Dread Murder

In the court of King George IV, Major Mearns—-an old dog of war and veteran of Willington's army—-is the guardian of Windsor Castle. Some would call him a spy; he calls himself a "watcher." Working with his close friend, the resourceful Sergeant Denny, the pair maintain a cool facade behind which they go about their duties quietly and unnoticed.

Unnoticed, that is, until the day Mearns receives a parcel containing a gruesome surprise: a pair of severed human legs. The legs belong to a fellow soldier. Casting aside official protocol, Mearns and Denny decide to investigate the murder themselves, also enrolling the help of a precocious young runaway, Charlie. But soon these maverick investigators find themselves up against all manner of obstacles and danger, not the least of which is the Crown Keepers of the Peace—-a unit of former soldiers headed by Mearns's nemesis, Felix Ferguson.

With more butchered body parts turning up in parcels and the number of deaths rising, our amateur investigators find themselves up to their necks in corruption and intrigue. Mearns struggles to keep Ferguson at bay, not only during the investigation, but also for the affections of the desirable Mindy, a maidservant in the castle. With the pressure on, can Mearns get to the bottom of the murders and win the heart of his ladylove?

With Dread Murder, Gwendoline Butler delivers a cleverly cunning and old-fashioned mystery that hides a gruesome murder behind its charming facade.

Publishers Weekly

Butler's improbable second Major Mearns historical whodunit (after 2000's The King Cried Murder) may disappoint fans of the British author's long-running John Coffin series. In the early 1820s, the British royal court is on pins and needles with the ascent to the throne of George IV, feared to have the same mental problems as his more notorious father, George III. Amid this uncertainty, Major Mearns and Sergeant Denny, who have a covert assignment to keep an eye on Windsor Castle, receive a ghoulish parcel containing body parts. Their pursuit of the identity of the victim, and his killer, leads them to further bodies, but the solution is rather anticlimactic. The book's contrived final revelation concerning the real identity of a young runaway who helps the sleuths may irk historically exacting readers. (Apr.)

Gwendoline Butler writes under her own name and the pseudonym Jennie Melville. Educated at Haberdashers, she read history at Oxford, and later married Dr. Lionel Butler, Principal of Royal Holloway College. She has one daughter. She is a winner of the Crime Writers' Association's Silver Dagger Award. She was also selected as being one of the top two hundred crime writers in the world by The London Times. She lives in Surrey, England.