1761. It has been announced that magistrate John Fielding, is to receive a knighthood. But it is when the days business has been finished and everybody's eyes are turned to the new Queen that a person falls from the stairs. Sir John is under the impression that it was a deliberate push. But how is John Rawlings to find out.
Another enjoyable mystery in this well-written series with its very likeable characters
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Set in Georgian London, this is a gripping story about a blind magistrate - John Fielding and his Apothecary friend John Rawlings.
They are investigating a mysterious death at the Palace during Fielding's knighthood investiture.
I have not come across this series before and look forward to reading more.
I was given a digital copy of this novel by the publisher via Netgalley in return for an honest unbiased review. ( )

New to me is Deryn Lake's series featuring John Rowling, Apothecary and sometime assistant to John Fielding, the famous (real) blind English magistrate who put together the Bow Street Runner, precursors to modern police forces, in 18th Century London. Turns out this is a very long-running series indeed; Death at St. James's Palace, from 2002, is the twelfth or thirteenth in the series apparently, and there have been several more entries since then. In it, John Fielding is given a knighthood, but during the investiture ceremony, another man who's also being knighted appears to trip on the staircase at St. James's Palace and falls to his death. An unfortunate accident, or was it? Fielding thinks he heard something that might suggest a more sinister turn of events, and Rowling soon finds that all of the individuals near to the unfortunate man at the time have very good reasons to want him dead. It's up to Rowling and his friends to search out the truth, in the process uncovering more about the lives of "privileged" children than they might have wished to know....This was quite good, with nicely done attention to Georgian detail, and I didn't feel that I missed out by not having read the previous dozen books or so. That's too many for me to search out and start from the very beginning, but I'll certainly pick up more of Lake's series if I stumble across them. Recommended! ( )