Kind of a wimpy ending to this very good series. John finds a brother but causes problems and a death, as he stumbles through to the end of this story. ( )

cosy-mystery, British, law-enforcement, London, mystery, class-consciousness*****
John Pickett is a Bow Street Runner who investigated the death of the (unlamented) husband of Lady Julia and saved her from the noose. Now they are married and John is involved in a case where one of the miscreants turns out to be his ten year old half brother previously unknown to him requiring him to go undercover in the Rookeries and other unsavory (but familiar) parts of London.
Each time I read one of this series I swear that it is the best!
It is a very British mystery with sly humor. Joel Froomkin is so very talented with the way that he is able to differentiate the characters and he did a great job with the accents.
I won the audio in a giveaway. Yay me! ( )

In this latest book, John Pickett learns that he has a 10 yr old half brother who is "apprenticed" to two criminals who recently robbed a small bank. He's not the Bow Street Runner assigned to the case and desperately wants to find his young brother and rescue him from this cruel life. His beloved Julia is not thrilled with taking in the boy from the rookeries but she supports John. There's a very exciting bank robbery at the end of the book. ( )

OMGoodness! This series just keeps getting better and better with each new book! This is absolutely the best John Pickett yet – and we meet a great new character in John’s young half-brother, Kit. The story is compelling on so many levels – the crime was suspenseful, the budding relationship between John and Kit was poignant and sweet, and John’s uncertainty about his future was a hand-wringer.

Robert Maxwell is a fairly new, very good, and very determined member of the Bow Street team. As a former military man, he tends to see things in black-and-white, and when he witnesses a crime that includes a murder he is determined to find the perpetrator. Strange that the boy who was with them looked just like John Pickett. Too bad if he’s related to Pickett because he will swing right along with the men who were with him. All Maxwell has to do is find him.

As soon as John arrives at work, Magistrate Colquhoun calls him into his office. He warns John about the boy Maxwell is looking for – and quietly hints that John might want to find and extract the boy before Maxwell finds and arrests him.

The search is on and the excitement doesn’t let up from the first page to the last. Can you imagine sweet, good, decent, John robbing the Bank of England? Well – get prepared. We see sides of both John and Julia that we always suspected were there, but perhaps we hadn’t actually seen. The love between John and Julia is palpable and it expands to encompass all who are near and dear to them.

I loved meeting Kit and learning his story, and I absolutely cannot wait to see what happens with him in the future. Also, I can hardly wait for the birth of John and Julia’s baby – and to see where their future takes them.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an Advanced Reader Copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. ( )