Genre: Mystery, Historical
LGBTQ+ Category: Gay
Reviewer: Ulysses
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About The Book
‘No one can take away your name.’
Clearwater will lose his entire fortune unless he cracks a musical code.
If Archer’s insane brother dies, their distant cousin, the evil Count Movileşti, will inherit everything, and with the influenza pandemic threatening the brother’s asylum, the outlook is grave. The only thing that can ensure Archer’s future is a legal document left behind by his grandfather, but the clue to its location is hidden within two pieces of music. Archer has one; the other is in Movileşti’s collection at Castle Rasnov.
Archer dispatches two of his team to the Transylvanian castle, and two to the Clearwater Archives in London, leaving the rest to search every inch of his country house. The men face their pasts and decide their futures as loyalties are tested, and death stalks the corridors of Larkspur Hall. With Movileşti on his way to claim the inheritance, everyone has a vital part to play and everything to lose as they race against time.
Set during the 1890 Russian influenza pandemic, The Clearwater Inheritance is a mystery thriller that takes us from Cornwall to Transylvania, and from the cellars of Larkspur Hall to the Orient Express. A mashup of romance, mystery and adventure, the tenth book ties up previous threads, answers questions, and sets the scene for the Clearwater future. The series is best read in order, starting with ‘Deviant Desire.’ The non-mystery prequel, ‘Banyak & Fecks’ should be read before books nine and ten.
The Review
An extraordinary finale to a great series, the Clearwater Inheritance completes the “creation story” of the Clearwater Detective Agency, and sets us up for what is yet to come. It is fast-paced and filled with complex plot details that overlap and distract, just like the other books in the series. The plot driver in this tenth book is the fear that all of Archer Riddington’s good works; all his hopes and dreams, could be shattered by the malevolent dislike of his late father.
The global influenza pandemic is still raging. The dowager viscountess Clearwater has died, and Archer, having brought her remains back to Larkspur Hall for burial, finally explains to his devoted crew the status of his inheritance. In classic thriller style, it all comes down to finding a hidden document – maybe more than one – and solving a seemingly impossible puzzle left by Archer’s grandfather as a safeguard.
With Archer and Thomas literally guarding the fortress at Larkspur, Silas and James set off for London, chasing after one clue. Meanwhile Andrej and Jasper set off on an even more precarious journey, to the castle of a distant family cousin in the Carpathian Mountains. Each of these men is armed solely with his wits and his special skills – skills nurtured and encouraged by Lord Clearwater. Andrej, with his roots in Eastern Europe, accompanies teenaged Jasper, whose musical gift is all but magical.
With everything happening at once, the usual problems of communication and transportation add to the tension throughout the narrative. Marsh uses his research to offer up a panorama of the Western world in 1890, but gives us something else. Andrej, Master of the Larkspur Horse now, is cast as Jasper’s protector. Literally everything the two men experience is a first for Jasper, and this journey becomes Jasper’s education and the ultimate test of his devotion to the English nobleman who gave him a new life. This journey, however, is really Andrej’s. We finally learn his full story, and watch as he forges a bond with Jasper that will forever change both men.
It’s an epic adventure, heart-stopping and intentionally dizzying in its complexity.
Five 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.
