Genre: Historical, Mystery
LGBTQ+ Category: Gay
Reviewer: Ulysses
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About The Book
Following an accident, a schoolboy and a tattooed Romanian find themselves unexpected guests at Clearwater’s country house, Larkspur Hall.
But what if their presence is no accident? What if Mr Smith is Protectori, a member of an ancient order of assassins bent on destroying anyone who sullies the name of the Szekely people of Transylvania? And what do a runaway boy and an assassin have to do with Clearwater’s famed Easter dinner party and its guest of honour, the actor, Henry Irving?
Ancestral feuds, a pocket watch and a rare Romanian wine are seemingly random connections until Silas breaks into a London theatre, and James rescues a boy from drowning. Then, it’s a race against time to prevent a hideous murder and Archer’s ruin.
Bitter Bloodline is a no-heat mystery that sees Archer’s loyal servants become their own band of Protectori. The Clearwater Mysteries are best read in order.
The Review
Jackson Marsh is expert at mingling history with fantasy. The through-line of the Clearwater series is the serial killer who won’t die, and who has a personal vendetta against Archer Riddington, Viscount Clearwater. While that complication is an essential element, the emotional core of this story is Silas Hawkins’ devotion to the nobleman who pulled him out of the gutter and gave him everything. And Silas isn’t alone: Thomas Payne the butler, and Jimmy Wright the footman, are part of the quiet brotherhood inside Clearwater House. They love and support each other, while preserving the public reputation and social goals of their employer, friend, and lover.
The scene has switched to Larkspur Hall, the seaside castle of the Clearwater viscounts for centuries. This ratchets up the intrigue, since Larkspur boasts a much larger staff, of which Thomas has become the unexpected commander. Keeping up appearances requires more vigilance and more discretion. To add to the tension, Lord Clearwater is holding a highly-publicized Easter dinner at Larkspur, including such celebrities as Henry Irving, world-famous actor and impresario of the Lyceum Theater in London, and poet-laureate to the queen, Alfred, Lord Tennyson. My favorite historical guest is Irving’s manager, Bram Stoker, who will someday become famous for his great novel about a Romanian vampire.
The gala weekend is aimed at building support for Clearwater’s London charity, serving young men forced into life on the streets. Little does everyone know (but the reader knows from the very start) that forces are afoot to humiliate Lord Clearwater and destroy his charity and his reputation.
Marsh is excellent at depicting the complex life in a great house, while weaving in the remarkably creepy ongoing presence of Doctor Billings, who pulled Silas’s chestnuts out of the fire in the last book, simply so he could pursue his vendetta against Archer at his leisure. There are a great many moving parts in this plot, made even more complicated by a horrific train crash and the rescue of a little boy from the wreckage.
In a time when the only way to communicate rapidly was telegraph, the reader is kept all-too aware of how many ways disaster could strike. Marsh keeps the reader jumping from place to place, and he also keeps the reader better-informed than anyone else in the story, ratcheting up the anxiety as Billings’ plot unfolds.
It’s hair-raising and breathtaking and brilliant.
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.
