Kensington Books, 2016.
Review published Jan 2017.
A Colin Pendragon Mystery.
Colin Pendragon, the son of a formidable British diplomat, and his sidekick Ethan Pruitt, are a pair of thirty-ish private detecives in Victorian England, who happen to be gay in a time when Oscar Wilde was sent to prison for that same crime.
Nevertheless, they manage to bluff their way through the risks of exposure, while solving two seemingly related murders in the small country town of Dalwich, Sussex.
Colin was held to a very high standard by his father, and performs to the satisfaction of all, exposing the monk who murdered his abbot and the townsman who offed the greedy barmaid.
The author is adept at characterization, and the clues are the old-fashioned kind, based on motive and method. The detectives rely on their high standing in London to secure the cooperation of the local constabulary.
In this book the author shows that he has done a fair amount of period research into some amazing theological discoveries in the ancient monasteries of the Middle East -- the Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Syriacus. At the time, the world of Christian theology was turned upside down as the literal-reading-of-the-bible set was discombobulated by the discovery that the bible went through quite a few human modifications before reaching its present form.
The book is quite readable, and Pendragon is an appealing series character.
P.S. Starting with the letter "D", The Dalwich Desecration is the fourth Pendragon story.The Dalwich Desecration, by Gregory Harris; Kensington Books, 2016.