THE THIEF-TAKER: Memoirs of a Bow Street Runner

Canadian author Banks depicts a Regency London as grimly fascinating as Dickens's Victorian London in this neatly plotted historical introducing Bow Street constable Henry Morton. When the body of Halbert Glendinning, a gentleman of impeccable character, turns up one night in a hackney cab with no driver in Claridge Square, it appears he choked to death on his own vomit. Fearing foul play, the dead man's fiancée hires Morton to investigate. Morton himself suspects poison, but in the early days of forensics such a verdict is difficult to establish. The constable's search for answers takes him from the town houses of the wellborn to the notorious brothels and gin-shops of Spitalfields. What he finds leads him not just to question the mode of Glendinning's death but to uncover a web of deceit and corruption that endangers his own life and reaches far beyond the scope of his original commission. The author brings his characters to life in dialogue both natural and evocative of the period, while the relationship between Morton and his servant, Wilkes, is as enjoyable as that between Margery Allingham's Campion and Lugg. In addition to the small details, Banks captures the complex moral tenor of the time on a variety of social levels (Morton's landlady is appalled to discover she's been renting rooms to a "horney"). Other Regency mysteries may feature historical personages such as Jane Austen or Beau Brummel as detectives, but the fictional Henry Morton shines in his debut without benefit of an established identity. (Oct. 16)

Forecast:The classy jacket art and crossover appeal to Regency romance readers should give this title a boost.