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Summary: Sir John's Final Adventure
Comment: Now a young man on the verge of marriage and admittance to the bar, Jeremy Proctor narrates his final installment of the adventures of the blind Sir John Fielding, magistrate of London's Bow Street Court. When a noble member of Parliament publicly and inexplicably commits suicide from the Westminster Bridge, Sir John opens a private investigation into the lord's death. A simple investigation, however, is soon entangled in a lethal web of powerful families, sordid trysts, and shadowy pseudoscience.
As is usual for Sir John Fielding mysteries, the central puzzle is less interesting than the vividly realized people and places of London in 1774. Nobles, actresses, butlers, constables, doctors, and the unwashed riff-raff of London enliven a mystery which should be--at least in broad outline--easily untangled by the reader long before the protagonists tumble to the solution. However, the pulsating reality of the setting merits this book a read, especially in its depiction of the emerging theories of Dr. Franz Anton Mesmer and their influence on the popular imagination. It's unfortunate the plot is not more fully developed, but the reader will long remember Sir John, Jeremy, and their intrepid companions.
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Summary: A truly wonderful series!
Comment: This is the eleventh and last installment in the Sir John Fielding series because Mr. Alexander passed away as he was writing it. This book was a true gift since it was completed by his wife and another renowned author, and they both did a wonderful job bringing this beautiful series to an end. Mr. Alexander was a very refined writer, and I truly enjoyed each and every one of his books. His characters were wonderful, and the period detail and atmosphere that he put into each book was remarkable. This book touches on hypnotism (or mesmerism as they called it then)and necromancy. Both of these things were big in the late eighteenth century and Mr. Alexander explored how they could be used for illegal purposes. I am very sorry to come to the end of this series, but I thank the late Mr. Alexander for many joyous hours reading his wonderful books. If you like historical mysteries with wonderful period detail, I highly recommend this series.
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Summary: Good start to a poor series finale
Comment: Having just finished this final installment in the Sir John Fielding 18th century London series, I have to agree with most other reviewers that this was a very disappointing attempt to complete a story only partially written by the series author before he died. It is clear that the author's enjoyable and gifted writing style stops mid-way through the book. Someone else suggested that the first nine chapters were from the series author's pen, but in my estimation it's clear that he wrote only the first seven chapters in total. Some small sections of the remaining five chapters may have been from his hand, but largely those chapters lacked the detail and clarity of events and locations we've come to appreciate. Even some of the exchanges between main characters were utterly confusing (almost nonsensical at times) and totally unlike the behavior of the beloved characters we've come to know. The plot seemed to hurry to its conclusion as events were poorly described.
Having said this, the story was one of the best in the series through chapter seven, and the final pages did at least suggest the future of some of the main characters. It's still worth reading in order to complete the series, although you may find yourself hurrying through the inferior final half of the story.
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Summary: Should have left it in peace.
Comment: What a horrible book. The author's family did him a grave disservice by allowing someone else to "finish" the book by grafting on an idiotic ending--where it turns out the villain is a necromancer and all the crimes involved black magic, for Heaven's sake! Completely jarring, completely out of character for the series. They should have just let it alone.
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Summary: Disappointing
Comment: What a sad way to end a superb series. If I read "Said I" one more time I seriously thought about throwing the book across the room. If you haven't read this one and really enjoyed Alexander's other books, save your money, it's just not worth it!
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