This is the second book in the Jesperson and Lane series of gently paranormal mysteries, set in the 1890s. The stories are narrated by Aphrodite (Di) Lane, a young female detective, who assists Jasper Jesperson in the solving mysterious cases and phenomena that inflict the inhabitants of late Victorian Britain. When a previously unknown man, one Charles Manning, drops dead in their house in the early hours of one November morning, the duo are tasked by the deceased’s brother to find out more about the circumstances and causes of his mysterious death, and go to Norfolk, where he was lodging with the vicar and his large family in a small village, Aylmerton. Charles Manning’s close connections are with Bella Bulstrode, the eponymous witch is a neighbour, a young woman and her sisters, with a reputation for her herbal and medical knowledge, while over in Cromer the sinister Felix Ott seemed to possess an unhealthy influence over the unfortunate Manning. There is another unexplained death to investigate, and a missing baby.
The story trots along pleasantly and it is an easy and unchallenging read. There are instances of behaviour which seem a little implausible to late Victorian England as well as some solecisms in Lane’s narrative. The tale later shifts into elements of outright fantasy which seem a little bizarre and unexpected and jar with the tenor of the overall story.

Strong 3.5 stars of 5
https://lynns-books.com/2017/08/26/the-curious-affair-of-the-witch-at-wayside-cross-the-curious-affair-of-2/
I only fairly recently read and enjoyed the first Curious Affair book in the series and so I was more than happy to discover that the second was available to request. The Witch at Wayside Cross was a really enjoyable, gothic feeling story that for me established this series as one that I definitely want to continue reading.

The Somnambulist and the Psychic Thief was a great start to series, I had a few niggles but overall I enjoyed it, I had fun, and it was great to get back to Victorian era detecting. The second in series builds on the original premise, it takes the mystery outside of the streets of London and carries our main characters into the depths of the countryside where they are beset on all sides by folklore, shrieking pits, ghosts and witches not to mention a good bit of good old fashioned murder.

We start the story with a man arriving at a late hour at the door of Jesperson and Lane. The man is quite obviously in the grips of terror and after pointing an accusing finger at Lane and calling her a witch promptly drops dead. Charles Manning, although a relatively young man in good health appears to all intents to have had a massive heart attack. Jesperson suspects poisoning may be involved and following a trail of crumbs locates Charles brother who ends up giving the pair of would-be detectives their next case. They swiftly travel to the village of Aylmerton and begin to track down Manning’s friends and acquaintances which turn into a most unlikely bunch.

There are plenty of characters in this episode. Revered Ringer and his puritanical wife are where our duo take up rooms when they arrive in the village. Charles also stayed at the Vicarage and his belongings await his return. It seems that the Reverend liked Charles and tried to dissuade him from associating with Felix Ott. Ott is a folklore advocate who wants to establish a school to teach ancient beliefs before they’re lost to time. Of course the Reverend is strongly opposed to anything relating to superstition that opposes the Christian belief. On top of this we make the acquaintance of the Bulstrode Sisters, a coven no less – the elder sister being familiar with remedies and being befriended by a Crow make it easy to see where the whispers of witchcraft spring from. Could it be that Charles become romantically entangled with one of them. As you can see lots of potential leads to follow.

I have to say that I loved the set up for this story, it takes its time a little but was a delicious build up, creepy settings, whisperings, talk of evil doings, country lanes, dark nights, foreboding forests and hints at the supernatural – not to mention fairy rings with red and white spotted mushrooms. Come on. I loved every minute of it and couldn’t get enough. Plus, there’s this whole Holmes/Watson vibe going on here – the detecting isn’t the same, don’t get me wrong, but there’s something about the era that makes me think of Conan Doyle not to mention that this story has the Baskerville Vibe going on with the move out of the City and into the country and Lane has become our very own Watson – at least that’s the way I’m reading things. She’s the one who narrates and she’s also the one who ends up in situations, dealing with issues, maybe even stumbling upon things by accident whilst Jesperson is off somewhere doing his thing.

Now, niggles. Well, not much to mention to be honest. I think I would have preferred this if the mystery hadn’t doubled up to become two mysteries – I liked the focus of the first and in a way I think I would have enjoyed it if the supernatural possibilities therein had played out in that plot arc to become something more. As it is we have a second mystery which feels a little bit latched on at this point although it could be that all these elements are building into something more – at the moment it feels a little bit like there’s a struggle going on to blend the supernatural elements into the tale although, as I say, it could all be part of a bigger plan.

I think this series is developing really well, I like the characters, although there’s clearly something mysterious with Jesperson that hasn’t yet been revealed (or at least I suspect there is) and I very much look forward to seeing what comes next.

Finally – do me a favour and just look at those two covers – I love em!

I received a copy courtesy of the publisher through Netgalley for which my thanks. The above is my on opinion.

The second installment in the Casebooks of Jesperson and Lane - a supernatural slant to a Sherlock/Watson-type pairing - take the duo out of London and out into a countryside full of folklore and myth: witches and screaming pits and fairies, oh my!

After finding the narrator's voice a little grating at times in the first book, I was very pleased to see an improvement here. Still, the balance needed to have a female lead in a Victorian-era novel without her being either out-of-time modern or in-time weak is a tough one to find - and I'd say we're maybe 90% successful here.

I'll be looking out for the third in the series, as minor flaws aside, these are fun reads.

The Curious Affair of the Witch of Wayside Cross, Lisa Tuttle

Review from Jeannie Zelos book reviews

Genre: Mystery & Thrillers,Sci Fi & Fantasy

This caught my eye as its set in Norfolk, my home county. I love a dip into a historical novel sometimes so asked for this.
It proved to be a fun read, fascinating mystery involving local legends. 
What surprised me further was the main action takes place in a little village just outside Cromer, called Aylmerton.
Why the surprise? Well, I live in that village and so much of it is exactly as it is now, the shrieking pit legends, the Lions Mouth, the local church. It's clearly an area the author is familiar with and that reality made it really fun to read.
There are lots of local legends here, the village is set on an area when the Romans used to stay - called of course - Roman Camp, and the whole Holt - Cromer ridge was formed during the ice age, so fascinating fossils and artifacts frequently turn up in fields and on the beaches. The West Runton mammoth was found here a few years back, its the largest almost complete skeleton found.
I've often wondered about the Shrieking pits, I've a few old books about Norfolk and they're mentioned. I love Lisa's explanation. 
I love too the Jesperson and Lane duo, a great pair who complement each other well. I do think that maybe Miss Lane might have found life a tad more restrictive though....and I so wish the trains run as well now as they did then. Post too. I've a few old family letters and postcards, one always fascinated me, its from a great aunt telling my gran she'll visit that afternoon. Can you imagine doing that now :-)
On the whole though the historical setting worked really well, made me feel as though I was with them back in time. The little details really make a difference to the feeling of history found in novels.
I enjoyed the way what seem like disparate plots end up being linked, tied up neatly in an ending I didn't foresee. I love being surprised like that! Its a gentle read, but very cleverly done, very accurate historically and well researched. The plants and poisons section was very interesting, I'm very interested in plants and natural remedies, and again this showed that Lisa had done her homework.
I think that's what give novels an edge, when its clear that the details have been checked, not simply invented or left to chance as to accuracy.

It's a story I really enjoyed, not a heart stopping suspense but a more gentle meander through history with a fascinating couple.  

 
Stars: four, an interesting and fun read, with a special connection for me with where I live. 

ARC supplied for review purposes by Netgalley and Publishers

If you loved the first Jesperson and Lane book, The Somnambulist and the Psychic Thief, you'll enjoy this - though Tuttle has written a rather different story, it's every bit as good.

While The Somnambulist and the Psychic Thief was very much an action story with lashings of penny dreadful menace, this is a slower, more reflective book. It particularly showcases the abilities of Miss Lane: indeed, while Jesperson comes and goes on a rather erratic schedule, much of the discovery is driven by Lane and her ability to get alongside the inhabitants of the various dwellings - whether vicarage or wise woman's abode - where the clues to Mr Manning's death may be found. (My wife being a vicar, I was rather alarmed at the idea - which I think is accurate for Victorian days - that strangers could just turn up at a remote vicarage and expect to be put up!)

The story that Lane draws out is fascinating, much of the book gradually exposing the range of views that Victorians might hold on witchcraft, cunning-men, fairies and the like. The Norfolk that Jesperson and Lane visit is a mesh of rivalrous arcane practitioners with Manning himself having been involved in something called the "School of British Wisdom" whose purpose is to revive the learning of the "druids". They, and pretty much everyone else our duo meet, have all sorts of views on the so-called "screaming pits" to be found in local fields and woods, as well as different attitudes to witchcraft, whether historical or modern. The book is a reminder - like The Somnambulist and the Psychic Thief - of the spread of opinion about the supernatural, and the blurred distinction between that and science, that obtained then. Like the Victorians, we're in real doubt whether or the events have a "natural" explanation (or even what that means).

The key to Manning's death is apparently located somewhere in this complex web, which also draws in a missing baby, poisonings and the "good neighbours" (nothing to do with Ramsay St). But there are many false turns, misleading theories and a startling lack of hard evidence, so it's a tough case to crack with surprises right to the end.

As I said earlier, there is less action in this story than in the previous book, and I felt at times that the conversations over tea in drawing rooms used, especially in the first half, to establish the facts of the case teeter on the edge of becoming long-winded. Teeter, but don't fall over - Tuttle avoids that, not least because alongside the investigation, there are darker veins running through the book.

First, she maps the attitude of men towards women, seeing them as means to ends, whether those are commercial, such as obtaining property, or more "spiritual". This attitude comes out quite nakedly on a couple of occasions but is always simmering away. It's something Lane is alert to, and even the presence of her friend Jesperson makes her uneasy at one point:

"His eyes glinted in the moonlight and I suddenly felt unaccountably nervous, and looked away at the empty, tree-lined road ahead".

Apart from a sense of menace, the books shows women not being listened to. Often, men whom Lane is asking question of respond to Jesperson instead, and at one point we're told, "...the men were not so ready to believe she knew what she was talking about..." These moments give the story a real bite, counterpointed, of course, by the recurring debate about witchcraft and the treatment of women regarded as witches.

As well as the treatment of gender, there are also some carefully observed class attitudes. One may draw a comparison between the treatment by the Rev and Mrs Ringer of their servant, Maria, and the superstitious attitude to the fairies (those "good neighbours"). You mustn't, you see, acknowledge or thank the fairies of they do you a good turn. Similarly, Maria's toil in the kitchen goes unremarked: when she's ill one evening and Jesperson and Lane do the work instead, nobody remarks on it. I'm reminded of George Orwell's observation of old women carrying firewood in North Africa: that it was just wood going by.

So, within this apparently charming and engaging fantasy crime novel, there is a good deal of shrewd social commentary.

Overall, a solid follow-up to The Somnambulist and the Psychic Thief, showing that Tuttle isn't simply planning to repeat a successful formula - popular though I'm sure that would be - but is letting this series evolve. I wonder what she'll do with it next?

Thanks Quercus Books and netgalley for this ARC.

I was hooked on this series from the first, and now I'm even more thrilled for more. I love the unorthodox relationship between our detectives. They are misunderstood, savvy, and determined. This series is unlike any others out there right now.

After the terrors of their first case, Jasper Jesperson and Di Lane return in this latest Victorian historical mystery, set in London and Norfolk. Their newest case literally lands on their doorstep in the earliest of hours. A strange man comes knocking on their door in a desperate hallucinating state seeking their help, and upon seeing Miss Lane, points at her, proclaiming her to be a witch and then proceeds to drop dead. He turns out to be Charles Manning, assumed to have suffered from heart failure, according to the police. Unconvinced that the death resulted from natural causes, the duo decide to investigate. Alexander Manning, the victim's brother, hires them to find out what happened to Charles, who had been residing in Aylmerton, close to Cromer, in Norfolk.

Travelling to Norfolk, they stay with the vicar, Dr Ringer, and his family, where Charles lodged, in the hope of finding as much as they possibly could about him. Dr Ringer informs them that there have been three other mysterious deaths in the parish. They find Charles was close to Felix Ott, who heads the British School of Wisdom, venerating the ancient beliefs in fairies, magic, witches etc.. Charles was engaged to Ann, one of the sisters living at Wayside Cross, rumoured locally to be witches. Bella is a highly skilled herbalist and more, responsible for her two younger half sisters, Alys and Ann. A much desired unfathomable grimoire is kept in Bella's library, with magical attributes ascribed to it, a number of people want it. With the strong possibility that Charles was poisoned, they have a host of possible suspects, including a male witch. Alarmingly, the baby of a maid goes missing. The local area is full of the folklore of the shriek pits associated with witches, the community attest to still hearing the shrieks, thereby going out of their way to avoid them. Can Jesperson and Lane get to the bottom of what happened to Charles and find the missing baby?

Lisa Tuttle captures the Victorian interest in the supernatural elements in this series. So we encounter fairies, poison rings (there is more than one type), magic, witchcraft and spells. People might remember Arthur Conan Doyle's obsession with fairies in this historical period. The shriek pits in Norfolk have associations with witches and fairies. Jesperson and Lane's investigation into Charles's death leads them into this strange and fantastical world, amidst which resides a killer. The opposite characters of Jasper and Di mesh well together, whilst demonstrating their differing strengths. This is a compelling and entertaining historical mystery which I thoroughly enjoyed reading. If the Victorian and the fantastical appeals to you, then this is the perfect novel for you. Many thanks to Quercus for an ARC.