Dead Letters: An Inspector Best Mystery

First published in the U.K. in 2003, Lock's lively third historical featuring Det. Insp. Ernest Best of Scotland Yard (after Dead Born) focuses on a terrorist bomb threat. The anonymous Quicksilver, whose "infernal device" has been causing steam engines to explode across London, has sent the authorities a note threatening disaster at the annual Police F%C3%AAte held on the grounds of the Alexandra Palace on August 19, 1880. Soon after Best arrives at the vast palace on the appointed day, a middle-aged woman dies on a merry-go-round, seemingly of a heart attack. Best wonders whether the woman's death is in fact just a diversion created by Quicksilver. Joining Best in the hunt for the elusive bomber are jolly but determined Detective Littlefield, diminutive Dr. "Stompy" Roper, and hapless Sergeant Smith, who finds himself aloft in an air balloon while pursuing a suspect in one of the story's more humorous scenes. Readers get a good first-hand look at the challenges law enforcers faced more than a century ago that are not so different from what we face in our day. (Dec.)