Oh, No, Octavius!

This series just gets better and I thoroughly enjoyed this latest story. Here in book four, teenage investigator Octavius Guy and his sidekick George, go undercover and get to mingle with the well heeled residents of Highbury, back then just a village beyond London. The plot is based on an actual person and real event, and the lads are engaged by a group of neighbours who want to find some reason to remove their clergyman from his post. When the Reverend is found conveniently dead, there are plenty of potential culprits and red herrings for Octavius and George to grapple with, aided by “Guys Dictionary of Detection for Budding Detectives”. As the pair gain more experience at investigating crime, so their working relationship has become more believable and there are some very amusing exchanges between them. The cast of characters is brilliantly drawn and the 1850s Victorian London setting is, as always, impeccably researched by the author. Some of the regular characters make an appearance too, and this fourth in the series beautifully demonstrates Gallagher's witty and very readable writing style. There is a clever nod to a famous author of the era towards the end of the story (and I was pleased that I correctly guessed his identity). At the back of the book Gallagher provides some interesting insights about the real clergyman on which the plot is based. This whole series would make a wonderful TV mystery drama for family prime time entertainment. If you like Agatha Christie and Sherlock Holmes, you will definitely enjoy this book and I wholeheartedly recommend it.

I am lucky enough to be friends (so I consider) with the very agreeable author and get to review this very nice and entertaining series, and got this book as a gift for Christmas!

The action is set in the Victorian era, a few decades before Sherlock Holmes, but Octavius Guy could very well have worked for him.
He’s very young (in this installment he’s all of fifteen, but with a little brother and a dog in charge), has a privileged intellect and knows and manages very well and has contacts in the underworld of London (we have seen that in the previous volumes of the series, but here “Bertha” also makes an appareance).
It’s a criminal case all right, with the murder of the quite nasty cleric and all its implications and whodunits. I didn’t know the legal term of advowson, which doesn’t let them get rid (without physically eliminating him) of the quibbling cleric, but it seems very interesting… and in some cases it still exists!
But I like the touches of humor, like the rivalry between a very English cook and a very Indian manservant/cook; both contribute interesting things, but Octavius understandably favours the first... doesn’t like the “herbs” 
We see also Octavius very in love with his friend/colleague investigator George’s (not much older than he is) lovely sister Annie. But beware, young George is already married to Mary, and she’s quite a character !
He’s also finally getting a real educacion, even learning latin (‘his’ way), and all’s well that ends well because he convinces Bertha that ‘her’ protégé the child William will do much better with an education in a school.
All in all, as enjoyable as the other books in the series, the setting and the language are impeccable as always.