The Masque of a Murderer

Set in 1667, Calkins’s assured third mystery featuring printer’s apprentice Lucy Campion (after 2014’s From the Charred Remains) opens with the sudden reappearance in London of Sarah Hargrave, the daughter of Lucy’s former employer, after an absence of two years. Sarah, who became a Quaker much to her family’s dismay, has come back to check on her brother, Adam, who was injured in the previous book. Sarah wants Lucy to write down the last words of Jacob Whitby, one of Sarah’s new comrades and a friend of Adam’s from Cambridge, who was run down by a cart. On his death bed, Jacob confides in Lucy that someone pushed him into harm’s way and that one of the Quakers who accompanied Sarah is a fake. Lucy again proves herself a resourceful and plausible investigator. Calkins’s familiarity with the period and her use of obscure details, such as the fire court set up to adjudicate claims after the Great Fire of 1666, are a plus. [em]Agent: David Hale Smith, Inkwell Management. (Apr.) [/em]