Nancy Means Wright

In 1781, Mary Wollstonecraft has just published her Vindications of the Rights of Women and is active with the men and women of intellectual London. This crowd includes erotic painter Henry Fuseli, with whom Mary is obsessed. When Fuseli's masterpiece, The Nightmare, is stolen, Fuseli blames minor artist Roger Peale and has him arrested. Mary doubts Peale's guilt, and Peale's fiancee turns to Mary for help, but Mary's obsession with Fuseli hampers her ability to think straight. When fellow intellectual and bluestocking Isobel Frothingham is murdered, her dead body arranged in The Nightmare's tableau, and found by Mary's maid, Mary wonders if there is a connection between the theft and the murder.
Wright captures the character of intellectual London brilliantly. These writers, artists and French revolutionaries are passionate idealists, but they lack common sense. With their heads in the clouds trying to unravel the grand philosophical knots plaguing mankind, they stumble into the mud puddles at their feet. Obsessed with trying to change her sexual attraction to Fuseli into an intellectual ideal, Mary hardly pays any mind to the crimes of the story, making her a bizarre yet intriguing sleuth. When she helps to solve the mystery, it is almost as an after-thought: save France from its corrupt royalty, demand equal rights for women, discover murderer and avoid being killed . . . .
Devotes to the murder mystery genre might be frustrated by the lack of focus characters show to solving the crimes, yet I found Mary's scatter-brained intellectualism charming. I appreciate Wright's ability to model her fictional Mary Wollstonecraft with the clay of the historical person, keeping her personality and foibles and not pretending that when faced with a murder she would suddenly become Sherlock Holmes.… (más)

I just could not get into this story. When I first started reading I thought it might be a good story. A mysterious death of a puppeteer who wants to change the story endings to her shows and none of her employees agree with her. Sounds like an interesting who done it. But the more I read the more bogged down the story became and the less I cared.
Then there were the witches. It is my understanding that while covens will hold "open" rituals and allow non-coven members to observe, they are not allowed to participate. Yet, the girl (whose name I didn't even bother to learn) was able to jump right in.
I just wouldn't, in good conscience, be able to recommend this book to anyone.… (más)