The Diary of a Murder (Victorian London Ebooks) [Kindle Edition]

Lee Jackson, personable proprietor of VictorianLondon.org and Twitterer extraordinaire (@VictorianLondon), is also the author of a number of historical crime novels. His latest, The Diary of a Murder, captures the nuances of language and character we love from Victorian writers like Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins, while also keeping his story to a pace that will appeal to modern readers.

The Diary of a Murder begins, naturally, with a murder. Mrs. Dora James is found on the floor of her room with her head caved in. Downstairs in her husband's disordered study is a conspicuous pile of papers, topped by a hastily scribbled note which starts with some incriminating words: "I know in my heart I am the man to blame." The note is there, but her husband is not.

Police Sergeant Preston and his young apprentice -- called to the shabby genteel address by Dora's parents, who are concerned that they have not heard from their daughter in days -- find these unnatural scenes and begin to connect the dots. The papers underneath the note of confession turn out to be a carefully kept diary by Mr. Jacob Jones. Day by day, he has recorded the details of his dissolving marriage, unsuccessful friendships, drunken father, and misconstrued charity towards an unfortunate girl. All the time insisting on the verity of his daily recordings.

"I must mix the good with the bad, after all, if I am to bequeath to my future self a truthful account."

But Jackson's writing left me with some doubt about the truthfulness of Jones' account. It was a doubt I couldn't fully explain to myself. So it became not only the drive to explain the mystery -- and everyone, including me, suspected that Jones was guilty from the very first -- but also the need to explain the odd feeling I had that something was rotten in the state of Denmark. These were the motivations driving me quickly from page to page.

Jones' insistence on the truth of what he's telling -- and his repeated inner "struggles" to tell us what's in his mind, both good and bad -- became quite unsettling. There were a number of times when Jones reminded me of the disturbed narrator in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart," insisting that we look at how wonderfully calm he can remain, how introspective and understanding he can be of his own nature, even while doing something evil. Poe's narrator could almost be Jones: "Hearken! and observe how healthily--how calmly I can tell you the whole story... You should have seen how wisely I proceeded--with what caution--with what foresight--"

Jackson does a superb job of creating this character and making him someone we have to trust -- his diary is the primary way that we learn about the other characters and the outline of the story -- but aren't willing to turn our backs on. There is always that feeling that something is off. I kept scouring the pages for some sure sign that I was right, trying to find little clues that could tell me more about this narrator who I quite mistrusted. I loved that Jackson kept me guessing. I kept checking to see how many pages I was from the ending, sure that there must be some twist to gratify my own detective skills, and anxious that it really would be as simple as the confession in Jones' diary.

I highly recommend that you read this novel for yourself and find out if you can solve the mystery of a wife's murder and a husband's questionable confession.

I absolutely love books set in the Victorian era and Lee Jackson is a great find. This is the second of his books I have read.

The details of the period are excellent. I don't want to give away the plot, but you will be fishing out the red herrings and trying to work out who the murderer is right up until the end. And you will enjoy the story, not just because the mystery is interesting but because Jackson's characters are real people.

As I said in the title, I just do not understand why this author is not more popular.

› Go to Amazon U.S. to see both reviews  4.5 out of 5 stars