I have spent thirty of my working years in three different uniforms. The latter nearly twenty-two years were spent in the West Midlands Police in England. Most of that time was spent on foot in different communities, the last eight years of which were spent in a school with fifty-four languages and forty-three nationalities (11 – 19-year-olds), the most challenging part of my service.
I had decided to write at my sister’s suggestion on my retirement ten years ago. I was born in the city of Lincoln which was founded by the Romans in 50 A.D. and is full of Roman remains. Believing, as it turned out wrongly, that I had a good knowledge of the Romans I decided to use this period. On completion, I was informed that the original manuscript was too long and needed to be more descriptive. As a result, The Civilis Saga is currently in four parts and the fifth and final part has been started.
Traveling frequently in Europe with my wife I observed that most of the read or swapped books were crime dramas. As the Roman history genre is heavily subscribed, I decided to try my hand at a crime drama, but not based on my own experiences or the current time.
I spent twelve months researching the history of the famous Covent Garden in depth from clothes to food and drink, funerals to divorce. During the period of my novel, 1730 – 1746, one-in-five females were involved in prostitution. Females were seen as a commodity to buy and sell for a multitude of reasons and gains they had no rights and on marrying handed everything to their husbands.
My target audience would depend on their genre interest. This novel was designed as a historically-based crime story showing how badly women were treated. Females were poorly paid, many often leaving, rural backgrounds in the hope of a better life in London and ending up in brothels as a means of survival. There is a romantic theme between the protagonist and Mrs Curtis.
I would hope having read the story that readers are left in no doubt that things needed to change a long time ago but sadly there is little change in three hundred years as was recently seen by the abduction, rape, and murder of a young woman by a Police Officer in central London. The storyline is the ENIGMA (changeable person) and to demonstrate this the start is hard-hitting and finishes with a man who has abandoned himself to one love.
My future goals are to write, further topics about the area of Covent Garden in the run-up to the creation of the first Police Service. This second stand-alone novel will portray the life story of Huguenot Claudette from a silversmith’s daughter in France to the Bawd of The Strand and a series of murdered French spies known as the Dragons by the tattoo they had.
The Enigma is James Bentley aka Baxter the son of a spurned courtesan brought up in his mother’s brothel by her nymphs while she drank herself to death. He’s a well-respected businessman having businesses in the East India Docks in London and in Bristol, an entrepreneur, and a first-class conman with fictitious plantations in the New World. He still owns his mother’s seedy brothel run by an ex-conquest Molly Carol. James has a dark side his penchant for virgins which Molly procures from the waifs and strays of the surrounding streets for him.
He meets the Baxter family who are leaving London because of the area’s decline and persuades the father to use the house as collateral for investments whilst trying to seduce the daughter. The daughter’s maid sees through him and in raising awareness is thrown onto the streets where James has her drugged and abducted for his pleasure. Meanwhile, the family see James as a prospective son-in-law causing him to disappear supposedly drowned in a storm. The free-born maid dies in childbirth of her son, Malachi. On James’ return, he is informed mother and child have been disposed of but the son has been given to a Smithy’s wife.
Molly wishing to raise her status further pushes James for a better location, and enters the Curtis family-landed gentry wishing to return to the country. James meets Lilly a domestically abused wife and falls for her requiring a reassessment of his life. He offers gambling, alcoholic, husband Patrick, freedom of his brothel where he meets an ex-actress and wants to discard his wife in her favour.
Malachi and his father cross paths without realising their link until Malachi comes of age at 16 and working for the first Bow Street Magistrate, De Veil he sees the chance of justice.
The Historical Fiction Company reviewed the book and said: One of the gems of The Covent Garden Mysteries: Enigma is that the author really develops his characters and their backgrounds. It is done incredibly seamlessly and is built into the story nicely so that the reader barely even notices Baggott’s writing is wonderful. It is easy to read and understand. The pacing is also done well so there are really no places that feel like the story is dragging.
Enigma is most likely for those who prefer historical fiction set in England in the eighteenth century. Those who enjoy mysteries and a touch of romance will also find this book enjoyable. It is easy to understand and is not overly long so it would be a good choice for first-time historical fiction readers.
Overall, great writing, a touch of romance, mystery, and historical accuracy earn The Covent Garden Mysteries: Enigma a 3.5 rating. It offers a refreshing change of pace, however, from more traditional eighteenth-century British tales. It’s a unique take on the dark side of London during the eighteenth century that will intrigue readers and keep their attention all the way to the last page.
how much information they know about each character.
