CROOKED IN HIS WAYS Lightner and Law, Book 2

Imagine Lord Peter Wimsey with a debilitating stammer fighting crime in a racist, xenophobic mid-nineteenth-century New York. Now imagine being the actor having to perform that character over many hours of a multilayered plot without letting the stammer distract from the story or drive the listener mad. Rupert Degas gives us a master class in skill and judgment in this extremely entertaining, if seriously overcrowded, historical mystery. Lord Lightner and his faithful valet, Bunter--oops, Paisley--have been seconded to New York to teach the fledgling (think corrupt Tweed administration) police force how to solve crimes. A body turns up in a crate of salt, in pieces. Much more mayhem follows. Degas mispronounces Houston Street, and weirdly, Plantagenet, but otherwise, his performance is dazzling. B.G. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine [Published: MAY 2022]