next day.
Then it all begins to go sideways. First, Archer disappears, taking Andreij with him, leaving only two short notes for Silas and James. Silas is depressed by his beloved’s unannounced departure; while James is terrified at what he reads in his friend/boss’s letter.
Later in that same day, policemen show up at Clearwater House and take Silas away, without explanation, in shackles. Clearly, James’s best friend is in serious trouble, but his Lordship is gone and James, in the world of Victorian London, is nobody with no power and no connections.
It is a terrifying moment, until James remembers that he is not really alone. What ensues is one of the most remarkable transformations in detective literature. It’s not rapid, but as we watch James, the bullied, working-class schoolboy, realize what he must do to save his found family, we see it unfold.
But it’s not only James who must adapt to circumstances. Archer, courageous but oddly innocent—as only a to-the-manner-born aristocrat can be—must also transform. He must cease being a noble employer and become a comrade-at-arms, as he was in the Navy. As is the case with James, Archer realizes that not only lives are at stake, but the band of brothers he has come to depend on and love are in danger of catastrophic loss from an unseen enemy.
Remember, this is 1888, and (I forgot to mention) a historic blizzard has shut down the trains. Each of these men can only communicate via telegraph, which is hardly equal to the situation. None of them—Thomas, Archer, Silas, James—knows what the others know, and none of them understands quite what’s going on. It’s terrifying.
I’m leaving all the good stuff out, but let me just say I was weeping by the end of it. Jackson Marsh studies his characters with a microscope and a scalpel. We already love them all, because this is, after all, book four; but in this book, everything changes, and we never quite know how bad it might be.
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.
