Cut to the Quick: A Mystery Introducing Julian Kestrel by Kate Ross

               Julian Kestrel is not a new character to me.  Years ago I read all the books in his series (four, I believe), then I spent a great amount of time waiting for another one to come out.  Sadly, I discovered, that was not to be.  The author, Kate Ross, had died.  The only thing I could do was move on from the books and remember them fondly.          

                Which is exactly what I did.  Through the years I would think of the Julian Kestrel books and wish that Ms. Ross had had the opportunity to write more, but I had other books to read.  Ones I had never read before, so Julian became pushed to the back of my mind.  At least he was until I saw one of his books featured in the book catalog Bas Bleu.  Suddenly Julian Kestrel was brought to the forefront and I could not resist reading his stories all over again.

                Julian Kestrel is a man of society who others admire and respect.  He is always well put together and holds himself as a person of authority for those around him.  The men Julian associates with are only too happy to follow Julian’s lead, which is funny because no one knows anything about him.  During a time when your background and who your family was meant so much, it is odd that everyone respects and admires Julian so blindly.  But they do, and this exalted status is how Julian finds himself invited to be part of the wedding of Hugh Fontclair, an aristocratic young man Julian met just once, the night Julian saved him from losing everything at the gambling table.  This one incident is what inspired Hugh to invite Julian to be part of his wedding party.  Not quite sure about being part of the wedding, but happy for the vacation, Julian agrees to the invitation as it includes spending time in the grand Fontclair family home.  With such strange circumstances surrounding this invitation, Julian fully expects an interesting weekend.  What he does not expect is murder.    

                After an afternoon horse ride with Hugh, Julian returns to his room to find a dead young woman in his bed.  No one knows who she is, nor do they know how she got into the house, much less Julian’s room.  Hugh’s father, Sir Robert, would much prefer to think an outsider came into the house and commit the murder.  When that theory proves to be nearly impossible, Sir Robert happily finds someone else to blame, Julian’s valet.  Dipper has many things stacked against him.  He is not one of Sir Robert’s staff, he lied about his whereabouts at the time of the murder, and most importantly, with Dipper as a suspect, Sir Robert won’t have to look at any of his family as possible culprits.  It’s a perfect scenario for Sir Robert to have Dipper guilty of the crime, if only Julian would let go of his belief in Dipper’s innocence. 

                Julian knows that Dipper would never kill anyone.  He has a past of pick-pocketing, but that is a far cry from murder, and Julian is determined to prove that is the case before anyone from London is called in to assist.  With Dipper’s thieving past, someone of London authority could recognize him, marking Dipper as guilty without a thorough investigation.  It is up to Julian to make sure that does not happen.    

                The problem is, the Fontclair family is not exactly cooperative with Julian’s investigation.  They all have secrets to hide, including why Hugh is getting married at the young age that he is.  Even his fiancée, Maud Craddock, does not know what propagated his proposal.  Could the reason behind this marriage have something to do with the murder?

                 I will admit, it took me a bit longer to get into this book than I had expected. I think this is because it is wordier than most of the books I have been reading lately. Once I did get into the book though, I remembered why I enjoyed reading them so much before. Julian is such a great character, and I get a kick out of Dipper. It was fun as I was reading to remember bits and details from before, but I was also fortunate to have forgotten enough that the secrets and mysteries were new to me. Now that I know how much fun it is to reread this series, I look forward to rediscovering the rest.