Blood Line: An Inspector Faro Novel

Potentially a marvelous mystery of Victorian times, Knight's sequel to Enter Second Murderer sinks under anticlimaxes and wordiness. Inspector Jeremy Faro is at the cliff edge outside Edinburgh Castle where a man has suffered a fatal fall. Picking up a jewel dropped by the victim, Faro recalls a similar jewel left by his father, a constable who had died years earlier while investigating a case known as the ``Egyptian Style Curse on Edinburgh Castle.'' According to rumor, a stillborn infant was discovered behind a wall in the chamber where Mary Queen of Scots gave birth to her heir. If an imposter were substituted for the prince, England's rulers have been illegitimate since the 16th century. Faro sets out to learn the truth although he knows that the silence of other investigators has been assured by their ``suicides'' or ``accidental'' deaths. In the end, readers arrive at a resolution drenched in sentimentality and remarkably ambiguous morality. (Dec.)