Okay, THE QUEEN OF BEDLAM is not a quick read.  It is, however, utterly engrossing and keeps you hooked.  Now, it did take me a few chapters to figure out the premise, so don't expect to jump right in to non-stop action.  Allow for the characters to shape and the plot to thicken. 

Twenty-three-year-old Matthew Corbett spends his days working as a law clerk and helping his landlords with their pottery shop.  The last thing Matthew expects is to become entwined in a series of murders.  A killer dubbed The Masker by local media is on the loose. 

Meanwhile, Matthew has also spent some time following his former headmaster around.  He knows that Eben Ausley is doing horrible things to boys in the orphanage, and he'd love to see him hanged.  When the Masker takes Eben's life, Matthew is the first on the scene and manages to chase after the killer.  Though he fails in his mission, he is asked to investigate the killings. 

Matthew's investigations lead him to an unidentified woman known as the Queen of Bedlam who is housed in a local mental hospital.  She speaks to few and her only sentence is -- "Has the king's reply yet arrived?"  With two baffling cases, Matthew tackles the darkened streets of New York City in the 1700s hoping to find answers before the Masker takes another life and to bring peace to a troubled woman. 

THE QUEEN OF BEDLAM is a gripping tale, but it isn't one that can be read in one sitting unless you start very early or stay up to the wee hours.  At well over 600 pages of relatively small print, readers are in for a very meaty mystery that keeps them on the edge of their seat.  The historic setting adds intrigue and the characters, particularly Matthew and even the Queen of Bedlam, warm the reader's heart.