Status Updates From Knockout (Hell's Belles, #3)

There is no doubt that the readers of SM enjoy her universe of interwoven series that have characters that reach out from the pages of their books to appear in other books, closing the circle. This reader appreciates this to no end.

There is no doubt that the readers of SM enjoy her universe of interwoven series that have characters that reach out from the pages of their books to appear in other books, closing the circle. This reader appreciates this to no end.

Uncheck power corrupts which we know to our detriment to a fever pitch over the last 10 years.
Police misconduct on a global scale has escalated in the 21st-century. This is a scarring reality.

Imogen’s black bag of tricks something every woman should have included chloroform, and black powder, mercury fulminate, nitro glycerin or blasting oil
Scotland Yard was founded in 1829 name for the location of its headquarters. The detective branch was founded in 1842 Staff eight men
Corruption started immediately

In the authors notes SM introduces the 40 elephants and all woman Victorian crime ring that operated for more than a century. Alice diamond the 40s most famous queen, was an explosive expert herself.
Author Brian McDonald, Alice diamond and the 40 elephants.

I am told you are the Duchess of Trevescan… spoken low and smooth like Scotch whiskey
I am
Fascinating, he replied, he replied. As I am the Duke of Trevescan one would think we would have met

And this is the hook she left while SM wandered off and a title of literary fiction which I will not read

The second week of April saw a grand ball hosted by the Duchess of Trevescan. Again something I would’ve loved to attend. And where the hook for the last book appears, at the last sentence
The delay in publication of mastermind the last title in the series has been almost 2 years, but we are promised it in February 2027. Thus the lawyer readers of SM wait

Gougeres, a pastry of French origin with many eggs whipped, milk, flour, etc. which now is a puff pastry from steam but then in 1840 was a flat disc and it was risen from the whipping of the eggs. unknown in England vocabulary but the French chef Careme in his 1833 cookbook mentions them. A copy of that book that was in my book shop sold for nothing at auction just recently. It was a three volume set illustrated.

The sacking of so many in high positions, and the web that allowed them in a lower positions reached parliament in the Home secretary, and everyone under them. Duncan West, familiar owner of the news, made sure there was a broom clean

And how unlikely that now September 20, 2026
We might have something similar. In fact the corruption is about to creep further…

The epilogue, three months on from January, April, the second Tuesday in 1840
They married at St. George’s Church in the first week of April, she became Mrs. Thomas Peck, thorn in the side of the constabulary

That is a wedding breakfast I would’ve loved to attend and I don’t go very many places

Comes to the rush. Comes to disillusionment with Adams, the person who had been deceptive with him for 10 years, who coveted his mother - who just backhanded Imogen and that was the end of that.
That brooch was an accessory everyone should have

And for those who need a little push, and for those who have no memory and for those who never heard itand

T-Rex, get it on, I am almost afraid to tell you this is from 1971. Well those were the days
And in 1840? It is universal, timeless, tender

And the lyrics so perfect
A dirty girl…

Get it on
Bang a gong
Get it on

I wonder if SM was thinking about this song when she wrote this perfectly lovely finally at the end of 14 months seduction

And this immediately brought to mine the musical accompaniment of this group T-Rex and the song get it on
I am going to play it now

Finally, in a snowstorm, at his boarding house – they get it on
Nicely

Goat lettuce juice is a form of invisible ink used in Roman times for lovers to pass Messages

Leave it to Imogene

And further
The four woman were not a murder of crows
They were a distraction of belles

Why are you wearing black, Duchess? Are you planning to be widowed?
One must always be prepared

If it’s Parliament and the yard together?
We take it to the people

But what if it is Whitechapel as well
Corruption has always been where power lies
London especially no matter whether 19th century, 20th or 21st
In America are 21st has seen more corruption than even in the 1890s
A sad sadness we all live with & above is

Quis ut Deus
A haloed man robed, holding a sword and shield

is the traditional battle cry of Archangel Michael
Who is like God?

Does your truncheon strike a different kind of blow? Does your whistle sing a different note?

Are we to believe you are good because you tell us so?

Not only ICE but our military and our police are now suspect as they were in England in the 1840s

In London there is the West End and the east end and the east end has no protection from the police Thomas detective inspector of Scotland Yard remains a peeler. A cop on the beat not to be trusted.
And so it has been with the poor and the protection which is not for the poor

And in 2026 we have ICE, masked men who pray upon the poor, the not so poor, the not white

Fire in London was the hand of God, superseding every other concern, no matter how dire.

SM knows how to set up a mood

Peck finds Imogene in the library in the dark, and he locks the door. The confrontation has a charge that could only be described by the lyrics from JJ Cale’s song cocaine, she don’t lie, she don’t lie, she don’t lie, cocaine. Only in its intensity not the chemical

https://youtu.be/KwRvafqi_-U

Parliament thinks of Whitehall as their personal footman

Ecclesiastes says there is nothing new under the sun. The endless search for power pervades every moment of history. But this particular corruption of this particular administration is beyond the pale. And the Supreme Court is truly the handmaiden of Donald Trump

And finally, finally the kiss they both wanted. In the situation normal, he was a common place and she was a lady. And he was a detective, and she was a disruptive. A match made in heaven. The specialty of SM

I wish I had somebody to say fucking hell to
And the nerve to say it

Enter the bare knuckle bastards
That was quite a good series
But it is tiresome to have to rely on rereads to escape Trump, he has forced me to read so many books requiring no intellectual motion over the last 10 years