Lock Up Honesty

Lock Up Honesty is the 8th book in Anna Castle's Francis Bacon Mysteries. It was published in January 2022.  In this installment of the series Francis Bacon's clerk, Thomas Clarady, has finally passed the bar exam. He is now ready to sue his guardian for his livery in the Court of Wards.  When Tom's father died, he was just shy of his 21st birthday. Not being of majority age, Tom was required by law to have a guardian who would take control of his father's assets and his marriage plans. However, the Court of Wards is the most corrupt institution in Tudor England and the Attorney for the Court of Wards expects bribes to be paid in order for cases to go forward. Now 27 years old, Tom is having none of it. During a dispute with the Attorney he yells loudly that he hopes the Attorney chokes on the expensive wine that Tom gave him. By the end of the day the Attorney is dead from poisoning and Tom is the main suspect.

This was a delightful story. It was fun to reconnect with my favorite characters. Francis doesn't play a big role in the investigation of the murder. Tom's friend Alice Trumpington, also known as Trumpet, is the character who leads the investigation, giving everyone else assignments but really performing most of the legwork. Tom also contributes to the investigation but, naturally, is terrified that he will be arrested if he is seen in public. Francis' lifestyle is portrayed a little differently than he has been in earlier books in the series.  I could not remember whether the readers were given an idea of where he would take his life in the earlier novels. It's been a year since I read the last book in the series so I was surprised. Trumpet dresses up as a male on occasion in order to get witnesses to talk to her.  This has become a norm for the series and I now expect that she will do this in every installment of the series.  How she dresses, though, is different in each novel and her unreserved, lovable personality carries it off well. 

Lock Up Honesty has lots of twists and turns.  Author Anna Castle has kept her series entertaining with well plotted stories and steady development of all of her characters. Not every author develops each character in their stories but Ms. Castle does and she does it skillfully. I can, with pleasure, rate this novel 5 out of 5 stars.