The sixth book in the series takes place in the shadow of the Black Hills of Dakota. It seems that General George Custer is rather unpopular and fears someone may be trying to kill him, and he asks old comrade, Grand to investigate. Grand and Batchelor travel to Fort Abraham Lincoln and there meet some very shady characters.

I admit that I don't know a lot about this era of history and what I do know comes from 'Dr Quinn: Medicine Woman' and the Doris Day film 'Calamity Jane' (Calamity Jane Cannery does make an appearance in this book but there's definitely no singing or frilly dresses). It has definitely whet my appetite for wanting to know more about this time period, but as ever, although the main characters are quite endearing, the plot itself was quite thin and could have done with beefing up a little.

Thanks to NetGalley and publishers, Severn House / Creme de la Crime, for the opportunity to read an ARC.

I was initially attracted to M.J. Trow’s The Black Hills because it features two of the more interesting figures from the post-Civil War period - U.S. Grant and George Armstrong Custer - and because historical fiction is one of my favored genres. It was only later, after I began the novel, that I realized it is the sixth book in Trow’s “Grand & Batchelor Victorian Mystery” series (the book is clearly marked this way on its cover but I read an e-book version and did not see an image of the cover until later). Thankfully, however, The Black Hills works well as a standalone – although I did wonder a time or two about Grand and Batchelor and how two such different men ever became detective agency partners in London.

As it turns out, Grand is a Civil War veteran and West Point classmate of Custer’s and Batchelor is his English partner. Grand may have been a onetime classmate of Custer’s but the two of them were never really friends, and in fact, Grand really doesn’t think a whole lot of Custer’s military talents. That said, Grand finds it difficult enough to turn down a direct appeal from “an idiot I was at West Point with” that he and Batchelor agree in March 1875 to meet Custer in Washington D.C. where they will back him as he presents evidence at a Congressional Hearing. In Washington, the pair soon learns that Custer is not much changed from his West Point days. The man still has a high opinion of himself, a big mouth, and a knack for making dangerous enemies, but despite Custer’s self-destructive behavior, Grand and Batchelor manage to get him out of Washington alive. It’s when the detectives decide to visit Fort Abraham Lincoln, headquarters of Custer’s 7thCavalry, before returning to London that things really get interesting.

Fort Abraham Lincoln is a political hotbed where wives compete over the accomplishments of their officer-husbands, Custer’s adjutants despise him, and the main means of entertainment consists of spreading rumors and gossip about rivals. Despite the monotony of everyday life in the Black Hills for civilians and soldiers alike, Grand and Bachelor are just beginning to enjoy themselves a bit when the body of a young soldier is discovered some distance from the fort. Grand and Bachelor, like everyone else, assume that the trooper was killed by the Lakota Sioux until they notice that the soldier had been riding Custer’s horse when ambushed. Have Custer’s enemies followed him all the way to the Dakota Territory and are they still trying to kill him?

Bottom Line: The Black Hills is a nice combination of historical fact and fiction that uses touches of alternate reality and lots of comedy to create a mystery with a light touch. While the reader is unlikely ever to feel that Custer will really be killed off by the author, it is still fun to watch Grand and Bachelor rescue the oblivious colonel time after time. Trow effortlessly blends real and fictional characters in a way that makes it easy to forget which is which (my personal favorite is Calamity Jane). And perhaps best of all, the solution to the mystery of who is after Custer, and why, is not one that many will see coming (well, at least I didn’t see it coming).

Review Copy provided by Crème de la Crème an imprint of Severn House Publishers Ltd.

I read a lot of historical fiction, and have enjoyed many fantastic stories which used the backdrop of a past era to highlight the story the authors wished to present. Unfortunately, “The Black Hills” by M. J. Trow does not fall into that category.

Right from the beginning, the author bends and even breaks with the facts of the history that surrounds his story. One phrase used is “See how they liked them apples,” even though the first documented use of this phrase didn’t come into play until 19 years after the date of the book’s story, and “dog-face” came into prominence during WWII. A major twist in the early plot implicates President Grant in Abraham Lincoln’s murder, a total invention that does nothing but serve to advance one piece of the author’s tale. A U.S. Senator in the story never existed. There are other even more absurd events in the story that savage history and could never have happened.

Historical fiction is not merely describing some of the events in or aspects of a person who lived during that time. Writing about a famous personality requires meticulous research, and while the story may have some small twists and turns, those deviations should be able to fit the facts of what actually happened. It is also helpful to ensure the dialogue matches the time period as well as the personalities of the characters. I was disappointed that “The Black Hills” ignored all of the above and simply wrote a story that occurred in 1876.

As a work of fiction, there is much contained in the book that could be considered unnecessary for the story. Conversations drone on, and there are a few chapters that contain primarily description and verbal interaction between characters is at a minimum. While it is possible to use this as a literary tool, all that is accomplished in this book is a slowing of the plot as the amusements the author inserts throughout the book are usually a distraction and serve no purpose. The mystery, when it occurred halfway through the book, seemed to be treated as an afterthought, and the basis for the acts of the guilty party appeared to be made up on the spot.

On top of everything else, this was a boring read that meandered from one point to another, never bothering to perform the necessary tasks to involve readers in the story. Two stars.

My thanks to NetGalley and Severn House Publishers for a complimentary electronic copy of this book.

He may not have been the first to do so, but George MacDonald Fraser entertained many of us with the idea of writing novels where we get to meet actual key players from history. His archetypal bounder Harry Flashman, himself nicked from Tom Brown’s Schooldays, rubbed shoulders and crossed swords with a variety of clebreties, including Otto von Bismarck, Abraham Lincoln, and Emperor Franz Joseph. The late Philip Kerr narrows things down as he introduced us to Heinrich Himmler, Reinhardt Heydrich and Joseph Goebbels in his Bernie Gunther novels.

MJ Trow is a former history teacher who knows his stuff. He has written successful series featuring a much-maligned Inspector Lestrade, a nosy (autobiographical) history teacher-cum-sleuth ‘Mad’ Maxwell, and the Elizabethan dramatist and, if Trow is to be believed, spy - Kit Marlowe. The Black Hills is the latest in the series featuring former US army captain Matthew Grand, and London ex-journalist James Batchelor. Click the links to read my reviews of The Ring and The Island - two earlier episodes in the career of these private investigators.

One of the enjoyable conceits of the series is the comparison of how the two men behave when out of their cultural comfort zone. Grand is no gnarled backwoodsman, as his parents are wealthy New Hampshire patricians, but there is generally more fun to be had when Batchelor is trying to navigate the social niceties – or lack of them – in America. Trow, like MacDonald Fraser and Kerr, is a shameless name-dropper and we are not many pages into The Black Hills before we have bumped into George Armstrong Custer and broken into The White House to have a conversation with its current occupant, Ulysses Simpson Grant.

Custer is, to my generation and those before it, a ‘big name’. His vainglorious death at the Battle of The Little Bighorn remains the stuff of legend, but it was only fairly recently that I learned of his dashing exploits in the American Civil War. Back, however, to our current plot. Custer is a key witness in a financial fraud case which threatens to expose grave wrongdoings at the heart of US government and, after an attempt on his life on the streets of Washington, Grand and Batchelor are given the task of watching his back when he returns to Fort Abraham Lincoln, an outpost in North Dakota beyond which lie only the eponymous Black Hills and numerous ‘hostiles’ – those we now call native Americans but, in the usage of the day, ‘injuns’.

I readily put my hand up. When I read the words The Black Hills, the first image that flashed before my eyes was that of Doris Day in her buckskins and with her blonde bob under a troopers’ hat. Yes, my age is showing, but the 1953 film Calamity Jane starring Doris Day in the title role featured great songs like The Deadwood Stage, Secret Love and The Black Hills of Dakota. Trow is pretty much of my generation. He was a couple of years behind me at a minor public school (but don’t hold that against either of us). Never one to miss a trick, he features Calamity Jane in The Black Hills but, my oh my, Doris Day she ain’t. Short, pug-ugly and a stranger to personal hygiene, Jane Cannery is a fixture at Fort Abraham Lincoln. She is rarely sober and earns her living by washing the long johns of the Seventh Cavalry men who guard the frontier. She is notoriously quick on the draw with her Navy Colt, and the soldiers take care to give her a wide berth when she is in one of her moods.

Military history buffs will wince when I tell them that Frederick Benteen and Marcus Reno are among the officers who cross the path of Grand and Batchelor in this hugely entertaining novel, as they will know precisely what lies ahead. Even a wonderful storyteller like MJ Trow cannot rewrite history but they can bring it to life and weave an enthralling story between the threads of what actually happened.
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This will probably appeal to Western fans the most. It's an average go from an obviously experienced author -- his talent shows clearly. But I suspect it's not his best work (haven't read his others). Some of the characters were interesting, but it was average overall.

I really appreciate the advanced copy for review!!

March 1875 Enquiry agents Grand and Batchelor are in their way to the Wild West in response to a call for help from Colonel Custer, a West Point contemporary of Grand. On arriving in Washington and meeting up with Custer, various incidents lead them to believe that Custers' life is in danger. Even more so when they proceed to Fort Abraham Lincoln where Custer is stationed.
While enjoyable enough there really didn't seem much depth to the mystery or the characters.

Unremarkable

Grand and Batchelor are Victorian investigators and this tale is located in the Wild West using larger-than-life characters such as George Custer. Most of the action takes place in and around Fort Abraham Lincoln although our heroes do get to visit Washington DC.

Various, apparently unrelated, incidents lead the investigators to draw the conclusion that someone is trying to murder Custer. Unfortunately, there are so many genuine contenders that it’s difficult to narrow down the possibilities but they set about doing so with enthusiasm. It’s just unfortunate that I didn’t feel the same enthusiasm for the book.

The plot was thin and there were very few sub-plots to pad out a very conventional idea. There were also very few clues as to the perpetrator so the denouement came more like a frustrating disappointment that a welcome surprise. The characters themselves were quite two dimensional and were difficult to relate to. Without this investment by the reader the story becomes bland and difficult to enjoy. I can’t say that I ever felt the need to get back to the novel to get my next fix. And this I think is the crux of the matter and the best way to determine whether the book is a good one or not. Passion was lacking and the action (where there was any) was all on one level such that, in the end, it became boring and more of a chore to get to the end.

The writing itself was very competent and if this sounds as if it’s damning with faint praise it isn’t meant to be. It will appeal to aficionados of the Wild West but the only time I felt any genuine emotion was when reading the last page which in my opinion was the best in the whole tome.

mr zorg

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to read.