Even the unlikeable types are likeable in Julia Stuart's The Pigeon Pie Mystery. As with her previous novel, The Tower, the Zoo, and the Tortoise, Stuart displays a Dickensian talent for creating personalities meant to be played by character actors. In Princess Alexandrina (mostly known as Mink) and her lady's maid (Pooki), I forsee a budding career in amateur crime-fighting. More like Mma Precious Ramotswe and Mma Grace Makustsi than Sherlock Holmes and sidekick Watson. To my delight, Stuart hints that future cases may be forthcoming.

If Stuart does commit herself to a series of books, based on these characters, I expect that she'll continue to educate her reader on quirky British history. Having appreciated the way Stuart incorporated trivia about the Tower's menagerie in the last novel, I was expecting background on Hampton Court Palace, the setting for the current novel, and I was not disappointed. The ghost wives of Henry VIII are said to haunt the premises, for example. Catherine Howard is reported to manifest in the gallery where she'd fled, screaming for mercy, after learning that Henry planned to have her beheaded as he'd had her cousin before her.

History lessons never get in the way of story, however. Humor is everywhere in evidence. During the inquest scene, that humor came close to slapstick, but more often the dialogue remains repartee (witty rather than silly).

Some jokes may be missed by those who are unfamiliar with Victorian literature. For example, when the resident housekeeper consults the doctor after several encounters with a monkey on the premises (a monkey that no one else admits to seeing), she is asked, "Are you in the habit of drinking tea?" Her "eyes immediately fled to the corner of the consulting room." The doctor continues,

"I cannot overstate the evil effects of tea-worship. Not only does the tannin ravish the throat and stomach, but it can also induce melancholia and suicidal monomania. According to a recent study, the increase of lunacy amongst the lower classes is considered partly due to the amount of tea they now drink. Their teapots are never off the hob. Where is yours, may I enquire?"

The reader familiar with Joseph Sheridan LeFanu's "Green Tea" will immediately recognize the allusion. In that ghost story, a heavy tea drinker is troubled by the hostile antics of a monkey demon. He eventually commits suicide. Having researched this story for an article I wrote on chemically-altered intellectuals in occult literature of the period, I also recognized the accuracy of the mentioned study. I did find a report by a Victorian pharmacologist that attributed suicidal monomania to over-consumption of green tea.

I love discovering such tidbits in my mystery novels. For this reason, I'm also a fan of Christopher Fowler's Bryant and May series and Alan Bradley's Flavia de Luce series. I do look forward to following the future exploits of Mink and Pooki!

I am grateful to Doubleday's representative for offering to send me a promotional copy of this novel, due for release in August.