Frances Doughty is a young woman in Victorian Bayswater, one of the better parts of London. With the death of her brother and father she can't keep the family pharmacist business going because ladies can't do that kind of thing. She is packing up to move in with her uncle when she is given the job of looking in to some disturbing literature which has been found at an exclusive all girls school as the guardians of the school have heard of her success as a detective. There is soon a murder and more mysteries to solve.

The mysteries are good and involved but I think that the history that is brought in to the novel is also very interesting. Not only does the reader see the restrictions placed on people - there seem to be rigid codes of conduct, especially for young ladies- but the book also includes early women's suffrage meetings and other interesting details of the period.

This is Frances Doughty's second mystery and my favorite of the three. Frances immediately starts learning to be private detective for hire when she is approached before she even finishes packing up her home. Because of a local newspaper man Frances has earned notoriety for her sleuthing and decides to try to make a go of it. She happily offers her maid Sarah an apprenticeship since she can't imagine being separated from her friend.

Her first commission is to find out who distributed some unsavory pamphlets to young impressionable girls at a school for well to do girls. At first it appears pretty simple case, but before long it takes a turn into the dark side of humanity. A couple people are murdered and several more have attempts made on their lives. Frances needs to solve the crimes before anyone else gets hurt.

Great Sherlockian mystery and I highly recommend these. Good writing, good story, good mysteries and an all around fun read. ( )

Where I got the book: review copy provided by the Historical Novel Society. This review first appeared on the HNS website.

The strength, and possibly also the weakness, of this Victorian mystery lies in its intricate plotting. From the unpromising start of a minor puzzle involving the distribution of anti-marriage pamphlets in a private girls’ school, The Daughters of Gentlemen evolves into a complex tale of murder, blackmail, adultery and deception.

This second novel in the Frances Doughty mystery series sees Frances beginning a new life as a private detective in Bayswater, where preparations for the 1880 General Election are underway. The atmosphere of middle- and upper-class life in a genteel London district is well evoked, with less success when it comes to the servants and underclasses, and the plot blends nicely into the atmosphere of electioneering and demands for women’s suffrage.

I had difficulty working my way into this novel because of the low-stakes nature of the initial mystery and some artificial-sounding dialogue near the beginning. The story improves with the first murder (although I was disappointed by the throwaway solution to this particular mystery) and becomes considerably more intriguing as it progresses. Encountering many scenes where the dialogue is lively and natural, I regret the author’s decision to summarize certain key dramas—a suffrage meeting, an inquest and a confession in particular—rather than using dialogue to expand them into a more exciting spectacle.

As often with plot-driven novels, I craved more development of the main characters’ inner lives and relationships. This was particularly true with regard to the large cast of helpers, antagonists and informers whose purpose seems primarily that of providing information. ( )

The second Victorian murder mystery to feature Frances Doughty picks up where 'The Poisonous Seed' left off, with Frances being asked to investigate an incident – the distribution of inflammatory pamphlets – at the Bayswater Academy for Young Ladies. What seems at first to be a straightforward investigation soon becomes entangled with murder, and, once again, Frances finds herself investigating unsolved mysteries, often on the verge of being out of her depth – but never quite so.

Concurrent with all this, Frances and her former maid, now companion, Sarah, move into their new apartment, Frances’s business begins to thrive, and Sarah begins to gain a reputation of her own.

Well-written, with a complex, cleverly thought out plot, and a convincing Victorian voice. Recommended. ( )