Scarlet Town
by Leonora Nattrass
Scarlet
Town by Leonora Nattrass is the third instalment in what-is-now-a-series set in
the tumultuous final years of the 18th Century. The protagonist and narrator is
Laurence Jago, previously clerk to the English Foreign Office, whom we first
met in Black Drop. In the
previous novel, Blue Water, Jago was on the mailship Tankerville,
crossing the Atlantic to America together with his friend and mentor, the
journalist and social activist William Philpott, after having ended his
fledgling career at His Majesty’s Service in disgrace.
America, however, has not been any kinder to the duo, and Scarlet Town sees Laurence Jago and Philpott return to England, starting with a stay at Laurence’s home town of Helston in Cornwall. Trouble is afoot, however, in the generally sleepy town. An election is looming, and when one of the only two men with the right to vote is found dead in mysterious circumstances, Jago finds himself with an investigation on his hands. The matter is complicated by the fact that one of the suspects is none other than Laurence’s cousin, the bumbling town doctor Pythagoras “Piggy” Jago and – from a sentimental perspective – by an unexpected meeting and reconnection with Anne Bellingham, Laurence’s love-interest from the first instalment in the series.
I am
happy to report that whoever loved the first two volumes will rediscover the
same elements which made the previous novels so appealing – the captivating
storyline, the Gothic overtones (there’s an exhumation and autopsy scene which
blends comedy and body horror), and the streak of dark humour which runs
through Jago’s narration. A bonus is the fact that, like its predecessors, Scarlet
Town is based on actual historical events, and the descriptions and
settings are vibrant and authentic.
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