From Publishers Weekly
In 1820s London, an amateur sleuth seeks the assistance of a young prostitute who discovered a written plea for help in a client's pocket. Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From School Library Journal
YA-Ross's second mystery about Julian Kestrel, the Regency dandy, teams him with Sally Stokes, a cockney prostitute who helps him solve a clever and devilish murder. One night, as is her custom, Sally steals a handkerchief from each of her three clients. In one, she finds a letter from a woman being held against her will and begging for help. A concerned and frightened Sally runs into her brother, a reformed pickpocket and Kestrel's valet. Soon she and Kestrel are matching wits to find the owner of the handkerchief and locate the desperate woman. Through dogged legwork they locate the three men, each from a different strata of society but each of whom has something serious to hide relating to a young heiress, the Reclamation Society, and the seamy underground life of London's Haymarket District. The clues come thick and fast in this action-packed mystery. Ross provides a good look at the beginnings of the London police force as well as the working of the English courts and the role of magistrates in this authentic view of early 19th-century social life. Mary T. Gerrity, Queen Anne School Library, Upper Marlboro, MDCopyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Ross's second Julian Kestrel mystery ( Cut to the Quick, LJ 2/1/93) teams the Regency buck cum amateur detective with London prostitute Sally to search for the murderer of a woman in a refuge for "fallen woman." The trail starts with an anonymous letter leading to three "flats" (johns); the trails converge and diverge before tying up neatly at the end. While readers may guess the dead woman's identity, and even the killer's, before the book's end, the witty repartee, unusual protagonists, and accurately rendered picture of early 19th-century London manners and morals should engage mystery readers. Ross is a writer to follow--and collect.Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Kirkus Reviews
Who was the anonymous damsel in distress who wrote the pleading letter streetwalker Sally Stokes inadvertently pinched from one of her three clients one evening? For that matter, which client's handkerchief contained the letter, and how can Regency dandy Julian Kestrel, the gentry-cove for whom Sally's brother Dipper works, identify the letter's author, its intended recipient, or the man who stole it? With his customary aplomb, Julian traces the author to oily Rev. Gideon Harcourt's Reclamation Society, but by the time Sally's ready to go undercover as a soul ripe for reclaiming, the still-unnamed author has been fatally poisoned, giving still another twist--and not the last--to the mystery. Not the equal of Julian's masterful debut in last year's Cut to the Quick--the coincidences are unbelievable, and the climax drags on intolerably--but it does prove that the sparkle of the earlier novel was no fluke, and makes you wonder if Julian might be the most likeable and accomplished historical detective since Brother Cadfael. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

ANNOTATION

In 1820's London, Julian Kestrel and an unlikely partner--bold and bewitching prostitute Sally Stokes--stalk a murderer through the high places and low life in Regency London, after Sally mistakenly steals a letter from one of her clients containing an urgent plea for help from a distraught young woman.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

No detection team was ever more mismatched: Julian Kestrel, the debonair and elegant Regency dandy, and Sally Stokes, a bold and bewitching Cockney prostitute and thief. But one night Fate throws them together, giving them the only clue that can unmask a diabolical killer. It all starts in London's notorious Haymarket district, where Sally picks up three men one after the other and nicknames them Bristles, Blue Eyes, and Blinkers. From each of them Sally steals a handkerchief - and from one she mistakenly steals a letter that contains an urgent appeal for help as well. But which man did she get the letter from? Who is the distraught young woman who wrote it? And where is she being held against her will? These questions take on a new urgency when Sally finds the writer of the letter - dead. Luckily, Sally's brother is none other than Dipper, reformed pickpocket and now valet to gifted amateur sleuth Julian Kestrel. The authorities dismiss the girl's death as suicide, but to Kestrel it looks more like murder. To prove it, he must track down Bristles, Blue Eyes, and Blinkers, and find out which of them had the dead girl's letter. Sally uses all her ingenuity and daring to help Kestrel solve this case. But she is out to solve another mystery as well: Is there a man of flesh and blood under Kestrel's impeccable clothes?

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

In this atmospheric and gritty mystery set in 1820's London, dandy Julian Kestrel (first encountered in Cut to the Quick ) searches out the truth about a supposed suicide. Sally Stokes, a ``game girl,'' or prostitute--and the sister of Julian's valet--likes to lift handkerchiefs from her clients. Among the three she collects in one night's work, she finds a letter from an obviously upper-class young woman despairing over her fate in an establishment for fallen women. Intrigued by the mystery, Julian and Sally set out to determine her identity. Sally insinuates herself into the Reclamation Society, where she learns that one of the inmates is a recent suicide, while Julian attempts to trace the owners of the handkerchiefs. The closets of these gentlemen, however, harbor assorted skeletons, and Julian and Sally's investigations draw them ever deeper into danger. Ross briskly explores the sordid underbelly of the Regency period with sharply etched characters, authentic slang and a smartly intricate plot sweetened by a fetching and unusual love story. (May)

Library Journal

Ross's second Julian Kestrel mystery ( Cut to the Quick, LJ 2/1/93) teams the Regency buck cum amateur detective with London prostitute Sally to search for the murderer of a woman in a refuge for ``fallen woman.'' The trail starts with an anonymous letter leading to three ``flats'' (johns); the trails converge and diverge before tying up neatly at the end. While readers may guess the dead woman's identity, and even the killer's, before the book's end, the witty repartee, unusual protagonists, and accurately rendered picture of early 19th-century London manners and morals should engage mystery readers. Ross is a writer to follow--and collect.

School Library Journal