Kelsey O. - reviewed on 12/16/2011 + 181 more book reviews

The biggest robbery has hit Northumberland and immediately everyone is blaming each other. The loudest two, Jamie Charlton and Michael Aynsley become the focus of Stephen Lavendar, an officer with the Bow Street magistrates court in London. Jamie becomes extremely overconfident much to the dismay of his family. His brother William starts to become uneasy that Lavender is starting to hone in on this attitude and is leaning away from investigating the very unpopular Aynsely. What happens next leads Jamies family on a very painful path that cant have a very happy ending.

I will be honest and tell you that I had to work really hard to continue reading in the beginning of this book. I didnt get the whole eagle thing and was about to put the book down and mark it a DNF until I got to the beginning of Jamies trial. The book flowed flawlessly after that and pieces started fitting together. Read much like a Sherlock Holmes mystery. The reader is always wondering did Jamie to it or not. There is a bit of a love story also intertwined with William the every devote brother who starts to fall for Jamies wife during his imprisonment before the trial. The corrupt political world is also injected into this story. Having become desperate to put the thieving bugger behind bars, Lavender is forced to resort to some pretty petty methods to extort a confession.

A great aspect of this historical fiction read is that the author, Karen Charlton, based it on her own family history. This brings the characters more alive and her careful research into the history of this trial is evident in her writing.

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