S. M. Goodwin pulled me into Absence of Mercy immediately with her descriptions of Jasper Lightner, a Crimean War hero with post-traumatic stress syndrome and a traumatic brain injury. The second son of a duke, Jasper inherits enough money to become independent of his cold-hearted father and begins working as a Detective Inspector on London’s Metropolitan police. In 1857 Jasper is sent to New York City to train American policemen on investigative techniques. He’s immediately sucked into the case of a grisly murder which appears to be connected with two that occur earlier and another that occurs later. Jasper faces both the American fasciation with and prejudice against titled Brits, the latter of which survives though the Revolutionary War ended some 80 years earlier. He all but breaks his assistant, Heironymous Law, out of jail so they can work together on this case.
Goodwin has created some marvelous characters, both major and minor, and populates them in a NYC that rings true to the times with pre-Civil War politics and Tammany Hall. Jasper is aristocratic but egalitarian, handsome, and rich, but his perfection is marred by a stutter. Though Jasper predates Sherlock Holmes by some years, he too has an addiction: opium helps the headaches generated by his traumatic brain injury. Jasper’s butler, Paisley, is perhaps more aristocratic than his employer. The women, whores and ladies alike, are fully-developed and ring true.
This fantastic detective novel has plenty of twists and turns, yet there are no loose plot bunnies. Eagerly awaiting the next in the series.
********************
Absence of Mercy is available through:
********************
This post contains Amazon Affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn a small amount from qualifying purchases.
