Murder at Half Moon Gate

Early in Penrose’s able second Regency mystery (after 2017’s Murder on Black Swan Lane), the Earl of Wrexford, a respected amateur chemist, is returning home from a night of gambling when he stumbles over a mutilated corpse in London’s disreputable St. Giles district. He’s shocked to learn that the victim is an acquaintance, Elihu Ashton, a textile factory owner who shares his scientific bent. Elihu’s widow, Isobel, who reveals that Elihu recently designed a new type of steam engine with huge profit potential, asks Wrexford’s help in discovering the killer. Z-shaped slashes on the body point to a radical anti-industrial group called the Workers of Zion, but additional clues persuade Wrexford and his detecting partner, artist Charlotte Sloane, that the crime is more complex. Elihu’s assistant and the drawings of his invention go missing, a coded message turns up, and everyone from Isobel to Elihu’s investors is hiding secrets. Penrose reveals intriguing new aspects of her protagonists’ characters and relationship in a story linked to the era’s technological and social changes. Agent: Gail Fortune, Fortune Talbot Agency. (Apr.)