The Egyptian Coffin - Jane Jakeman

When Lilian Westmorland, spirited heiress to a West Country estate, has a riding accident, her guardian insists that she visits Egypt to recover. When Lord Ambrose Malfine hears of the death of a young girl, he is concerned. Racing to Egypt to rescue Lilian, he uncovers evil of the worst kind.

After having enjoyed the first book in this series so much I decided to grab book nº2.
Malfine and Elizabeth decide she must go and spend some time with her parents but he doesn’t have much time to dwell on her absence. One of his young neighbors, Lilian Westmorland, suffers a riding accident and Malfine , who was a friend of her late father and feels a bit responsible for his death, decides to pay her a visit.

While meeting Lilian Malfine makes the acquaintance of her uncle and guardian Micah Overbury whom he doesn’t much like, and of a Mr Casterman whom he feels to be rather a shady character. When Lilian is suddenly packed to Egypt by her uncle and a dead girl is found in the Westmorland estate Malfine decides to follow Lilian to Egypt and see what is really going on.

The action is alternately written from Malfine and Lilian's point of view and, near the end from Elizabeth's in letter format. Through both their accounts it's easy to see that something strange is in fact going on but there's no clue to the real mystery till it’s finally unveiled for the reader. It was also odd how Malfine got to be in the right place at the right moment when there had been no word of warning.

I found this story to be less compelling than the first book and also found Malfine to be a bit less interesting. The feelings he relates when closed up with Lilian on the Pyramid where decidedly at odds with what I had known of him previously. I do realize that these sort of books relies on a lot of introspection on the part of the character and I usually like that but this time I wasn’t totally convinced. The story and setting are original as are some of the plot elements. I got curious about Malfine's sister and was sorry not to have more information about her and her husband.

I liked the descriptions of life in England and in Egypt and the historical aspects of the story but as a whole I liked it a bit less than book 1. I’m still curious about what is going to happen in book 3 and hope to add it to my TBR pile soon.

Grade: 3.5/5

Let There be Blood - Jane Jakeman

A debut novel featuring the brooding recluse Lord Ambrose of Malfine and his faithful manservant Belos. When a nearby farmer and his son are shot dead and a gypsy is accused of their murder, Ambrose intervenes to ensure justice is done. Set in the West Country of 1830.

I love historical mysteries and I’m constantly on the lookout for new authors to read. Last year this series by Jane Jakeman was brought to my attention and I’m really happy that I decided to read it.

Written in the first person this is the story of Lord Malfine, a man who has fought in the wars of the Greek independence against the Turks only to return home full of scars and any lack of desire of socializing with his neighbors. He is the son of an English gentleman and a Greek lady who died when his sister was born.

He stays closed up in his home till he finds a group of men, some of his tenants, planning to kill a gypsy believing him guilty of the murder of two farmers. Decided to give the man a fair trial he starts he own investigation about what really happened at the farm questioning all people involved including the farm’s mistress and her son’s governess. It seems there were hidden depths to most of the people involved and the author manages to throw us on quite a few twists and turns with decidedly unexpected information. Some of its resolution is provided by facts unknown to the reader as not all that Lord Ambrose discovers is made available to us.

It makes for quite a mysterious and atmospheric read, a gothic hero with a crumbling house and two mysterious women as suspects, one of them addicted to laudanum and the other that strangely appeals to him.

I did like the author’s voice and I am quite curious about the next books in the series but I wish we had been given more information about some of the characters. The author provides a lot of historical detail like the treatment of gypsies, the fight of the workers against the machines that replace them in the factories, the disinterest shown by the upper classes in the justice system they are supposed to uphold. Nothing that overwhelms the story, just little tidbits of information that enrich it.

Grade: 4/5