A Time for the Death of a King

This pseudonymous novel by a veteran writer of historical mysteries kicks off a series featuring Nicholas Segalla, an immortal investigator of real-life historical mysteries who's based loosely on the legendary Count of St. Germain. The focus here is on the assassination of dissolute, syphilitic Lord Darnley, consort of beautiful, courageous Mary, Queen of Scots. The novel opens in the present, with Segalla giving the author a manuscript detailing his investigation 430 years ago of Darnley's death. Forming the bulk of the novel, the manuscript relates how Segalla, then a Jesuit under Archbishop Beaton, Scottish envoy to Paris, was sent to Mary's court, arriving in time for the great explosion of February 10, 1567, which leveled the manor house at Kirk o' Field, Edinburgh. After the explosion, the bodies of Darnley and a servant were found in a nearby orchard, apparently strangled. Segalla's not especially convincing investigation exonerates the man generally considered the main suspect, the brutal, womanizing Lord Bothwell. While Dukthas's hero and her prose tend toward the melodramatic, the concept of an immortal sleuth investigating great historical mysteries has appeal-and could catch on with readers despite this novel's flaws. (Dec.)