A Suspicion of Silver: A Sir Robert Carey Mystery

Set in 1593, Chisholm’s entertaining ninth Sir Robert Carey mystery (after 2017’s Clash of Spheres) finds Carey, a deputy warden of the Marches and therefore responsible for the security of the border between Scotland and England, hot on the trail of Joachim Hochstetter, a psychopath who committed his first murder as a child. Carey has a warrant for Hochstetter’s arrest in connection with an attempt on the life of King James of Scotland. The would-be assassin may have ridden south into England, where his widowed mother, an immigrant from Augsburg, runs a mine in Keswick. First, though, Carey must look into the disappearance of Hochstetter’s pugnacious henchman, Land-Sergeant Henry Dodd, last seen on the Scottish moors. That Hochstetter’s mother pays the queen a royalty in gold from the mine’s operations complicates Carey’s search. Chisholm smoothly inserts realistic details of daily life in 16th-century Britain into this fast-moving historical. Those interested in the mining techniques of the period will be gratified. (Dec.)