The spelling in the title of M. J. Trow’s historical thriller The Blue and the Grey hints that this novel set just after the US Civil War has a British angle. So does its subtitle, “A Grand & Batchelor Victorian Mystery.”
It opens with a deadly night of drama at Ford’s Theater (or Theatre, as it’s written here) in Washington, DC. Captain Matthew Grand, uniformed as a member of the Third Cavalry of the Army of the Potomac, sits in the audience with his fiancée when President Lincoln is shot. Dashing into the alleyway after John Wilkes Booth, Grand has a violent encounter with one of Booth’s burly accomplices, who sports an English accent.
Over in London, fresh after discovering the body of a strangled prostitute and nearly being accused of her murder, novice journalist James Batchelor gets canned from his dreary job at the Telegraph after refusing to invent copy for a prospective interview.
After being secretly recruited to track down Booth’s fellow conspirator, Grand travels to England, where – following many almost-too-coincidental-to-be-real events that put them in each other’s company – he and Batchelor compare notes and suspect the two crimes are connected.
The writing is economical and smart, demonstrating an impressively wide vocabulary, and Trow demonstrates his ease with the mid-19th century on both sides of the pond. Much is made of Grand’s unexpected culture shock overseas, which creates some funny moments, and so does a British bandleader’s poor choices at a gala to honor the visiting American. The frequent viewpoint switches among the large cast makes the experience feel kaleidoscopic, which works splendidly amidst the shocking chaos at Ford’s Theater, but less effectively in the middle sections of the book.
The plot takes many detours, which Trow seems to jokingly acknowledge to the reader via one man’s remarks. A few of the side characters (the cleverly proactive Inspector Tanner and the real-life magician known as The Great Maskelyne, to name two) feel like they’d gladly take more on-page time if Trow would let them get away with it. This is the first in a series, so maybe they’ll have their chance.
The Blue and the Grey was published by Severn House way back in 2015, meaning it took me ten years (I’m ashamed to say) to review this novel via NetGalley. I’m still working through my NetGalley list until I hit the elusive review ratio of 90%. Slowly getting to that goal, but adding more books to my queue hasn’t been helping.
