Rough Music

In Blake’s outstanding fifth 18th-century whodunit featuring coroner Titus Cragg and Dr. Luke Fidelis (after 2016’s Skin and Bone), army veteran Harry Hawk and brothers Simon and Charlie Stirk decide that Anne Gargrave must be punished for being a shrew. The trio strip off most of her clothes before tying her to a stool nailed to a wooden beam and parading their humiliated victim through the East Lancashire town of Accrington. By the end of the day, Gargrave lies dead in the road. Meanwhile, Cragg arrives in the area with his savvy wife, Elizabeth, and their infant son, having decided to move residences temporarily to avoid having the child exposed to a contagious disease. When Fidelis joins him, the physician discovers that Gargrave died from inhaling mud as she lay on her face. Reports that Hawk may be an imposter, who assumed the real soldier’s identity, suggest that fear of discovery may have been behind Gargrave’s death. More suspicious deaths follow. Clever plotting and enjoyable characterizations make this entry a winner. (Apr.)