The Grenadillo Box

By Janet Gleeson

The story begins in 1755 when Nathaniel Hopson, who is a journeyman to cabinetmaker Thomas Chippendale, is sent to Cambridge to fill in as a footman in the absence of regular staff. He is to install a library at the grand house of Lord Montfort. It is during dinner on New Year's Day that a gun shot is heard and Lord Montfort is found shot dead in the library. In his hands he is clutching a mysterious box – a grenadillo box.

In his pursuit to find the person who killed Lord Montfort, Nathaniel finds another body. This time it is his own friend John Partridge who has had four of his fingers brutally hacked off.

The grenadillo box, a beautifully crafted box made out of rare grenadillo wood, does of course become central in Nathaniel’s investigation of the murders. After having been deemed missing at first it is after a while recovered but the keyhole seems to be missing. I am sure I won’t give away anything by saying that they do eventually manage to open the box – and the content does hold one of the keys to the solution of the mystery. Before that, however, the plot involves everything from missing orphans to more dead bodies and a lot of people who do not want Nathaniel to find out the truth.

This is a very entertaining and interesting book, not only because of the various red herrings throw in, but also because of the historic facts the book contains. However, the story was sadly not as catching as I had hoped it would be.