Letter of the Law (Silver and Simm Victorian Mysteries, Book 11) by Cynthia E. Hurst

Release date: October 1, 2019

Subgenre: Historical mystery, Victorian mystery

About Letter of the Law:

 

Alfred Sutton’s past is catching up with him – in the form of the wife he thought he’d left behind twenty years earlier. But now she stands between him and the wealthy woman he wants to marry, and no one will emerge unscathed from this legal and marital triangle, least of all Sutton.

When Sutton collapses and dies on the street of a Cotswold market town, one of the eyewitnesses is clock repairer Jacob Silver. But what exactly did he see? Jacob and his wife Sarah join forces with the police to probe Sutton’s tangled love life and discover who has managed to commit a murder without leaving a clue behind.

 

Excerpt:

 

Sunday was always a livelier day, not least because Sarah bustled around preparing a larger breakfast than usual, and then went off to attend the morning service at St Mary’s, Witney’s large parish church.

Left alone with Joshua, Jacob devised a game, pretending to hide behind a linen dish towel, and then peeking out from the top, bottom or side, while Joshua squealed with delight each time his father’s face appeared. Finally he decided to take a more active role and grabbed at the towel, draping it over his own small head.

They were both laughing when the front door flew open and Sarah hurried down the short hallway to the kitchen.

“Oh, Jacob, you’ll never guess what has happened,” she panted, and Jacob deduced she had run all the way down Corn Street from the center of the town. Obviously, matronly dignity had been discarded in the rush to bring the latest news.

“I’m sure I won’t. What has happened?”

Sarah removed her shawl and sank onto a chair. Both Jacob and Joshua regarded her curiously.

“Last night, a man tried to break into Dr Sheridan’s surgery. Evenin’, it was, about seven o’clock. The door was locked, so after he knocked and knocked and no one answered, seems like he threw a big stone through the window. But as luck would have it, Sergeant Bell was walkin’ his beat just down the High Street from there and heard the glass breakin’.”

Jacob noted that Sarah’s country accent was resurfacing, a sure sign that she was excited or agitated.

“So was the man arrested?”

“Oh, arr, he was, and locked up in a cell at the police station.”

“I feel sure there’s more to the story,” Jacob said, as Sarah paused to catch her breath. “Thwarting an attempted burglary can’t have generated that much interest, and you look as though you’ve learned something very interesting indeed.”

“I did. Everyone did. ’Cause some other people were there when the sergeant arrested him, and bein’ as he made such a fuss, they heard what was said.”

“And what was that?” Jacob asked patiently.

“That he weren’t there to steal anything. He was shoutin’ and hollerin’ to be let into the surgery to see Mrs Oliver.”

“Mrs Oliver? Why?”

“He was sayin’ he had the right to see her ’cause he’s her husband.”

 

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About Cynthia E. Hurst:

Cynthia E. Hurst is the author of two mystery series set in contemporary Seattle, the R&P Labs Mysteries and the Zukie Merlino Mysteries, and the Silver and Simm Mysteries, set in Victorian England. Like her characters in the R&P and Zukie novels, she grew up in Seattle, then graduated from the University of Oregon with a journalism degree. She worked on newspapers and magazines in the Pacific Northwest and in Britain, and also spent five years as a housing officer for British military families.

The R&P Labs books were inspired by the small Seattle laboratory where her parents – both scientists – worked, and the Zukie books by her Italian relatives. The Silver and Simm series takes place in Oxfordshire, her home since 1984.

 

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