The Blue and the Grey: A Grand & Batchelor Victorian Mystery

At the start of this uneven first in a new historical series from Trow (Crimson Rose), Capt. Matthew Grand, a Union cavalry officer, is in the audience at Ford’s Theatre on the evening of Apr. 14, 1865, when John Wilkes Booth shoots the president. Grand attempts to pursue the assassin, but a man knocks him out after commenting in an English accent, “You didn’t think Johnny would come alone?” Lafayette Baker, head of the National Detective Police, sends Grand to England to track down the mysterious accomplice. There, Grand crosses paths with James Batchelor, a journalist fresh out of work, who likewise found himself on the scene of a killing—that of a prostitute named Effie, who proves to be the first victim of the so-called Haymarket Strangler. The strangler plot line is derivative, and the Lincoln angle will strike some readers as a poorly executed gimmick to bring Grand and Batchelor together as investigative partners. (Apr.)