The Nightingale Affair

December 1, 2022

During the 1850s Crimean War, the young society women rallied by Florence Nightingale to help save lives at British military hospitals in present-day Turkey are being picked off one by one, their mouths stitched shut by embroidered roses. Sent to investigate, Inspector Charles Field (a real-life detective and model for Inspector Bucket in Charles Dickens's Bleak House) seems to have solved the case when the main suspect he's cornered commits suicide. But 12 years later, he has his doubts; he's confronting a killer using the same modus operandi. Following theWall Street Journal best-booked The Darwin Affair.

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Starred review from March 13, 2023
Inspector Charles Field makes a welcome return in Mason’s stellar second historical whodunit (following 2019’s The Darwin Affair). In 1867, Field is working as a private investigator in London when his latest case reawakens a past one. Tory MP William Hythe-Cooper has hired Field to prove his wife, Susan, is having an affair with Jeremy Sims, a political rival. After Field spots Sims fleeing the flat he reserved for his and Susan’s trysts, the inspector finds Susan’s strangled corpse in the flat with a piece of red fabric stuffed in her mouth. This was also the trademark of a serial killer known as the Beast of the Crimea who targeted nurses working under Florence Nightingale in the 1850s; Field was dispatched to Crimea to catch him, which he thought he’d done. The new crime leads Field to wonder whether he’s dealing with a copycat or the original killer. The action alternates between past and present, each switch masterfully heightening the tension. Mason’s superb plotting and well-drawn lead bode well for future installments. Agent: Gail Hoghman, Brandt & Hochman Literary Agents.

May 1, 2023
The second historical mystery featuring former chief detective inspector Charles Fields revolves around the heroic work of Florence Nightingale. In The Darwin Affair (2019), Mason introduced readers to a fictional London detective who was the inspiration for the intrepid Inspector Bucket in Charles Dickens' Bleak House--indeed, Dickens appeared as a character. Fields returns in this book, set in 1867, no longer a member of the Metropolitan Police but working as a private detective. He's been hired "by a member of Parliament who harbored misgivings concerning his much younger wife," and Fields quickly determines she seems to be having an affair with a politician of the opposition party. But Fields' surveillance leads to his discovering her body after she's been strangled. The most disturbing detail for him is a scrap of cloth, embroidered with a rose, left inside her mouth. He's seen such scraps before, several of them, when he was dispatched in 1855 to Crimea to investigate a series of attacks on the nurses working there under the command of the famous, fearless Florence Nightingale. Although the wounded troops revere them for their loving care, the "medical men and the military brass had no time for Nightingale or her women." When those women start to die, Fields' pursuit turns urgent, and he returns to London only after the man responsible is dead. Or so he thought. Now, 12 years later, women are dying again just as the issue of women's suffrage heats up. His experience in Crimea has had lasting effects on him, not least of which is his marriage to Jane Rolly, one of Nightingale's nurses, but now it all comes rushing back. The book's first part, set mainly in Crimea, is compelling, in part because Nightingale herself is a fascinating character. The later section is not quite as absorbing, largely because Nightingale fades into the background as Fields chases both the killer and the connection between the two sets of crimes. It does boast a blockbuster ending in subterranean London, rich historical detail, and a cast of real characters, from Benjamin Disraeli to Dickens himself. A killer who once stalked Florence Nightingale's nurses seems to be resurrected in this satisfying thriller.

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April 13, 2023

Set in the late half of the 19th century, Mason's second mystery featuring Inspector Charles Field (following The Darwin Affair) immerses readers in the gritty reality of the Crimean war and the politics of the era. Brimming with real-life characters from the time period, including the title's namesake, Florence Nightingale, the book's language and tone are firmly grounded in the time and place. Inspector Charles Field tracks down a ruthless serial killer who strikes fear into the hearts of women, most specifically, the Nightingale nurses. In Crimea, blood-stained murder victims are found with their mouths sewn shut with an embroidered rose. Excellent police work seems to tie up loose ends when the prime suspect turns up dead. The intrigue re-emerges 16 years later in London, when a body is found with an embroidered rose token at the crime scene. Is it a copycat crime, or has the true killer been lurking in the shadows for over a decade? VERDICT While it all too accurately portrays the misogyny of the era, this mystery will keep readers captivated and will be popular with admirers of Victorian detective novels.--Kelly Moore

Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from May 1, 2023
Former Metropolitan Police Inspector Field revisits a life-changing case after an MP's wife's murder bears the signature of a killer Field thought he'd left in Crimea. Twelve years earlier, Field hunted a serial killer who stalked Florence Nightingale's nurses in Scutari and left a rose-embroidered cloth sewn over his victims' mouths. Nightingale and Field's future wife, Jane, survived, but Field solved the case to his own satisfaction only after his suspect committed suicide. Now, in 1867 London, victims adorned with the rose-embroidered cloth are turning up, and Field must determine if he let the killer escape Scutari. It's no easy task: Field is operating outside of the Met as a private detective, but his friend, Inspector Sam Llewellyn, helps bridge the gap. As Field connects the London victims to the volatile suffrage movement, the killer targets Field's family and Nightingale. Mason crafts evocative settings in Crimea and London, deftly weaving in a remarkable number of period hallmarks (including appearances by Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, and John Stuart Mill). In Field (introduced in The Darwin Affair, 2019), readers will find a detective whose humility, unflinching observations, and pragmatic take on rules are bound to charm. Mason's second Field thriller is a deep, gritty dive into Victorian London that's perfect for fans of Alex Grecian's Scotland Yard's Murder Squad series and Caleb Carr's The Alienist.

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