What a wonderful little story. Like the two previous stories in the Cribb/Thackery story, this is a fetching little book. Cribb and Thackery actually go underground in this story. We the readers find out all about the Fenian movement from the 1880's. Plus, like other books in the series, we learn something about a popular sport from that era. In this case, it is hammer throwing, although the sport is really incidental to the story. If I have any complaints about this story, it's that we don't see much of Thackery, but Cribb is excellent and we know Thackery will be back in the next one. This is a great series. No one can get into to spirit of the Victorian era better than Lovesey.