This is a solid, well-crafted murder mystery set in Regency London. It’s filled with the kind of historical detail that places it firmly in the time period and its gritty atmosphere gives it a Sherlock Holmes-ish vibe. I liked that the two main characters were from opposite ends of the era's rigid class system which added an undercurrent of tension to their efforts at forming a working relationship. Could there be a little romance in their future? I think I’ll read on and find out. ( )

Originally posted on Just Geeking by.

One of the few non-fantasy/sci-fi types of books I read, and pretty much the only crime genre I read without any fantasy or supernatural elements in is historical fiction, primarily Victorian or Regency era like Murder on Black Swan Lane. What can I say? I like Sherlock Holmes, I like Victorian fiction a lot and studied it as part of my English Literature degree. The problem with the classics though is that most of them were written by actual Victorians (funny that :P) and while there are some classic writers I appreciate and admire, they're still confined by their society. And before someone says 'well actually...' and starts to lecture me about so and so being before their time, that's all well and good, but they don't write stories with female heroines, do they? Most of the books I read of this genre probably aren't historically accurate in one way or another, and I'm ok with that because I'm reading for the pleasure of fiction. If I wanted to read something historically accurate then I'd go read actual Victorian or Regency literature.

You might see where this is going; Murder on Black Swan Lane by Andrea Penrose isn't historically accurate, but it is jolly good fun! What drew me to the book was the unique idea of a mystery novel with one of the crime-fighting duo being an artist. They're always a Lord or Lady, and if failing that a doctor, or a teacher - someone academic. But an artist? That was different and I like different. I found the story to be quite interesting, and the characters to be well developed and fleshed out with the novel giving just enough information without giving everything away. This is, after all, just book one in a series so I'm sure there are more secrets to unfold as the series goes on and I'm definitely going to be checking out book two.

I read some complaints about the accents of the two young cockney boys, and as someone who hails from London and grew up in a house where cockney rhyming slang was normal, I wanted to talk a bit about them. Normally 'ye' is used for Scottish accents in literature, however, in London yes/yeah is pronounced as 'yeh'. I just read the 'ye' as 'yeh' in my head automatically because I knew they were cockney, not Scottish. Other than the 'ye' everything else about their dialogue was spot on as far as I was concerned.

If any dialogue was a bit off it was Wrexford's which felt a little too much like every Regency film/period drama I'd ever watched had been used to create his dialogue. But that was just a minor thing that I noticed and honestly if I hadn't been looking at the language used by the characters I'm not sure I'd have even noticed.

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I enjoy mysteries, and I enjoy books set during the Regency. This was the first time I read a book combining the two elements. I enjoyed it. The mystery was interesting, and I hadn't figured out who the murderer was.

I liked the two main characters and look forward to learning more about each of them (Sloane seems to have an especially complicated past). I'm also interested to see how their paths will next cross and how their friendship will develop.

I will definitely be continuing on with this series soon. ( )

I was very happy to become acquainted with this author's work. I certainly found the story intriguing despite some quite rocky plot development. My main quibble was Penrose's inclination to muddy the narrative with essentially two unrelated mysteries which, in my view, clashed as far as a plot device.

Characterization was fun and I liked my time getting to know the female protagonist, a satirical illustrator, A.J. Quill, with her two adopted street urchins. However, it took me about half the book to warm up to the Earl of Wrexford. This part of the story ran very unevenly, requiring too much accommodation to facets of Wrexford as an aristocrat versus the gentleman sleuth consorting with the mysterious Mrs. Sloane a.k.a. 'A.J. Quill'.

I also longed for evidence of an editor. Too often 'hubris' and 'the pot calling the kettle black' were words used to excess. As well, towards the dénouement, unravelling the main murder mystery and the lesser plot (an earlier crime) became too confused to be worthy of interrupting this suspenseful reading. I'll look for some better plotting in Book 2. ( )

This promising start to the Wrexford & Sloane series features a member of London's aristocracy partnering with "political" cartoonist/satirist and a couple of street children she's "adopted" to solve a crime for which Lord Wrexford himself is suspected by some of committing. The author spends a lot of time developing the characters of Lord Wrexford and Charlotte Sloane and the two orphans. Charlotte adopted the pen name of her late husband A. J. Quill when he died because she needed the income brought in by his work. Set in London's Regency period, the Bow Street Runner seems determined to put Wrexford behind bars for the death of a man with whom he had been sparring publicly in the papers. The mystery focuses on the developing science of chemistry as well as the darker art of alchemy. This one was slow to start but once it got going, it held my attention. ( )