Continuing in the King and Maxwell series, the two of them have started their own detective agency, and things are going along pretty well, then BOOOOOM, shit a series of murders start happening in their home town.

Seriously, if I lived in a small town where the murder rate escalated from none in decades to over a dozen in two years, I would move over to the next town lickety-split. Or take an extended vacation in a different country, say, Mexico where the murder rate per 1000 is significantly lower.

Anyway, King and Maxwell. They have an agency of some sort, following up on various investigations. They are hired by a local lawyer to investigate a break-in at a prominent (read: f---ing rich) family's house. The break-in frames a local construction worker / handyman in such thoroughness that one assumes it has to be a frame job. During the investigation, a series of murders start in the town, with King and Maxwell drawn into the drama.

This book, unlike the last book, has all the characters introduced, including the bad guy. As such, the clues are sufficient (and really, IN ONE'S FACE) that the reader (read: me) can figure out the mystery.

I enjoyed this book, but won't be continuing reading the series. The reviews for the remaining three books in the series are bad enough that I'd rather have the two books as "enjoyed" than other few after that spoils the first two.

I suspect the story of buying this book is more entertaining than my review of the book will be, but that could be because I lived through both.

I bought this book in Sydney when Mom and I went last October. After I had my talk and my workshop at Web Directions, Mom and I spent a couple days exploring Sydney. We went many museums, with one of them having a cute shop. I picked up two children's books in the shop simply because the binding of the books were so good. This was one of them. I love the bindings of this book. It is a beautiful, well constructed, delightful-to-hold book.

So, I was standing in line for this book when a senior couple came into the museum. I had already been standing in line for what I considered a long bit, waiting for the clerk to deal with a register failure and a difficult customer. I was patient, I waited without comment. The senior couple, however, were entitled American asshats, and decided they didn't need to wait. It was THEIR RIGHT to cut in front of the 8 people in line, and USE THEIR MUSEUM COUPON to enter the museum.

So, I flicked them off.

The old asshat guy saw me, and said, "You're evil."

Seriously, you're an entitled asshole, with no consideration for the other people who are patiently standing in line, and you consider a well-deserved bird as evil? Dude, you have serious world-view problems.

I responded, "I'm happy to give you some, too." and gave him the bird again.

Yeah.

Mom was not happy with my reaction.

So, this and the other book sat in my to-read box of books. I pulled it last week to read it. The book was written in 1894. It's the story of a seven kid 1880s Sydney household, ages ranging from 16 to 1, with the dad being a Captain and the current mother the mother of only the youngest kid. The older six kids were from the Captain's first wife. The kids are undisciplined. The new wife only 20 and unable to really curate their education. The book is their adventures for a few months one particular year.

It was an easy, fun read. The ending is sad and satisfying. I am glad I read the book. The thing that got me, though, was the vocabulary in the book. As I look up words I don't understand (and hence, much prefer ebooks these days for the ability to click on a word to look it up), I have to say that I was stumped SO MANY TIMES with this book. I flipped through my browser history to get a list of the words (and definitions).

Behold, the words a 1890s kid was expected to know:

veneration - great respect
slatternly - dirty and untidy, typically of a woman's appearance
pelisse - woman's cloak with armholes
paperchase - action of processing forms or other paperwork, especially when excessive
paddock - small field or enclosure where horses are kept or exercised
iniquitous - grossly unfair and morally wrong
canterbury - a late 18th century low wooden stand with partitions for holding cutlery and plates
mulcted - extract money from someone by fine or taxes, deprive someone of possessions by fraudulent means
ulster - man's long overcoat of rough cloth, usually with a belt at the back
liberality - quality of giving or spending freely
tucker - piece of lace worn around the top of the bodice or as an insert at the front of a low-cut dress
repast - a meal
gowk - awkward or foolish person (often as a term of abuse)
vituperation - bitter abusive language
stolid - (of a person) calm, dependable, and showing little emotion
serge - durable twilled woolen or worsted fabric
musk - relative of the monkey flower that was formerly cultivated for its musky perfume
peccadillo - small, relativesly unimportant offense or sin
neuralgia - intense typically intermittent pain along the course of a nerve, espcially head or face
jonquil - narcissus with clusters of small fagrant yellow flowers and cylindrical leaves
wattle - material for making fences, walls, consisting of rods interlaced with branches
pall - something enveloping a situation with an air of gloom, heaviness, or fear
hack - a horse for ordinary riding
stentorian - (of a person's voice) loud and powerful
provender - animal fodder / food
pater - person's legal father
cambric - lightweight, closely woven white linen or cotton fabric
risible - such as to provoke laughter
cachinnation - to laugh loudly or immoderately
celerity - swiftness of movement
ringbark - to girdle

Yeah.

Most of those words have fallen out of use. Perhaps they were used commonly enough that kids did know those words.