Death and the Chevalier

In Blake’s so-so sixth mystery featuring coroner Titus Cragg and physician Luke Fidelis (after 2019’s Rough Music), it’s 1745 and rumors are flying that Charles Stuart has landed in Scotland, leading an army that will support his claim to the English throne. Against that fraught backdrop, Cragg is disturbed by the discovery of a headless male corpse near Cragg’s home in Preston, Lancashire. The body bears no indication of how the man met his end, and the missing head makes identification impossible. The subsequent discovery of a severed head only makes things worse, as Fidelis concludes that a second man must have been murdered. Fidelis deduces that the men were an advance party for Stuart, a theory bolstered by a letter shoved in the severed head’s mouth claiming that the two men were Stuart supporters, killed as “an act of legitimate warfare” by those loyal to King George. Despite that preemptive legal defense, Cragg and Fidelis probe further. The resolution doesn’t live up to the promising premise, and the story line doesn’t maximize the potential of depicting sleuthing in the midst of a war. Blake’s been better. (Apr.)