Book Review: The Puzzle Of Blackstone Lodge by Martin Edwards

Reporter Nell Fagan isn’t exactly down on her luck, but a good scoop would definitely put her back in control of her career after a combination of her own indiscretions and the influence of wealthy recluse Rachel Savernake put her on the outs with the editors of Fleet Street. As such, she’s staying under an assumed identity in the rather grim Yorkshire town of Blackstone Fell, as she explains to her younger colleague Jacob Flint while on a short jaunt back home to London:

“So you’ve never traipsed around Blackstone Fell?”

 

“Am I missing much?”

 

She ticked items off on stubby fingers. “An abandoned cave dwelling, a dangerous stretch of river, a sinister tower, an asylum on the moors, and deadly marshland. Not to mention a history of mysterious vanishings from a Jacobean gatehouse.”

 

“Blimey, I’ll catch the next train. Remind me, where exactly is Blackstone Fell?”

 

“Ten miles from where the Brontës hung out. Makes Wuthering Heights look like Blackpool beach.”

She’s taken lodgings in that same gatehouse where, a decade prior as well as three hundred years before then, two men disappeared separately but in similarly mysterious circumstances. When her own life is threatened during the course of her investigations, she determines to invoke Rachel’s formidable brain once more. Never mind that their last interaction ended poorly: she’s sure that Rachel won’t be able to resist looking into the locked room vanishings. She only needs Jacob, whom she knows to be friendly with Rachel’s unconventional household, to put in a good word for her.

Jacob is reluctant to go to bat for a woman whose relationship with the truth is often slippery at best, but he does know that Rachel would be interested in the historical mystery. Besides, Nell is happy to sweeten the pot with a coveted invitation to an exclusive seance. Her ailing Aunt Eunice has a private audience with renowned medium Ottilie Curle, and Nell can get Jacob into the same room. Jacob’s editor at the Clarion is on a crusade against spiritualists and the like, deriding them as con artists. A scoop like this would very much help Jacob’s career. But as he witnesses the performance Ottilie gives, he can’t help but feel a twinge of misgiving:

Jacob hated the idea of giving an unscrupulous medium any credit whatsoever, but you didn’t have to be a True Believer to admire Ottilie Curle’s professionalism. She’d prepared thoroughly, and so far, her performance had left nothing to chance. Her methods reminded him of a line from a poem by Browning. Less is more.[…] A plain cook she might be, but despite her determination to eschew fancy garnishes and seasoning, Ottilie Curle served up an appetizing dish. How could he deny to the Clarion’s readers that Eunice Bell was getting her money’s worth? You only needed to look at the poor deluded woman’s eyes, unnaturally bright even in the gloom, to see that she was in a state of ecstasy.

With Nell holding up her end of the bargain, Jacob gets her an audience with Rachel, who asks only that Nell be completely honest with her. Nell, of course, has trouble doing exactly that. While Rachel swiftly dismisses the other woman, she can’t help but be intrigued by the facts Nell has imparted about Blackstone Fell, and soon enough arranges to travel north herself. But the historical murders aren’t the only deaths befalling those living in this lonely place. Will Rachel be able to figure out who’s behind the growing body count before she becomes the next victim?

There was a surprising amount of murder in this classic mystery set in the 1930s, bringing a definitely modern edge to this otherwise impeccable pastiche of the genre’s Golden Age. While this is the third installment of the Rachel Savernake series, it reads well as a standalone, and only whets the appetite for new readers to go back and enjoy the first two books in the series as well. I really appreciated too the inclusion of the Cluefinder at the end, where Martin Edwards points out the clues in the narrative that led to his clever conclusion. It’s a fun addition that helps readers see what they might have missed while otherwise enjoying this thrilling tale of suspense and seances in the early 1900s.