KEPT

TITLE: KEPT a Victorian Mystery
AUTHOR: D.J. TAYLOR
Pages: 422
Date: 03/06/2007
Grade: 5-
Library

A very different sort of mystery.
It all starts with the death of Mr. Henry Ireland in an apparent horse riding accident. And then his mentally disturbed wife disappears.
But there's a lot more going on; poaching, fraudulent debt collecting, and other crimes, smaller and larger, climaxing in a robbery on the railway.
In fact, the first three quarters of the book describe what's going on in the lives and the circumstances of the characters involved, without connecting too many dots. It's clear that almost everything that's happening is in some way wrong, but exactly how or why, and who is responsible, remains unclear.
Most of the mysteries are solved and most of the questions answered once Captain McTurk of Scotland Yard starts investigating the death of Henry Ireland, the subsequent disappearance of his unfortunate wife as well as the train robbery. But don't expect the resolution to be clear cut or justice to be done all around.
A Victorian mystery, very much written in a Victorian style. Not always easy to read, but thoroughly fascinating.