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When I see books written about the Regency period in England, I usually run the other way. However, THE SUDBURY SCHOOL MURDERS did not appear to be a soppy romance, and I was in the mood for something light, so I tried it. I was pleasantly surprised. Captain Gabriel Lacey, a veteran of the Peninsular Wars, is on half pay, so he accepts a position as secretary to Headmaster Everard Rutledge of the eponymous posh boys' school. Bartholomew is acting as Lacey's manservant. He is actually footman to the captain's friend, Lucius Grenville, a very wealthy man-about-town. Grenville had also arranged the new position for Lacey. Apparently there have been many pranks carried out at the school. Some of them were actually dangerous. Rutledge is a strong disciplinarian, not well liked, so this is a way for the boys to get back at him. The boys are all from the nouveau riche merchant class, not quite good enough to get into a school like Eton, despite their fathers' money. One day, Lacey sees the head groom at the stable. He is the employee of a criminal mastermind from London. The groom is killed during the night and Sebastian, a gypsy who had been hired to work in the stables, is arrested. Lacey writes a letter to the groom's previous employer, James Dennis, who asks the Captain to investigate and keep him informed. Dennis has, on previous occasions, tried to get Lacey to work for him but Lacey will not work for a criminal, no matter how much he needs the money. There is no further official inquiry, since it has been decided that 'the gypsy did it', but Lacey, at the behest of Rutledge's daughter and Dennis, investigates. Regency England, with its class consciousness, is brought vividly to life in THE SUDBURY SCHOOL MURDERS. Lacey, Grenville, Bartholomew and Sebastian are well differentiated characters, representing different levels of society, and the murder is brought to a satisfactory conclusion.
Reviewed by Barbara Franchi, January 2006
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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