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The year is 1760, and Robert Fairfax is tutor to nineteen-year-old Matthew Hemsley. Hemsley's crippled father sends Fairfax and Matthew to London for a month to complete Matthew's education. Mr. Hemsley wants his son to see the great institutions of government and business. Fairfax sees no harm in also showing him entertainment. Thus when Matt meets an old schoolmate, Mallinson, who offers free tickets to a play at Covent Garden theatre, Matt and Fairfax accept the offer. Moreover, Mallinson knows the brother of the leading actress. He is Captain Jack Stockridge, and she is Lucy Dove, actress and singer. Stockridge and Mallinson show up early the day of the show and take Matt and Fairfax backstage at the theatre. They meet several of the actors, including Lucy Dove. During the show Lucy acts wonderfully and sings a final lovely song. Matt is, of course, smitten with her. After, outside the theatre, a man attacks Lucy and throws a bottle of red fluid on her that looks like blood. Matt throws himself in between the two and gets red painted himself. Miss Dove is grateful for his intervention. Stockbridge asks Mallinson, Hemsley, and Fairfax to dine with him the following evening. All of them enjoy a good dinner and a good bit of alcohol. A note is delivered to Matt that he declines to discuss. Later he leaves, saying he is going to the privy. When he doesn't return Fairfax and Stockbridge wonder if the note is from Lucy and if that is where Matt has gone. They go to her house to find Matt disoriented and Lucy dead. The Complaint of the Dove is the first in a new series by Hannah March. March is an excellent writer with a good sense of style, the ability to create realistic characters and sense of place, and to express the emotions of the characters well. The scene in which Fairfax has to leave Matthew in jail for the first time is particularly realistically written. Highly recommended for the lover of historicals, and for those who enjoy a good mystery regardless of time and place.
Reviewed by Mary A. Axford, March 2003
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