Blood on the Strand

 Years ago I was in an online discussion of book series. I like reading in order, and if at all possible start with book #1. Someone else said she usually starts with the third book because by then the author has a good idea of where they want to go. Maybe Susanna Gregory's third Thomas Chaloner book will grab me in a way the first two didn't. Blood on the Strand starts out with a man being murdered as he walks home from a dinner meeting, but the complex plot ties in stolen cadavers, double-crossing fellow agents, public autopsies, and shifting personal alliances. Maybe it's because I read it in small snatches, but I never felt attached to the characters or overly concerned about their fates. With Susanna Gregory ending her Matthew Bartholomew series, I'd hoped that the Chaloner books would replace them. I have one more so I haven't given up yet.

A Conspiracy of Violence

 I love Susanna Gregory's Matthew Bartholomew mysteries, and had been eying her Thomas Chaloner series for several years before buying the first one. Reading it, I remembered what someone said in an online discussion: it's better to start a series two or three books in because the author and characters have found their footing. Maybe that's why I found A Conspiracy of Violence hard to follow, or maybe it's because I'm less well versed in the Restoration (and less interested in the Stuarts than other English dynasties). 

Thomas Chaloner is a spy in search of a sponsor. Recently returned from Holland with a lover who works as a lady's companion to his puritan neighbor's daughter, he's desperate for work. When someone murders a messenger during an interview with a potential employer, Chaloner sets out to solve the murder and to untangle the conspiracy behind it. The plot was a bit too complicated for its own good, but I enjoyed Gregory's depiction of 1660s London and found Chaloner's company enjoyable. I doubt he'll replace Matthew (that series seems to be winding down), but his first exploit is promising.