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quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
Agents of history. Partners in mystery. Sisters in solving crime!
Lizzie Sancho and Dido Belle have formed a detective agency … and it’s time for their toughest challenge yet!
Georgian London is plagued by a series of mysterious thefts and sinister poisonings. Lizzie and Belle must use all their daring detective skills to find out who is behind the crimes and bring them to justice. The clock is ticking …
It’s 1777, right after the end of DRAMA AND DANGER.
Lizzie Sancho and her family have recently posed for a portrait alongside her friend, Dido Belle and Dido’s aunt and uncle. The artist is Jane Harry who is unusual not just for being a female painter in a male-dominated world but also for being a woman of colour. Dido’s uncle - Lord Mansfield (the Lord Chief Justice) - is throwing a costume party at Kenwood House to celebrate the portrait’s unveiling but before the night is over, the painting is stolen right from under the nose of Constable Meecham from the Bow Street Runners!
Lizzie and Dido recently set up their own detective agency and are resolved to uncover who took the painting and why. But as they dig into who had reason to steal the painting, they discover links with a recent spate of disappearances of Black people in London - including Mercury, who was taken in DRAMA AND DANGER and who remains missing.
But Dido must juggle the investigation with trouble at home. Having served as a letter writer and confidant for her uncle, she has been supplanted by James Knight, a law student who is assisting her uncle in trying to assist in resolving the disappearances and does not think it appropriate for Dido to be informed of what is going on. At the same time her uncle’s health is weakening and she is worried that he is working himself too hard.
Dido and Lizzie need all their bravery and resourcefulness if they are to reveal what is going on, but there are powerful and dastardly forces aligned against them and the danger has never been so great to them and those they love …
The second in J. T. Williams’s historical mystery series for readers aged 8+ sees Dido narrate another solid central mystery with a wide array of suspects set against the background of the Abolitionist struggle. Simone Douglas’s illustrations atmosphere and I liked the incorporation of actual people from history (including Jane Harry) but the use of Dido and Lizzie themselves still makes me uneasy, especially as the sense of period drops at times.
This book picks up immediately after DRAMA AND DANGER and having dived into this straight after reading the first book, I was a little discombobulated as they do not immediately track together. This is mainly because PORTRAITS AND POISON adds backstory to the portrait heist that ends DRAMA AND DANGER, which left me a bit confused. That said, I did enjoy how this piece of retconning brings in Jane Harry, a real-life Black female painter from the late 18th century who was a student of Sir Joshua Reynolds and I would have honestly liked to have seen more scenes before her, Dido and Lizzie given that she adds another dimension to Black life in 18th century England. I also enjoyed the way Williams incorporates other real life 18th century people, like Thomas Gainsborough, and the real life institution the Bow Street Runners (which I was pleased to show Williams show in all its conflicted glory).
That said, I remain conflicted over the use of Lizzie and Dido as the main characters here for the same reasons as per the first book, i.e. by positing a friendship between two real people from British history that simply would not have existed due to their class backgrounds I worry that it actually does a real disservice to what actually happened to them. In DRAMA AND DANGER my discomfort was accentuated by the fact that Lizzie’s voice was very modern and there wasn’t a particularly great sense of period. In PORTRAITS AND POISON Dido takes up the narration duties, and there is more period detail here than before (although that was starting from a low bar and there remain many anachronisms, e.g. talk about detection a good 60 years before Poe came up with the word) and I did enjoy how Williams incorporates what we know of Dido’s life as she really was a secretary for her uncle. However I wasn’t convinced by her thoughts about her father and mother and the question on whether they loved each other made me deeply uncomfortable because the relationship between them is not known and it may well have been that her mother was abused.
Lizzie is very emotional in this book as she continues her search for Mercury. I did empathise with her and understood her guilt at having not acted sooner in his disappearance and the way that Williams ties this in with the activities of the Daughters of Africa works well. However, the way in which she and Dido charge around London unchaperoned (and Lizzie often wearing britches to boot) kept throwing me out of the story (although again, I do not doubt that the target audience would be unaware of this).
The mystery itself works very well and is solidly done. The way Williams controls the plot pacing and draws in a wide array of suspects is assured and clever - particularly the way she ties this in with anti-abolitionists and how privilege is sustained within a society. Douglas’s illustrations work well with the text and bring atmosphere, most notably in the illustrations towards the end of the book.
If this series was about two fictional young Black detectives but taking in real life people, I would genuinely enjoy it much more. There are certainly a lot of good elements here - the way in which Williams comments on the erasure of Black people from British history (including within the arts), the way she concocts sophisticated mysteries with genuine twists and turns and the incorporation of interesting elements like an underground Abolitionist society of Black people who take more direct action. The problem for me is that the liberties taken with Dido and Lizzie coupled with the anachronisms in the period keep stopping me from really enjoying it and on that basis, I do not think that I will continue with these series, although I will most definitely check out what Williams writes next.
The Verdict:
The second in J. T. Williams’s historical mystery series for readers aged 8+ sees Dido narrate another solid central mystery with a wide array of suspects set against the background of the Abolitionist struggle. Simone Douglas’s illustrations atmosphere and I liked the incorporation of actual people from history (including Jane Harry) but the use of Dido and Lizzie themselves still makes me uneasy, especially as the sense of period drops at times.
THE LIZZIE AND BELLE MYSTERIES - PORTRAITS AND POISON was released in the United Kingdom on 30th March 2023. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
Lizzie Sancho and Dido Belle have formed a detective agency … and it’s time for their toughest challenge yet!
Georgian London is plagued by a series of mysterious thefts and sinister poisonings. Lizzie and Belle must use all their daring detective skills to find out who is behind the crimes and bring them to justice. The clock is ticking …
It’s 1777, right after the end of DRAMA AND DANGER.
Lizzie Sancho and her family have recently posed for a portrait alongside her friend, Dido Belle and Dido’s aunt and uncle. The artist is Jane Harry who is unusual not just for being a female painter in a male-dominated world but also for being a woman of colour. Dido’s uncle - Lord Mansfield (the Lord Chief Justice) - is throwing a costume party at Kenwood House to celebrate the portrait’s unveiling but before the night is over, the painting is stolen right from under the nose of Constable Meecham from the Bow Street Runners!
Lizzie and Dido recently set up their own detective agency and are resolved to uncover who took the painting and why. But as they dig into who had reason to steal the painting, they discover links with a recent spate of disappearances of Black people in London - including Mercury, who was taken in DRAMA AND DANGER and who remains missing.
But Dido must juggle the investigation with trouble at home. Having served as a letter writer and confidant for her uncle, she has been supplanted by James Knight, a law student who is assisting her uncle in trying to assist in resolving the disappearances and does not think it appropriate for Dido to be informed of what is going on. At the same time her uncle’s health is weakening and she is worried that he is working himself too hard.
Dido and Lizzie need all their bravery and resourcefulness if they are to reveal what is going on, but there are powerful and dastardly forces aligned against them and the danger has never been so great to them and those they love …
The second in J. T. Williams’s historical mystery series for readers aged 8+ sees Dido narrate another solid central mystery with a wide array of suspects set against the background of the Abolitionist struggle. Simone Douglas’s illustrations atmosphere and I liked the incorporation of actual people from history (including Jane Harry) but the use of Dido and Lizzie themselves still makes me uneasy, especially as the sense of period drops at times.
This book picks up immediately after DRAMA AND DANGER and having dived into this straight after reading the first book, I was a little discombobulated as they do not immediately track together. This is mainly because PORTRAITS AND POISON adds backstory to the portrait heist that ends DRAMA AND DANGER, which left me a bit confused. That said, I did enjoy how this piece of retconning brings in Jane Harry, a real-life Black female painter from the late 18th century who was a student of Sir Joshua Reynolds and I would have honestly liked to have seen more scenes before her, Dido and Lizzie given that she adds another dimension to Black life in 18th century England. I also enjoyed the way Williams incorporates other real life 18th century people, like Thomas Gainsborough, and the real life institution the Bow Street Runners (which I was pleased to show Williams show in all its conflicted glory).
That said, I remain conflicted over the use of Lizzie and Dido as the main characters here for the same reasons as per the first book, i.e. by positing a friendship between two real people from British history that simply would not have existed due to their class backgrounds I worry that it actually does a real disservice to what actually happened to them. In DRAMA AND DANGER my discomfort was accentuated by the fact that Lizzie’s voice was very modern and there wasn’t a particularly great sense of period. In PORTRAITS AND POISON Dido takes up the narration duties, and there is more period detail here than before (although that was starting from a low bar and there remain many anachronisms, e.g. talk about detection a good 60 years before Poe came up with the word) and I did enjoy how Williams incorporates what we know of Dido’s life as she really was a secretary for her uncle. However I wasn’t convinced by her thoughts about her father and mother and the question on whether they loved each other made me deeply uncomfortable because the relationship between them is not known and it may well have been that her mother was abused.
Lizzie is very emotional in this book as she continues her search for Mercury. I did empathise with her and understood her guilt at having not acted sooner in his disappearance and the way that Williams ties this in with the activities of the Daughters of Africa works well. However, the way in which she and Dido charge around London unchaperoned (and Lizzie often wearing britches to boot) kept throwing me out of the story (although again, I do not doubt that the target audience would be unaware of this).
The mystery itself works very well and is solidly done. The way Williams controls the plot pacing and draws in a wide array of suspects is assured and clever - particularly the way she ties this in with anti-abolitionists and how privilege is sustained within a society. Douglas’s illustrations work well with the text and bring atmosphere, most notably in the illustrations towards the end of the book.
If this series was about two fictional young Black detectives but taking in real life people, I would genuinely enjoy it much more. There are certainly a lot of good elements here - the way in which Williams comments on the erasure of Black people from British history (including within the arts), the way she concocts sophisticated mysteries with genuine twists and turns and the incorporation of interesting elements like an underground Abolitionist society of Black people who take more direct action. The problem for me is that the liberties taken with Dido and Lizzie coupled with the anachronisms in the period keep stopping me from really enjoying it and on that basis, I do not think that I will continue with these series, although I will most definitely check out what Williams writes next.
The Verdict:
The second in J. T. Williams’s historical mystery series for readers aged 8+ sees Dido narrate another solid central mystery with a wide array of suspects set against the background of the Abolitionist struggle. Simone Douglas’s illustrations atmosphere and I liked the incorporation of actual people from history (including Jane Harry) but the use of Dido and Lizzie themselves still makes me uneasy, especially as the sense of period drops at times.
THE LIZZIE AND BELLE MYSTERIES - PORTRAITS AND POISON was released in the United Kingdom on 30th March 2023. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
