The Queen of Bedlam - Robert McCammon

   2007; 645 pages.  Book 2 (out of 7) in the “Matthew Corbett” series.  New Author? : No.  Genres : Historical Fiction; Murder Mystery; Intrigue.  Overall Rating : 9*/10.

    New York, in the year 1700.  We can’t quite call it New York City yet, since the population hasn’t even hit 5,000.  But it’s growing rapidly, and who knows, it might eventually grow to be as big as Boston or Philadelphia.

There are boatloads (literally) of new colonists coming to New York from England.  But there are also lots of Dutch colonists left over from when the town belonged to Holland, who called it New Amsterdam.  England took it over less than forty years ago.

    Matthew Corbett has been here for about three years now, having come up from the Carolina colony at the conclusion of his adventure down there, chronicled in Speaks The Nightbird and reviewed here and here.  He’s still a clerk, but now he works for the Magistrate Powers.  But his first love is solving mysteries and he's jokingly invented a new word to describe someone who goes about detecting clues to figure out who committed a crime: a “detective”.

    At present, he has a chance to put those “detecting skills” to good use, since someone recently slashed the throat of Dr. Godwin, a local physician.  Most likely it was some crazy person, since they also mutilated the doctor’s face.  It happened at night, out on a dark street, and if the madman has any sense (is that an oxymoron?), he’s probably skipped out to some other town.  Everybody in New York certainly hopes he has.

    But a respected merchant has just suffered the same fate, and when Matthew happens upon the scene right after the murder, it’s time once again for him to go detecting.

What’s To Like...

    The Queen of Bedlam is Book Two in this series, and like its predecessor, is equal parts Historical Fiction, Murder-Mystery, and Intrigue.  All three genres are masterfully done.  Most of the story takes place in New York and the surrounding countryside, but Matthew’s sleuthing will also take him on trips to Westerwicke, New Jersey and Philadelphia.  I found it fascinating to see how traveling on business trips was done back then.

    The character development – even secondary and bit-part ones – is exceptional.  Although for the most part you can tell who the good guys and the bad guys are, I liked that even Matthew has faults.  For instance, he's not nearly as good at tailing a suspect as he thinks he is.

    The depth of Robert McCammon’s research is revealed in the historical details, including visits to a brothel and a mental hospital.  I I enjoyed the glimpse of forensic science in 1700, and chuckled at Matthew’s “acid trip”, which could be described as both “very bad” or “very good”.  I’m always delighted when chess gets worked into a story, and was surprised that even a drag queen could make it into the tale.

    At one point Robert McCammon gives some literary nods to authors who apparently were popular in 1700, and I want to check them out to see if Amazon offers them as free e-books, since any copyrights have surely expired.  There’s also a bit of subtle humor sprinkled throughout the story, which gives some balance to the dark deeds going on.  For instance, we get a graphic illustration of a “bull in a china shop”, and Master Samuel Baiter makes a cameo appearance, when he's addressed by a slightly shorter version of his name.

    There are at least eight plot threads for Matthew (and the reader) to investigate.  1.) Who’s the Masker and why is he carving up people?  2.) Who killed an earlier victim?  3.) What’s troubling Reverend Wade?  4.) What’s the connection, if any, between the three (presumed) Masker victims?  5.) Who’s the Queen of Bedlam and what’s her story?  6.) How does Simon fit in?  7.) What’s the code in Ausley’s notebook mean?  8.) Who and where is Professor Fell?

    The ending is extended (a good fifty pages or more), exciting, packed with action, and suitably twisty.  I love it when not everything in the hero's plans goes smoothly.  The second-last chapter serves as an Epilogue to clear up a couple of the plot threads, and the final chapter serves as a teaser for the next book in the series.

    The Queen of Bedlam is a standalone novel, as well as part of a series.  I don’t think it’s necessary to read the books in order, although I’m doing so.

Excerpts...

    “What are they going to do to us?” (…)

    “They’re going to kill us,” he said.

    Berry stopped.  She stood gaping at him, her blue eyes scorching holes through his head, until Dahlgren gave her a shove that almost propelled her into Matthew. (…)

    “Kill us?” she gasped when she could speak.  “Kill us?  What have you got me into?”

    “An adventure,” he replied.  “I thought you liked those.”

    “I like adventures I can live through!”  (pg. 578)

    In this town of soon to be more than five thousand persons there was a governor who wore a dress, a reverend who loved a prostitute, a printmaster who could crack walnuts on his forehead, a high constable who had killed a boy, a magistrate who was once a tennis champion, a laundress who collected secrets, and a coroner who collected bones.  There was a barber who owned a squirrel named Sassafras, a tailor who could identify a dead man from a suit’s watch pocket, and a black giantess who would put aside her gittern just long enough to kill you.  (pg. 638)

Kewlest New Word ...

Bloatarian (n.) : someone who consumes significant amounts of brewed alcoholic beverages.

Others: Stoggered (adj.).  (both these words are borderline “made up” ones.)

“Spoken like someone who forgot to brush their brain this morning.”  (pg. 485 )

    It's hard to find anything to quibble about in The Queen of Bedlam.  There's a fair amount of cussing, but it fits the story’s dark tone and isn't excessive.  The subject of child molestation crops up, and there’s one instance of forced sex, wherein we learn the meaning of term “the nymph’s itch”.

    The titular Queen of Bedlam doesn’t enter the story until the halfway point; I suppose purists could cavil about that.  And for those who read Robert McCammon’s novels for their paranormal horror content, well, all we have here is a pig that can foretell disasters and a girl’s who is a bad luck magnet.

    Oh yeah, two birds and one farm animal die.

    9 Stars.  I found The Queen of Bedlam to be just as good as Speaks The Nightbird, and I quite liked that book.  I've yet to read any of Robert McCammon’s “horror” novels, and I’m quite curious to see whether he can do those with equal mastery.  But I’ve got three of the remaining five Matthew Corbett books on my Kindle, so I might just as easily concentrate on this series.