I'm so sad that there's only one more book in this series. Wonderful characters, wonderful depictions of London in the late 18th century. I really enjoyed this installment. ( )

death of young girl leads to child rapist and side plot of missing woman and racing world. Not much detecting, really

#10 Sir John Fielding historical mystery. Sir John and Jeremy have (as usual) two investigations going--one regarding the body of a young girl found in the river, very obviously sexually abused and the other the disappearance of a childhood friend of Clarissa's. The dead child is found to have been the same one reported missing by her mother a few weeks previously, and now the mother's gone missing as well. After Jeremy brings a neighbor woman in to speak with Sir John regarding the disappearance, they determine that the mother had actually 'sold' her child--or, she thought, adopted her out to a well-to-do family for a fee. When Jeremy goes back to question the neighbor further, he finds her brutally murdered also, and they fear the trail has gone cold. Of course it hasn't, and soon the theme of horseracing comes into play as well, when the brother of the missing woman (and uncle of the murdered child) who is also a jockey, helps in their investigation.

Clarissa discovers that her childhood friend isn't who she thought she was, and the Fielding household changes yet again as Molly (the cook) and Dr. Donnelly (the Fieldings' friend and the medical examiner) plan to marry and Jeremy and Clarissa's relationship moves forward as well. This was definitely one of the more enjoyable (among many!) in the series although I'm not particularly fond of horseracing. ( )

And here we are, at the 10th installment in this series, which, imho, is the weakest one yet. The premise started out well...a young child is found dead in the Thames; the mother who had reported her missing has left London, but a neighbor is found with information on the little girl's disappearance, leading Sir John & Jeremy to believe the child was sold before she ended up dead. Along comes the uncle of the little girl and Jeremy is off in search of clues to the mystery.

As I said, it sounds like a good beginning, but that's the best part of the story. First, the author practically gives away one of the answers to the mystery at the outset (I won't say how, but trust me, if you are used to reading mysteries, this one was easy). Second, there's so much personal stuff going on here between Clarissa and Jeremy that I totally lost a lot of interest. I know, not everyone dislikes this story line, but I cannot stand Clarissa as a character and I just wanted the mystery storyline to roll on. Third, and most importantly, there's no build up to who the murderer may be, so that when you find out, it's like "so what?"

I have one more to go in this series and I'm hoping that the last installment will be much better. I hate to mark a book so low, but really, this one was just not up to the author's usually okay standard.

I'm sure many people will disagree with me, but I call 'em as I see 'em. ( )