The Crooked Medium's Guide To Murder by Stephen Cox

I would like to thank the author and Random Things Tours for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review

Published – Out Now

Price – £10.99 paperback £0.99p ebook

London 1881. Can two crooked women stop a murder?

Extravagant medium Mrs Ashton and her lover, blunt working-class Mrs Bradshaw, run a spiritualist scam. Mrs Ashton secretly reads minds.

Grieving Lady Violet craves the truth behind her mother’s untimely death. But Lady Violet’s powerful husband Sir Charles hates spiritualists. Has he killed before?

Uncovering this MP’s wicked crimes puts all three women in terrible danger…

To solve a shocking murder, look both sides of the grave.

A joyous romp with a serious core. Taking a wry look at Victorian hypocrisy, this twisty and gripping thriller goes from dockland slums to a country estate and the Old Bailey. Aided by Maisie - the sharpest and smartest dock-lass detective ever - they struggle to bring a powerful man to justice. Whatever laws they have broken, these rogues cannot stomach murder. This extraordinary case threatens all their certainties - it could divide them forever. And if Mrs Ashton were to run into Mr Sherlock Holmes, she could teach him a thing or two.

If I say Victorian adventure you’re likely thinking of dashing men rescuing ladies in distress dealing with nefarious evildoers. Our mental landscapes get filled in with the books we read, the accurate and inaccurate history lessons learnt at school and of course media depictions of various levels of authenticity especially on the accents. It is refreshing then to get a slightly different spin on things and Stephen Cox does this in the entertaining fantasy mystery The Crooked Medium’s Guide to Murder where we meet an intriguing trio plunged into murder and skulduggery.

In London 1881 Mrs Ashton works hard as a spiritualist who does not actually see ghosts but does know the angle for making a profit. She does also have the ability to ‘open’ a person’s mind to see their thoughts and deeds which makes her very good at giving clients what they want though. She lives with Mrs Bradshaw who outwardly is her confidant and inwardly as ‘Braddie’ has been her beloved lover for over eight years. An Opportunity arrives in the form of Lady Barrington-Stewart wife of an up-and-coming MP and prominent member of the elite. She wishes to contact her beloved mother but as Sir Charles Barrington-Stewart very angrily makes his objections known to this encounter Mrs Ashton realises that both her client and now her own family is in great danger thanks to the secrets Sir Charles needs desperately to keep.

There are quite a few things that really stand out in this story. Cox has created a fascinating double act in the form of Mrs Ashton and Braddie a curious mix of both skilled conwomen and yet wanting justice which is a bone of contention between the two women who clearly deeply love one another. There is a lovely theatricality to the two when they argue and yet the banter and passion expressed between the two works well. That theatricality also stretches to the wider story as we have a tale of dark family secrets and betrayals. I liked how Cox though gently seeds the social issues of the time into the story such as how women were often stuck in marriages and devoid of much help. The central mystery is also not quite what I expected. Indeed, initially I was thinking that things were looking fairly obvious and then Cox goes smartly in a very different direction changing the whole nature of the story into a different beast. It makes you slightly revisit what is going on and I found works really well and adds shades of grey to a story that I think you’d not usually find . I also liked the duo’s young assistant in the form of Maisie a young urchin with dreams of being an adventuring detective and a dab hand at disguise and following clues.

There are a couple of things that sometimes didn’t quite fully work for me. Cox chooses to go straight into the mystery which helps for pace, but I did feel we could have done with a little more focus on who Mrs Ashton and Braddie actually are. The odd seed is planted hopefully for later adventures but early on that made it hard to care when they were in danger. I liked them but had not yet loved them as a double act. The other issue which this can relate to is this is how Cox has definitely captured the feel of a period Victorian adventure in structure, the way various newspaper clippings we get snippets of but sometimes the language and style made me wonder how readers less familiar with this style would approach the book which could be a shame as there is a 21st century perspective in the story worth finding.

Overall, an enjoyable mystery that should keep readers of the more lighthearted supernatural tales very entertained but some serious points made. Be interesting to see if further adventures await and Cox can build on these foundations.