Currently reading: The Marwood and Lovett series by Andrew Taylor.

[lizbee]

I picked this series of historical mysteries up on a whim -- the latest book got a good write-up in The Guardian, I was in the mood for something different, and the library had them. (All except the second book, for some reason, which I had to buy from the Kindle store. I belong to FOUR libraries, and not a single one had book 2.)

They're not my usual thing -- male author, AND the heroine is raped very early on -- but I got sucked in fast, and, well, I do love a slow burn. I started the series on ... Friday? And now it's Tuesday and I've just begun the most recent book.



The series is set in Restoration England -- the first book literally opens with St Paul's Cathedral being consumed in the Great Fire of London -- and follows two protagonists:

• James Marwood, a young man in his early 20s. Has a job as a very low-ranking clerk at Whitehall, and all he wants is to pay his bills, look after his senile father, and try to avoid committing treason. This is challenging, since his dad was a member of a Puritan cult and believes Charles II is the antichrist, and also, he keeps crossing paths with...
• Cat Lovett, orphaned daughter of a regicide in her late teens. When the series opens, she is an heiress preparing to enter a loveless marriage; after her cousin rapes her, she STABS HIS EYE OUT and goes on the run, disguising herself first as a maid, and then becoming the amanuensis to an elderly draftsman, whom she has married at the end of the third book.

Now, James Marwood is a perfectly enjoyable male lead, especially after he suffers HORRIFIC BURNS partway through the second book and spends a great deal of time (a) in pain; (b) partially disabled as he recovers; (c) HORRIFICALLY SCARRED. He just suffers very prettily, you know?

But I am mostly here for Cat, who is prickly, misandrist and has a bit of a stabbing problem. A habit, in fact. A stabit. (Sorry.) She starts out stabbing her cousin's eye out, accidentally murders her fiancé (in her defence, she was TRYING to kill her cousin), and just about every man who makes romantic overtures towards her gets the knife. But usually in the leg, and she sometimes apologises. But she will also stab men who speak disrespectfully to their wives in her hearing. She is not the misandrist vigilante that Restoration London needs, etc.

So he's a recovering Puritan who just wants to pay the bills. She's an angry architecture nerd with a knife. THEY FIGHT CRIME.

Except for all those times Cat's the main suspect in the crime Marwood is charged to investigate, or they're working at cross-purposes, or yes, okay, her cousin DID eventually die in mysterious circumstances but he can't PROVE anything and maybe by this point he doesn't even WANT to--

Yes, obviously I ship it. After three books and more than a year has passed, Cat comes to her wedding night, following her marriage of convenience to her elderly and ailing mentor, thinking, "Well, marriage is gross and I don't like the sound of this sex business even if it's not wholly against my will. I mean, maybe if it was Marwood..."

And Marwood, having gotten over his extremely regrettable crush on Cat's aunt, a lady who is just RED FLAGS ALL THE WAY DOWN, is going, "Why am I feeling A WAY about Cat getting married? It's not like they're going to ... anyway, she'd probably just stab me if I wanted to ... and it's not as if she'd want a man as HIDEOUSLY SCARRED AS I."

It's a jolly good time!

Other points:

• I enjoy historical fiction that's not about monarchs and aristocrats -- although they are present, and I appreciate every single one of Charles II's intermittent appearances -- but working people trying to get by
• The protagonists aren't mouthpieces for anachronistic modern ideas -- Cat has internalised a lot of the era's misogynistic ideas about women, even though she doesn't feel like she's full of lust; Marwood is genuinely horrified when it briefly occurs to him that maybe the world would be better if government and religion were separated
• Having said that, the third book ends with Marwood taking possession of an African slave boy who was about to be discarded by Cat's aunt, so I'm curious as to whether that will persist and how that will shake out
• Cat also bites, but not as frequently as she stabs
• At their current pace, I figure Cat and Marwood will be newlyweds by the time of the Glorious Revolution

Anyway, I am SUPER bummed that I'm up to the current book and will have to wait AT LEAST A YEAR for the next one. Even though I have no shortage of books to read, and it's like every single person I know has a new release in September or October. WILL THEY INVOLVE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY STABBINGS? (If so, please tell me. Or go write something, stat.)

Comments

[jamethiel]

A stabit

I laughed. (Also, this sounds surprisingly up my alley for a book written by a bloke. Thank you! Or alternatively, curses, since I do not need any more books on my "to be read" list.)

[lizbee]

For me, the most obvious sign that this series is written by a dude is that we DON'T get a lovingly description of Marwood, either before or after his injuries. OTOH, all we know of Cat is that she's pale-skinned, dark-haired, has a "small" face and is on the skinny side.

[jamethiel]

That is surprisingly OK! I am definitely putting this on my TBR list!

[kore]

How very dare you wave crack like this in front of me //GRABS FOR IT

[lizbee]

I'M SO SORRY

Also, I finished the latest book yesterday, and it does indeed let Marwood go, "Yeah, I'm not so much into the owning of people, I'm just gonna pay my new slave and treat him like my other servants."

(I assume that, at some stage, it will occur to him to also free the poor kid. He's not very bright a bit slow when it comes to new ideas.)

[kore]

NO YOU'RE NOT

(Stabbity heroines for the fucking win!)