Can you ever truly make up for hurting someone you love? That’s what Jefferson Blythe is about to find out, although he doesn’t know it when he lands in London for a modern version of the grand tour. The trip is ostensibly to help Jefferson get over being dumped by his girlfriend, and the plan is to retrace the steps of his grandfather, right down to using an outdated copy of Esquire’s Europe in Style as a guide.
Things don’t at all as planned for Jefferson. Right from the moment he lands, he’s dogged by a woman who seems to have mistaken him for someone else. When things start to unravel, Jefferson calls George, his neighbor from childhood who was like a big brother, until Jefferson screwed things up. George comes to Jefferson’s rescue, more than once, but rekindling their friendship, or more, proves elusive for the harried young man.
“Jefferson Blythe, Esquire” is fairly classic Lanyon. At its center is a mystery that isn’t easily unraveled, by the characters or the reader. In addition there are a number of quirky secondary characters that provide a lot of comic relief, in between murders. Jefferson Blythe is a standard Lanyon hero. He’s no super-sleuth. He stumbles into the mystery and spends most of the book bumbling his way through it. George seems like an unlikely, and sometimes unlikeable, love interest, but that’s also a common Lanyon touch.
Having so many familiar archetypes doesn’t necessarily detract from the story. It’s probably why the story seems so complete at less than 200 print pages. It’s a pleasant read that will divert you for a little while.
“Jefferson Blythe, Esquire” is available from Amazon