The White Feather Murders, Laraine Stephens

Book Five now in the Reggie da Costa series of historical crime fiction set in and around Melbourne (with some trips to Geelong incorporated in this one), THE WHITE FEATHER MURDERS really has cemented these novels as a favourite in these parts.

If you're new to the series, it really would be best to start out at the beginning, although in that first novel, Reggie isn't quite to the forefront nor quite as engaging as he later becomes. That's not to say that the first novel, THE DEATH MASK MURDERS, isn't a great introduction to this series as the historical setting, and sensibility is right there from the beginning.

A bit of background though for those that haven't read any of the books, Reggie is the senior crime reporter at Melbourne's Argus newspaper. He's a bit of an endearing dandy with a love of fine clothes, fast cars, and his hopelessly daft mother. Her social life, and messed up love life is an ongoing theme through these books, as is Reggie having to step in and fix things for her on an ongoing basis. As is the case again late in the action of THE WHITE FEATHER MURDERS.

The main cast now also includes brother and sister Ruby and Dusty Rhodes, who first appeared in book 3 in the series, A DEADLY GAME, when Ruby's twin sister disappeared and Reggie got involved in the search. Now engaged to Ruby and with Dusty as his sidekick reporter at The Argus, Reggie's got himself a very useful crew of allies with Ruby fearless, and Dusty dogged when it comes to chasing down leads, both committed to keeping Reggie, his mother, and the people they care about safe, whilst also solving baffling cases. This time it's multiple deaths that are connected by the white feathers left at the scene, and the scurrilous poison pen column regularly appearing in rival newspaper (and Dusty's previous workplace), The Truth. Add to that a corrupt and very dodgy policeman and things get very dangerous for life, limb and careers all round. All whilst the wedding of Reggie and Ruby gets closer if Reggie can make it in one piece.

It's a series that really does benefit from reading in publication order, simply because there's quite a bit of backstory to the personal and professional lives of these characters, although it shouldn't be a trial to work your way through them, nor would it be an absolute loss to start with this current release. There's a strong sense of history and place about these books, combining a lot of the Melbourne Underworld from the time (there's a strong thread about the death of Squizzy Taylor through this novel), the newspaper world (is it sad to mention that I'm old enough to remember The Truth and it's particular "style" of journalism - I mean hard to forget their headline at the time of Billy Sneddon's death....), and the way that society functioned at the time. In particular the expectations used to restrict and control women, the way an interstate move would be considered enough to escape a reputation for corruption, the lack of immediate communications, the amount of staking out, and physical running about to chase down leads or find out information. 

At the core of it though is an interesting plot, with the lack of obvious connection between a very different set of victims, a firebrand president of the Melbourne Woman's Christian Temperance union, a drug addicted nurse, a hypocritical politician, a very dodgy doctor and a priest. Individually maybe targets, but what made the writer of an anonymous poison pen column hate them enough to expose them? What's the significance of the white feather thing? Can Reggie da Costa work it out before the killer disappears back into anonymity?