When the letter K was pulled from the alphabet soup bag, I was exceedingly happy, as it meant I could crack on with the next book in the Gower Street Detective Series written by M.R.C. Kasasian. Set in Victorian England, Death Descends on Saturn Villa is the third outing for Sidney Grice and his ward March Middleton. When London's foremost (and possibly rudest) personal detective is called away to Yorkshire on a case, March is left behind in Gower Street. Determined to prove her own worth as a detective she takes on the case of a missing pet - well, we all have to start somewhere! So far, so ordinary. Then March receives a letter from a long-lost uncle, inviting her to his house. Although not 100% convinced of the veracity of this claim, March cannot resist this invitation, as she is intrigued to find out whether, after believing herself to be all on her own in this world, she actually has a living relative. And so she heads to Saturn Villa to meet her new Uncle Tolly, who is eccentrically delightful, and they spend an indulgent evening together. In the morning, however, Uncle Tolly appears to be very dead, and March is accused of his murder. But all is not as it seems and March starts to believe that she may be going mad, rather than bad! Her mind keeps returning to two childhood traumas - one where her friend almost died in a fall, and the other when she witnessed the testing of a new poisonous gas on some pigs - and she soon begins to struggle to know what is real. Trying to prove her innocence is Inspector George Pound, who is still suffering from wounds received while rescuing March in the previous book. He is besotted with MS Middleton and she is exceedingly fond of him too, but the course of true love is hindered by her memories of her first love who, although dead, won't let her go. Poor George! At last, Sydney Grice returns from Yorkshire and the chase is on to find the real perpetrator before March is lost forever. This is a superbly entertaining book. Although Grice is an extremely rude and preposterously opinionated man, we see more of his heart in this outing and begin to realise that he genuinely cares for March, despite all the indications to the opposite. The regular characters are pretty much fully developed, but we are still finding out more, which is great. Packed with humour and crisp dialogue, this is a great read that certainly kept me guessing until the end. I have no hesitation in recommending this to pretty much anyone, especially the audio edition, brilliantly narrated by Emma Gregory. I'm already looking forward to the next in the series.
My STAR rating: FOUR.
Length: 416 print pages.
Price I paid: £2.98.
Formats available: print, unabridged audio download, ebook.
