Tangled Web UK Review December 2005
The Last Pleasure Garden by
Lee Jackson
pbk out February 07
(Arrow)
at £7.99
Inspector Decimus Webb and his sidekick Sergeant Bartleby, in their 3rd
reported outing, are called to one of the great nineteenth century London
Pleasure Gardens, Cremorne Gardens in Chelsea. There some unscrupulous
person has been making a making a nuisance of him/herself by cutting the
hair of young girls enjoying themselves in the Gardens. The unimaginative
soubriquet of "The Cutter" serves well enough until a young servant girl is
stabbed; she recovers, but it's not long before the deaths start in earnest.
Jane Budge, a servant and the daughter of an intriguing character who turns
out to be a baby farmer, is burned to death and then in very short order there
are 2 fatal stabbings. Is the Cutter responsible for any or all of these? And
who in fact is the Cutter? Is it George Nelson, a ticket-of-leave man (paroled
prisoner) who has spent 5 years in Pentonville for the rape of Jane Budge? Or
how about the Reverend Featherstone, an ardent campaigner against the
citadel of evil which is Cremorne Gardens? Or, Heaven forefend, could it be a
member of the Perfitt family? Charles Perfitt is a respectable stockbroker, his
wife Caroline something of a social climber, and their daughter Rose a young
lady with a secret.
Secrets abound, in fact, and the police officers gain very little ground in trying
to unravel them. In truth, police officers Webb and Bartleby aren't particularly
engaging or interesting characters, but others in this tale are – and the novel
is well worth reading for the fascinating glimpses of the seedier reaches of
Victorian life.
(
Judith Rhodes
)
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