The Rose in the Wheel Book

This book starts off a little slowly, the period details and the characters are well drawn but the pacing of the story was only ever steady, never anything more. I liked the story while I was moving through it, it was decent and well written. But then I came to the end; the author did a wonderful job with the ending especially the revelation of the guilty party, that scene was very exciting, very well done. I also enjoyed the tenderness with which she wrapped up the story, it's not at all neat and tidy but it's nice and I liked it.

There are a lot of characters moving through this story and while I thought the mystery was well done, well connected and revealed to the reader there were times when I was glad I'd jotted down the names of the characters as they were introduced.

I was convinced I'd figured out who the murderer was and the motive, but I was wrong, the author had a much better killer and motive in mind. I liked Bow Street Runner, John Chase and barrister Edward Buckler who, with the help of Penelope Wolf, gather the information that uncovers the identity of the killer. I'm looking forward to reading more about them in the next book in the series.

If you like historical mysteries and you don't mind slow and steady pacing you might like this. I've been looking for a new series and while this is only a trilogy I'm going to read at least the next one by this author.