Trumpets Sound No More

Trumpets sound no more / Jon Redfern
Toronto: Rendezvous Crime, c2007.

248 p.

This is one of my NeoVictorian choices for this challenge: it is set in 1840 London, England, the week before Christmas, and circles around the world of the theatre. A perfect choice for me: seasonal and Victorian at the same time.

This is Redfern's second mystery novel -- his first was a contemporary story, but in this one all of his interests in Victorian theatre and in crime come together to create a complex story with shades of Dickens about it. He's a Canadian writer, and an English professor, who wrote a thesis on Victorian opera and melodrama as a grad student, and his familiarity with this era shows.

There's been a murder of a young and fashionable theatre manager, discovered on the morning of Saturday the 19th of December. Inspector Owen Endersby is given six days, only until Christmas Eve, to find out who the culprit was. Fortunately, Inspector Endersby is very resourceful, and he and his wife are already theatre fans and have some connections in that world -- which comes in useful. Endersby, like many Dickensian characters, deals with all levels of society, from actresses and coster girls to the wealthy and important patrons of the theatre and of the newly formed London Police force. Even without modern forensic methods like fingerprinting or blood analysis, he relies on a scientific, evidence based investigation, rather than simply arresting the most convenient suspect to make his superiors happy.

I liked the character of Endersby and his wife; they gave a very solid centre to the book. But Redfern doesn't shy away from presenting the members of the large cast as complex characters who have secret failings, from drug use to blackmail and usury. It was an entertaining mystery with a puzzling but not baffling line of clues -- I did guess 'who did it' but only a few pages before it was revealed. The setting really shines; Victorian London in all its glory and squalor comes to life in many small details. And the aspects of theatre life were especially interesting for me - I will recommend this to my actor friends. There are some minor characters who were particularly memorable, mainly the young actresses (and one young man) who are trying to make a living by going on the stage. Their lives are bleak but they live for the moments they can participate in the illusion of the theatre.

I am not sure if Redfern intends to write another book featuring this Inspector, but his character is deep and complicated enough to carry a series, if so. I hope I'll find out that another one is being written, but even so, I don't know if it could match this marvellous combination of my favourite era and my favourite holiday, mixed in with the magic of the theatre. This one is well worth reading.

(cross-posted at The Indextrious Reader)