Evie Hawtrey

This dual timeline story has women separated by more than 300 years of time solving mysteries that are somewhat related.

Detective Inspector Nigella Parker has a record of success with arson cases. When she's called in to investigate a charred human figure at Christopher Wren's Monument to the Great Fire of London, she and her partner Colm O'Leary of Scotland yard find themselves on the trail of a murderer who considers himself an underappreciated artist.

While in the past Lady Margaret Dove falls in love with a man of much lower social class who happens to have a Royal Patent from King Charles II to make fireworks for his court. Margaret and Etienne are drawn together by their common love of science but pulled apart by the vast difference in their social status. When they go searching for a friend after the Great Fire of 1666, they find his body and come to believe that he was murdered. Their investigation leads them to Sir Christopher Wren. Wren felt that his genius was under appreciated and that rebuilding St. Paul's was his destiny. But first it had to be completely destroyed during the fire even if he had to manipulate events to make it so. And a few deaths wouldn't be too high a price to pay.

Meanwhile in the present, Nigella and Colm begin to narrow the suspect lists and focus in on an artist who has patterned himself on an architect who worked rebuilding London after the Great Fire but who did not receive the acclaim of Christopher Wren.

I liked the way the two stories were woven together. I liked the romance in the 1666 story and the way the two lovers found a way to be together. The characters in the modern part of the story were also fascinating. I liked the gradual reveal of Nigella's past and the reason for her interest in arson. I liked that she was a dedicated police officer who built her life deliberately to exclude relationships outside of her work.

The story was intriguing, and the police procedural aspects were well integrated into the plot. I liked trying to follow along with the detectives as the clues were gradually revealed.… (mais)