Secret Mischief is the seventh book in Robin Blake’s Cragg & Fidelis historical mystery series, but it really doesn’t matter if you haven’t read the previous six books. The author introduces Titus Cragg, a lawyer and coroner, along with Dr. Luke Fidelis, Cragg’s friend who examines the bodies. The current mystery is set in 1746 in England, at a time when accused had to prove their innocence because they were presumed guilty.
A farmer, Richard Giggleswick, sends for Cragg to come to Chimneystacks Farm. Cragg is furious when he learns the man wants him to hold an inquest for his prize boar who was shot to death. Two days later, though, the constable asks Cragg to return to the farm. Giggleswick was shot and killed at the same spot as his pig. Cragg can only assume that the farmer was the target in the first place. He’s ready to hold an inquest, and informs Constable Pickering that the motives were love, money, or pride.
Once Cragg meets Ambrose Parr, he suspects the motive is money. Parr, a lawyer and Giggleswick’s man of business, tells Cragg about a tontine. Over twenty years earlier, seven young people agreed to put money in a pot, with the survivor to take it all. Parr drew up the legal agreement, and the dead farmer was one of the members of that group. As Cragg investigates, he finds several have died, and in the course of the next few months, several more will meet unexpected endings.
While Cragg tries to do proper investigations and inquests, he’s blocked at every turn by either Parr or a judge related to one of the surviving participants in the tontine. Cragg tries so hard. He wants to think good of people, while Dr. Fidelis is much more cynical. But, it’s Fidelis who uncovers the killer, and provides a surprising conclusion.
I have to say that Secret Mischief is quite slow-paced. Readers who enjoy historical and legal details may appreciate it. If you’re looking for a fascinating book about a tontine, though, I’d recommend a 1955 novel that’s out-of-print, but you might be able to pick up a copy someplace. Thomas B. Costain wrote an enormous novel, The Tontine. It was one of my father’s favorite books. It’s a riveting account of two families influenced over several generations by a tontine. It’s worth finding, if you can.
Secret Mischief by Robin Blake. Severn House, 2021. ISBN 9780727890702 (hardcover), 256p.
FTC Full Disclosure – I received a .PDF to review for a journal.
The first “tontine” story I remember was on M*A*S*H, when Col. Potter is the surviving member of a WWI tontine. I remember Costain as the author of THE SILVER CHALICE, which became Paul Newman’s infamously bad first movie. I saw it but never read the book.
I don’t remember that M*A*S*H episode, Jeff, but I didn’t watch everything. I was a BIG Thomas B. Costain fan, though. I read some of his novels, including The Tontine, which I loved. But, I also read his four volume nonfiction Plantagenet series. Probably the last time I read anything that big. And, I read these all in high school. Ah, for summer vacations to read. (Or, retirement, to read).
I remember reading a number of tontine mysteries. I wouldn’t go into one of those, for sure. Seems like putting a target on your back.
In many countries, a defendant still has to prove themselves innocent.
I agree, Glen. It does seem as if you’re making yourself a target.
At times, it feels as if defendants have to do that here.