The Bellingham Bloodbath: A Colin Pendragon Mystery

Aristocratic sleuth Colin Pendragon and his partner, Ethan Pruitt, take on two very different cases in Harris’s entertaining second late-Victorian mystery (after The Arnifour Affair). When Capt. Trevor Bellingham of the Queen’s Life Guard and his wife are murdered in their London flat, it’s not entirely clear whether the Guard authorities want Colin to solve the crime or merely to assuage the public’s fear—and, perhaps, cover something up. Meanwhile, Lady Nesbitt-Normand knocks on Colin’s door, utterly distraught by the sudden disappearance of her prize-winning bitch, Lady Priscilla Elizabeth Windsor Hanover Nesbitt-Normand. Despite the urgency of the other case, Colin agrees to try to locate her missing dog. The two story lines, neither of which is compelling on its own, nicely complement each other. Colin and Ethan are partners in both senses of the term—as detectives and and as lovers—and their tender, at times awkward, romance adds another layer to the novel. Agent: Kathy Green, Kathy Green Agency. (Sept.)