Review: The Queen's Gambit by Diane A. S. Stuckart

In Milan in 1483, the duke. Ludovico Sforza has ordered his court engineer, Leonardo da Vinci, to prepare for a living chess match. During the match, one of the "pieces", the Conte de Ferrara is murdered. Ludovico, who does not trust his close associates, charges Leonardo to find out who the murderer is.

Leonardo is assisted in his detective work by his young apprentice Dino. Dino is actually Delfina della Fazia, a young woman who has run away from home to become an artist and to avoid marriage. She is pretending to be a young man because she knows that a woman would not be accepted as an apprentice to Leonardo or any other artist.  Her disguise must be carefully maintained because she lives and works with Leonardo's other young male apprentices.

This book is narrated by Dino. It is through her eyes that we see Leonardo and the activities of his apprentices as they prepare to do a mural on the last supper of Christ which will be in the monk's dining hall.  Leonardo's inventions will also play a part in the story.

The reader will learn about all types of people at the court of Milan. Unfortunately we do not learn much about the murdered man which makes it a little difficult to speculate on reasons why he would be killed. The personalities of Leonardo's apprentices and the members of the court whom Leonardo interviews are well drawn. There is also an look at the complicated diplomatic situation at this moment in Renaissance history.


I do recommend this book. It will appeal to mystery readers with an interest in the Renaissance or in art history.

The Mystery of the Hansom Cab by Fergus Hume

Fergus Hume was born in New Zealand, but moved to Melbourne, Australia. He was determined to be a dramatist, but the managers of Melbourne theaters did not like his plays. So Hume decided to write a novel. He asked booksellers which novels sold best. Hume was told that the mystery novels of Emile Gaboriau were selling well so he bought all of these books, read them, and decided to write a mystery containing "a mystery, a murder, and a description of low life in Melbourne". In 1886, The Mystery of the Hansom Cab" was published and it became one of the best selling mystery novels of the 19th century. He went on to write other mysteries, but none was as popular as this one.

Late on one Thursday evening, a very drunken Oliver Whyte collapsed on the sidewalk. According to the cabman, a man in a light brown coat came along, hailed his cab, and put Whyte into it, and then the man walked away only to return and get into the cab with Whyte. Later, when the cab reached St. Kilda Road, the man in the brown coat got out, and gave the cab man an address to take Whyte to. When the cab man reached this address, he opened the door of his cab to let his passenger out, and found Whyte dead from cloroform poisoning.

Oliver Whyte and Brian Fitzgerald were rivals for the affections of Madge Frettlby, the daughter of a very wealthy Australian land owner. It was found that Brian Fitzgerald was the man in the brown coat who initially hailed the cab. Fitzgerald denied that he was the man who got into the cab with Whyte.

There are two detectives and several other people who are friends of Fitzgerald  investigating this sensational Melbourne murder.  The investigation does reach from the slums of the city to one of the wealthiest families in the city. It gives an interesting picture of what life was like in Melbourne in the late 1800's. The locations in the city are accurate and you can use Google maps to follow the action.

Hume is a good and very witty writer.  Despite its age, this book is well worth reading as both a classic of the early mystery novel, and for the story itself. It is available as an e-book.

Spinsters in Jeopardy by Ngaio Marsh

Chief Detective Inspector Roderick Alleyn is on his way to Roqueville, France to do a bit of undercover detecting. He is also combining business with pleasure, and has brought his wife, Troy, and his five year old son Ricky to this beautiful part of France. Troy also plans while they are there to visit her cousin M. P.E. Garbel whom she does not remember, but who has been writing rather peculiar letters to her.

While they are still on the train to Roqueville, Troy and Alleyn see a very strange event through a window of a chateau by the side of the train track. The conductor tells them that this is the Chateau de la Chevre d'Argent This the place which Alleyn has come to investigate. On the morning on which they are to arrive at Roqueville, Miss Truebody, one of the passengers, has an attack of apendicitis. She is taken from the train. Alleyn finds that the town doctor is away at a medical conference, and that the only doctor nearby is Dr. Baradi who is a resident of the mysterious Chateau of la Chevre d'Argent. He hires a car driven by Raul Milano to take Miss Truebody, and the Alleyns to the Chateau.

Dr. Baradi is a rather suspicious looking Egyptian, but  appears to be a very competent physician. He operates on Miss Truebody in a makeshift operating room with the assistance of Alleyn and Raul. Meanwhile, Troy and Ricky meet some of the other occupants of the Chateau. There is Mr. Oberon who owns the chateau, an actress, an artist, and a young couple. All in all,  this seems to be a place offering spiritual advice to the well-to-do, and the famous.

The story becomes more complex and many questions may be asked.  What are the religious rites at the Chateau? What is actually being done there? Will Alleyn's undercover identity be revealed and his true occupation become know? Where does Ricky go? Who is Troy's mysterious cousin? What did Troy and Alleyn see from the train window? Who are the spinsters who are in jeopary?

This book was first published in 1953. Used copies are available at Amazon. A 1960 printing has the title "Spinsters in Jeopardy: A Fresh Victim for the Black Mass" which gives you a clue about what is going on.