Gillian Linscott back as Caro Peacock
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1bibliotheque
After wondering when the next Gillian Linscott was coming out, I see she has reinvented herself as Caro Peacock - and that I'd already read her latest, Death at Dawn!!
To be honest, I think her writing as Caro is good solid work, but not as excellent as the Nell Bray series and I never guessed the two names sheltered the same writer. Caro Peacock struck me as a little less intellectual, a little more populist and not as careful in her details.
One tiny slip that stood out for me was the sequence where her heroine Liberty goes to work for the enemy UNDER ANOTHER NAME, tells her friends to write to her at her employers' house, but fails to tell them of her new pseudonym.
"Aha!" I thought. "A chance for the heroine to unwittingly land herself in trouble! Right ahead of ya, Ms Peacock!"
However, Liberty gets a letter from one of her friends handed to her by a fellow servant at the house - "a letter for you" - and when she opens it, it begins "Dear Miss Lane".
Now THAT is a plot hole. How did the letter get to the house (it must have had a name on it!) get handed to "Miss Lane" and yet no-one at the hall asked the obvious question, "If you answer to the name "Miss Lane" why did you tell us you were "Elizabeth Something-Else"? Who exactly are you?"
Linscott would never have committed a plot hole like that with the Nell Brays. It's only a minor thing, but equally it would have required only minor stitching to fix. I will of course keep up with the Caro Peacocks, but I hope to see Linscott return with the further adventures of Nell.
To be honest, I think her writing as Caro is good solid work, but not as excellent as the Nell Bray series and I never guessed the two names sheltered the same writer. Caro Peacock struck me as a little less intellectual, a little more populist and not as careful in her details.
One tiny slip that stood out for me was the sequence where her heroine Liberty goes to work for the enemy UNDER ANOTHER NAME, tells her friends to write to her at her employers' house, but fails to tell them of her new pseudonym.
"Aha!" I thought. "A chance for the heroine to unwittingly land herself in trouble! Right ahead of ya, Ms Peacock!"
However, Liberty gets a letter from one of her friends handed to her by a fellow servant at the house - "a letter for you" - and when she opens it, it begins "Dear Miss Lane".
Now THAT is a plot hole. How did the letter get to the house (it must have had a name on it!) get handed to "Miss Lane" and yet no-one at the hall asked the obvious question, "If you answer to the name "Miss Lane" why did you tell us you were "Elizabeth Something-Else"? Who exactly are you?"
Linscott would never have committed a plot hole like that with the Nell Brays. It's only a minor thing, but equally it would have required only minor stitching to fix. I will of course keep up with the Caro Peacocks, but I hope to see Linscott return with the further adventures of Nell.
2bibliotheque
Just finished the next in the series, Death of a Dancer.
Again solid and extremely readable, but there is perhaps a tendency to take an "easy route out" that she wouldn't have taken as "Gillian Linscott". Case in point: our heroine stumbles on an attempted murder; the attempted murderer flees leaving behind a newspaper; our heroine impulsively puts an ad into the paper ("If the person who was interrupted in his business at X gets in touch, he may find something to his advantage")... and said attempted murderer replies via the paper and turns up at the appointment, ready to 'fess up.
This is just a minor strand (that character's not whodunit) and doesn't really affect the main plot, but in a Nell Bray novel a wanted character would never have rolled over so passively. It's true the author gives that character a reason not to care about being possibly arrested, but even so, the ease of it all irritates somewhat.
On the plus side - lots of excellent detail to set the scene, nice sense of depth to Liberty's personality, some decent red herrings and Mr Disraeli is looking very promising as a character in his own right. Also, you won't guess whodunit! With the tiny caveat of the incident above... Yes, recommended.
Again solid and extremely readable, but there is perhaps a tendency to take an "easy route out" that she wouldn't have taken as "Gillian Linscott". Case in point: our heroine stumbles on an attempted murder; the attempted murderer flees leaving behind a newspaper; our heroine impulsively puts an ad into the paper ("If the person who was interrupted in his business at X gets in touch, he may find something to his advantage")... and said attempted murderer replies via the paper and turns up at the appointment, ready to 'fess up.
This is just a minor strand (that character's not whodunit) and doesn't really affect the main plot, but in a Nell Bray novel a wanted character would never have rolled over so passively. It's true the author gives that character a reason not to care about being possibly arrested, but even so, the ease of it all irritates somewhat.
On the plus side - lots of excellent detail to set the scene, nice sense of depth to Liberty's personality, some decent red herrings and Mr Disraeli is looking very promising as a character in his own right. Also, you won't guess whodunit! With the tiny caveat of the incident above... Yes, recommended.
