Set in 1701, The Black Dandy opens with the hanging of Captain William Kidd, and is rooted in history. The book is well researched, yet the author has successfully avoided the trap of filling the book with detail, and concentrates on her story.
I liked the way Dorothy Muir used a real-life mystery – what happened to Captain Kidd's treasure, as the basis of the book, and the subtle way she introduces it with Captain Black spotting Kidd's mark on the daughter.
The style of the writing was not to my taste, however (although this is completely subjective), as it is written in an approximation of the language used at the time and, whilst successfully bringing a sense of the time period, I found the archaic sentence construction a little distracting. Which is a shame, because the story deserved my full attention.
The characters are well-drawn, with depth; the setting plausible and the plot well-paced. Dorothy Muir builds the sexual tension extremely well, as well as the sense of danger from Pew and Valerian.
I would have liked to see Black and Victoria actually find Kidd's treasure, but overall I thoroughly enjoyed the book and successfully escaped to 1700s Caribbean.