The Last Pleasure Garden

Inspector Webb #3

by Lee Jackson

A sinister figure stalks the gas-lit groves of Cremorne Gardens, the last-pleasure-ground on the banks of the Thames. His a sharp pair of scissors. His young women in the first bloom of youth. His merely to remove a lock of their hair. Inspector Decimus Webb of Scotland Yard suspects a harmless lunatic is at large. But when morbid obsession turns to murder, even Webbâ s loyal sergeant begins to doubt his judgment.

As the press and his superiors clamour for answers, Webbâ s investigations lead him to Rose Perfitt, aspiring debutante and daughter of a respectable stockbroker. Will she fall prey to â The Cutterâ or does a worse fate beckon? One thing is certain â only Decimus Webb can save her.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Mystery, Victorian

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Plum-crazy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good enough Victorian murder mystery featuring the inevitable dour Inspector along with a trusty sidekick. The Victorian atmosphere is evoked credibly - especially that of the lively nightlife of the pleasure gardens - but the murder mystery itself is of rather a more sedate pace.
The story builds steadily to its conclusion & while there's no nail biting moments there are one or two surprises along the way.

[Celia · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a nice atmospheric Victorian mystery - the third Inspector Webb novel, which I thought was a bit odd, as Inspector Webb was a bit of a two-dimensional character to me. He was there to solve the mystery and nothing more, but I wonder if that would have been different if I'd read the other two novels.

I enjoyed the description of the Cremorne Pleasure Gardens, which sounded rather fun, and all the little details (of baby-farming, for instance) are quite fascinating. I wasn't enthralled particularly by the mystery, but it wasn't awful either. A fairly fast read, but I really enjoyed the Victoriana details more than the actual plot.

[Sean Harding · Rating 3 out of 5]

Third and apparently final of the Decimus Webb books with Lee Jackson's normal prose style on show. At the same time easy to read but difficult to sustain interest and of course set in Victorian England. Rescued by a decent final act this was again not the greatest of books.
That is eight from twelve of Jackson's books now.

[P.D.R. Lindsay · Rating 3 out of 5]

'The Last Pleasure Garden' of the book's title is Cremorne Gardens, a Victorian version of the notorious Vauxhall Gardens of Regency infamy. All sorts of things happen in the Gardens, including a mad man who is cutting a lock from young women's hair and slashing dresses, using a frighteningly large pair of scissors.

Inspector Webb has to catch the man and finds there is far more involved than a simple lunatic at large. Dead bodies, murder and baby farming, past passions and present revenge tangle together in a mix he has difficulty unravelling. For Jackson fans this will be a pleasure to read especially as the author's Victorian London is tangible.

However I do have a couple of quibbles. I had been looking forward to reading this book. It is the third in a series about Decimus Webb of Scotland Yard and I'd heard much praise for the series. The first book was short listed for the Ellis Peters' Historical Dagger Award, and Lee Jackson knows his Victorian London well enough to have written an excellent non-fiction book about it. But this book (and I believe the other two also) is written in the present tense by an omniscient author. Readers are never close enough to a character to form that reader's bond which makes me willing to turn the pages and see what happens next. It makes, for me, a rather passionless book which, as the plot revolves around revenge and rekindling old passions, I found difficult reading. And I personally found it hard to accept that Rose Perfitt, a seventeen year old, gentleman's, well brought up daughter about to make her 'come out' would have so much unsupervised freedom.

[Amanda Perry-Larkin · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a turn of events at the end there! The whole book literally built up to what was going on. You could not predict what was happening which was fantastic! So many things lead to the end, the pieces of the puzzle just slowly fell in place.

I would say this would be a quick one time read for anyone who loves mystery and historical fiction. Very descriptive and written well for the time period that it is supposed to be in. The characters were realistic and you got to see both sides of the case, which I liked.

[Katie Grainger · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was relatively slow to get going and I was rather uninterested in the story until it got toward the end of the book. Once the identity of The Cutter was revealed the book improved. Probably my favorite part of the book was the interplay between Bartleby and Webb, which amused me throughout. All in all an interesting read although in parts not entirely convincing.

[Jennifer Delamere · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite the lurid looking cover, this was actually just an intriguing Victorian-set mystery story. I enjoyed trying to figure out who was responsible for the bizarre goings-on, and also how seemingly disparate sets of people were in fact connected. I also enjoyed the sly bits of humor. A good story that held my interest to the end.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like Lee jackson's style of writing, great victorian descriptions. Enjoyed it.

[JenniferB · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting and well written. Good atmosphere.