The advent of the Bow Street Runner represented a major advancement of the concept of rule of law; the job itself would have been a leg up for most so employed. Our hero, John Pickett, rose from pickpocket and street urchin into the enviable position of runner but his upward career didn’t stop there. Investigating a case of murder, he was smitten by Cupid’s arrow when he encountered the chief suspect, the widow of no less than a Viscount–a creature well outside his purview. Nonetheless, Venus succeeded in thwarting social mores and he found himself wed to his goddess. Now he is summoned to the aid of a woman whose circumstance is the reverse of his own mesalliance, a merchant’s daughter wed to a lord, who suspects him of trying to murder her.
Ms. South’s well-rounded phrases become a symphony in the mouth of narrator Joel L. Froomkin as his vocalizations bring to life the various characters in a variety of accents and brogues as the action and investigation advance. At the conclusion of the story there is a bonus short story which provides a lovely insight into Mr. Pickett’s background and character.