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Title: Death and the Black Pyramid

Subtitle: John Rawlings, Apothecary

Author: Deryn Lake

Narrator: Michael Tudor Barnes

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 25 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-30-09

Publisher: ISIS Audio Books

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 12 votes

Genres: Mysteries & Thrillers, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

Apothecary John Rawlings has been summoned to Devon by Elizabeth di Lorenzi, his beautiful but unpredictable mistress. Leaving his young daughter Rose in the good care of her grandfather Sir Gabriel Kent, Rawlings sets off for Exeter on board the stagecoach. His fellow-passengers are a motley crew, and incelude a large and talkative German lady; Cuthbert Simms, a dance-master; and Jack Beef, the so-called "Black Pyramid", a bare-knuckle fighter.

Before the journey's end a man has been found brutally murdered at the Half Moon Inn, and Rawlings is once again drawn, somewhat reluctantly, into a complex and dangerous intrigue.

Members Reviews:

A superb addition to Deryn Lake's John Rawlings series

I really enjoyed the latest John Rawlings mystery. John, his daughter Rose and his father are getting older, so this is a different John Rawlings from the earliest books. He still cannot give up his quest for adventure, and he has passed this characteristic down to little Rose. A stagecoach bound for Exeter and John's fellow passengers provide the backdrop for a murder. The tale keeps you rivited until the surprising end. I think this is Deryn Lake at her best.

Death and the black pyramid.

I enjoyed this book. I have read the first and enjoyed them. I just wish we could get the others in the series.

Disgusted at the plot construction

This is the first Deryn Lake book I have read, and it will be the last. The mystery in the story is so contrived as to be unbelievable. Things happen that are never explained. At the end of a mystery, I think all of the pieces should fall into place, so that every unusual thing that happened is clear. That did not happen with this story. At the end, as I thought back over the story, I kept thinking of things that happened that were not explained. They seem to have happened because the author wished to fool the reader into not being able to figure out what is happening, or simply to advance the plot. This is not how a good mystery plot should be constructed. The plot should make sense at the end, and should give a few hints so that perhaps the reader can figure out the mystery. This write did not adhere to that, and that is why is was fairly disgusted with the story when I finished.

There is a romance part of the story, but it was not interesting to me. The entire book was way, way, way too long.

Sir John Fielding makes a brief appearance. Bruce Alexander wrote a series of mysteries featuring Sir John Fielding that is very good. If you are looking for a mystery series set in the same time period, with great characters and interesting mysteries, try that series. It is so much better than the drivel in Death and the Black Pyramid.

Agatha Christie wrote a story called "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd" with perhaps the greatest plot twist in all of murder mystery literature. At the end of the story, when you know who the murderer is, you can think back on the story and it all makes sense. Read that book to see how it should be done.