Book Review: THE QUEEN OF BEDLAM by Robert McCammon

THE QUEEN OF BEDLAM (Matthew Corbett #2) by Robert R. McCammon  (Pocket Books, October 2007)  Trade paperback, 656 pages.  ISBN # 1416551115 / 9781416551119  

Summary on the Goodreads website . . . . .

His epic masterwork Speaks the Nightbird, a tour de force of witch hunt terror in a colonial town, was hailed by Sandra Brown as "deeply satisfying...told with matchless insight into the human soul." Now, Robert McCammon brings the hero of that spellbinding novel, Matthew Corbett, to eighteenth-century New York, where a killer wields a bloody and terrifying power over a bustling city carving out its identity -- and over Matthew's own uncertain destiny.

The unsolved murder of a respected doctor has sent ripples of fear throughout a city teeming with life and noise and commerce. Who snuffed out the good man's life with the slash of a blade on a midnight street? The local print-master has labeled the fiend "the Masker," adding fuel to a volatile mystery...and when the Masker claims a new victim, hardworking young law clerk Matthew Corbett is lured into a maze of forensic clues and heart-pounding investigation that will both test his natural penchant for detection and inflame his hunger for justice.

In the strangest twist of all, the key to unmasking the Masker may await in an asylum where the Queen of Bedlam reigns -- and only a man of Matthew's reason and empathy can unlock her secrets. From the seaport to Wall Street, from society mansions to gutters glimmering with blood spilled by a deviant, Matthew's quest will tauntingly reveal the answers he seeks -- and the chilling truths he cannot escape.

My four-star review on the Goodreads website . . . . .

     I’d never read anything by Robert McCammon until I came across THE LISTENER (2019), which made a very favorable impression on me. After finishing THE QUEEN OF BEDLAM,  McCammon joins the ranks of other writers that I have compiled reading lists for and intend to follow. He definitely has great writing skills and all beginning writers should read his works - I'm learning a lot and plan to keep studying his style. 

     THE QUEEN OF BEDLAM is a lenghty but fascinating bit of historical fiction (although all the characters are fictitious, with a few exceptions). McCammon captures the sights, smells and settings of pre-American Revolution New York City in 1703, when it was still a British colony. His descriptions of city life are convincing and drip of authenticity. 

     McCammon returns to the continuing adventures of Matthew Corbett, now a law clerk and aspiring detective. He solves a minor mystery, then uncovers an alleged serial murderer (The Masker) before unravelling all the evidence and clues for the third and final puzzle of this suspenseful novel.

     The ending chapters of the book contain some of the finest and most nail-biting action scenes that I've recently read. The final chase is vividly depicted and leaves some matters unresolved, to set up an opening for the sequel.