The Mannequin House

Starred review from March 11, 2013
Set in April 1914, Morris’s second Silas Quinn mystery improves on its standout predecessor, 2012’s Summon Up the Blood. Quinn, the head of an elite Scotland Yard unit, the Special Crimes Department, is in trouble because higher-ups are concerned that he acts too often “as judge, jury and executioner.” With his job in jeopardy, Quinn and his team take on a truly bizarre murder case—a London department store model, Amélie Dupin, has been found strangled behind a locked door, and when entry is forced, a macaque wearing a fez flees the room. Dupin’s employer, Benjamin Blackley, who keeps his models (known as mannequins) under tight wraps, is a natural suspect, but his connections mean that pursuing the theory will further jeopardize Quinn’s professional health. Morris excels at heartbreaking scenes of pain and violence, imbuing a classic whodunit plot with emotion and psychological depth. Agent: Christopher Sinclair-Stevenson, Sinclair-Stevenson Literary Agency (U.K.).

June 1, 2013
A locked-room mystery disrupts a prestigious London department store, an insular world of salacious secrets. April 1914. The House of Blackley is in the midst of a fashion parade for Lady Ascot when disaster threatens via the absence of nonpareil mannequin Amelie Dupin. Nervous new staffer Arbuthnot is dispatched to her rooming house, where the starchy landlady, Miss Mortimer, helps him gain access to discover Amelie strangled with a red silk scarf. The door is locked from the inside, and the room's only other occupant, a monkey, apparently the lone suspect. Meanwhile, at New Scotland Yard, unconventional DI Silas Quinn of the Special Crimes Department (Summon Up the Blood, 2012, etc.) suffers a dressing down from the commissioner, Sir Edward Henry, for his maverick ways and a rebuff from Sir Edward's secretary, Miss Latterly, whom he fancies but is too shy to court. The Dupin killing falls to Quinn to investigate. Once inside the murder scene, Quinn impresses new colleague DCI Coddington with his Sherlock-ian observations, though disapproving rival DS Inchball is loath to give credit where credit is clearly due. Quinn begins to question the colorful Blackley staff, but the escape of the monkey and a fatal melee triggered by a false cry of "Fire!" sets him back, calls him onto Sir Edward's carpet again and threatens his career. The lengthy coroner's report casts the case in a new light: Quinn discovers bitter rivalries, hidden identities and more murder on the way to finding Amelie's killer. A nifty period whodunit packed with flamboyant characters and brisk dialogue.

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May 1, 2013

A century ago, London society had a love/hate relationship with its newest attraction, the department store House of Blackley (loosely based on Whiteleys, London's first department store). Owner Benjamin Blackley is proud of the beautiful models who work there. But now the loveliest one has died in her room, with only a small monkey as a witness. Confronted with a classic locked-room mystery, Scotland Yard's Special Crimes team (led by DI Silas Quinn) must figure out how she died. Always on a short leash, Quinn receives little support in his unorthodox methods, especially when violence erupts during the investigation. VERDICT This homage to Edgar Allan Poe lacks some of the verve and tension that Morris's debut, Summon Up the Blood, exhibited, but shows real flair for exposing the shady side of society. Quinn's tortured psyche adds depth to the historical, but let's hope he gains more confidence for the next entry. With its psychological bent, readers who liked Erik Larson's The Devil in the White City could appreciate this.

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2013
In London 1914, a young mannequin (model) for the House of Blackley, a posh London department store, is found strangled in her room at the store's Mannequin House. DI Silas Quinn is handed the case, but only after dire warnings that he must toe the line and not kill any suspects, as he did on his last case. To keep Quinn under control, his superiors assign DCI Coddington to supervise Quinn. Not only does Quinn have a tricky case to solve, but now he has someone interfering at every turn. As the case unfolds, Quinn finds plenty of potential suspects who could have killed the mannequin, but when a second mannequin is killed, Quinn knows the clock is ticking. The story unfolds slowly, with unexpected detours and twists, but it's the mysterious Quinn, with his troubled past and complex personality, who keeps the book from falling into the just another historical murder mystery category. Entertaining and engaging.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)