The Amateur Historian [Hardcover]

Rick Rounder decides to return home to York, England after he failed to save the life of a nine year old girl while being a police detective sergeant. There he opens up a private investigative agency. His brother Sam , the local police chief, wants the former cop to shut down his business while his former peers display their outrage at his quitting which they think makes him weak and a betrayer.

The man hires Rick to follow a woman. However, nothing goes right on the simple surveillance when the woman's husband (not his client) kidnaps Rick. Things turn even crazier as Rick follows leads on a girl's disappearance that shockingly leads him into solving a crime over a hundred years old. Even with teaming up with his brother on the missing girl case, Rick's new line of work, though similar to his previous vocation, so far proves tough to make a living as the shortest distance between two clues is an arc.

The Amateur Historian is a terrific private investigative thriller filled with plenty of action, angst and a convoluted case. The history of York is interwoven into the present inquiry as Rick finds his new work as difficult if not more so than his previous job. He, his family and the York residents (circa 1901 and present) make for a fine complex mystery.

Harriet Klausner

In 1901, there was an impoverished nine-year-old, Esme Percy, who lived in York, England; the poor, undernourished waif died under mysterious circumstances. In present day York, an amateur history enthusiast studies Esme's photograph and obsesses over her death; his perverted sense of justice leads him to abduct an eight-year-old girl, Polly Markham, from an upper middleclass family. Two brothers who are as opposite as day and night, Private Inspector Rick Rounder and Chief Inspector Sam Rounder, must set aside their differences and locate the missing Polly. Meanwhile, Rick's life is endangered by those who blame him for not preventing the death of another young girl, Tanya Smitten, who was killed by her stepfather.

Julian Cole's "The Amateur Historian" is a highly unique, very suspenseful mystery. I gripped this novel with trembling hands as I read the accounts of Esme Percy and Polly Markham and feared for their safety. Alternating between 1901 and the present, this novel (sometimes heartrending, sometimes joyous) depicts how past events influence the present. The plight of the impoverished Percy family was a bitter one and I felt the pangs of guilt as I ate my salad at Panera Bread while reading "The Amateur Historian." Julian Cole's depiction of historical York is extremely vivid. It made me thankful for the healthy food and clean clothes that I have while Esme, and most all of Hungate, York, were trapped in poverty and Polly laid trapped in darkness and filth. Escape seemed hopeless for either one of them.

Not only is "The Amateur Historian" a debut novel for Julian Cole, but it is also the first in a series of mystery novels featuring the interesting Rounder brothers of York. Sam, the oldest, has a physique that is rounder than his athletic brother, Rick. Sam is a bitter workaholic, whereas Rick is more carefree and happy go lucky. Sam's marriage to Michelle is rife with adultery; Rick has a beautiful girlfriend, Naomi, whom he met when living in Queensland, Australia. It is no wonder that Sam's jealousy towards his brother borders on hatred. However, Rick is far from perfect. It was Tanya's murder that haunted Rick, forcing him to flee to Australia.

The setting for "The Amateur Historian" is very intriguing. York is rich with history. It contains one of the seven wonders of England, the magnificent York Minster, which is the largest Gothic cathedral in Northern Europe. Destroyed in several invasions, it was always rebuilt. The York Minster served as a significant landmark in 1901 and still does in 2010. Hardly changing, it links the past with the present. The community of Hungate also plays a significant role. With the help of a history teacher, Malcolm Hunt, Sam uses archival maps to compare 1901 Hungate to present Hungate in order to locate the hidden Polly.

"The Amateur Historian" is a very gloomy, atmospheric mystery that is highly recommended for fans of historical mysteries. The reader won't be able to put it down until learning the fates of Esme Percy and Polly Markham, two girls who lived over a century apart. "The Amateur Historian" is a study in contrasts: the contrast between two brothers, the contrast between the past and the present, the contrast between two girls of different economic backgrounds, etc. Lovers of historical mysteries, which alternate between the past and the present, may also want to read Daniëlle Hermans' "The Tulip Virus" and Blake Crouch's "Abandon." Another highly recommended mystery pertaining to the abduction of little children for exploitation is "The End Game," written by Gerrie Ferris Finger.

Joseph B. Hoyos

Ten years ago, as a young Police Constable in York, Rick Rounder failed to prevent a man he had once known at school from murdering his own young daughter and then killing himself. Rick takes it badly, quits the force, and leaves England. Now he's back, with a gorgeous black Australian-American girlfriend in town, and attempts to set himself up as a private detective. And his first case, in which he proves himself to be not much of a detective at all, goes completely sideways. His older brother, Sam, now a Chief Inspector on the York police force, has his own case to solve in a hurry: An eight-year-old girl from a well-to-do family has been kidnapped. Meanwhile, back in 1901, nine-year-old Esme Percy is trying to survive in nearly-extreme poverty despite her drunken, violent father, who sees her youth as a way to make some money. The story jumps back and forth between the two girls -- with side-trips into that case in Rick's own past -- and rather suddenly, at almost exactly the halfway point of the book, both the principal Bad Guys are dead. The kidnapper (the "amateur historian" of the title) confesses, just before he dies, that he has hidden the girl away but doesn't say where. But the clues to her location will be found in the brief life of Esme Percy. Coincidentally, the client Rick was working for has turned out to be involved in his old case (he isn't the only one, either). I know York isn't that large a city, but the multiple connections among all the people in two (or three) otherwise unconnected cases seem most unlikely. Also, Cole -- a journalist turned novice novelist -- throws in way too many heavy-handed foreshadowings, of the "Little did he know" variety. Nor does he really have solid control of his narrative. The cover says this is "A Thriller," but that's debatable, and most of the characters have a decidedly soap-opera flavor. On the other hand, the city of York itself (which I suspect is the author's hometown) is also a strong character in the story and is well handled. I'll be generous and say I hope Cole does better with his second novel.