In Wobble to Death we made the acquaintance of Sergeant Cribb
and his hardworking assistant Constable Thackery as they investigate a
murder that takes place during a fiendish kind of footrace called a
“Six-Day Go-As-You-Like”. This book, which follows shortly thereafter,
continues the sporting theme with a look at prize-fighting.

In England in those days, the term “prize-fighting” invariably meant
boxing with bare-knuckles–no gloves. Gloves were a recent innovation,
and were utterly disdained by the “Fancy”, the followers of the sport.
(See my review of George MacDonald Fraser’s
Black Ajax for another view of the Victorian Fancy.)
And in England in those days, bare-knuckle fights were illegal, and had
been for quite some time. Such fights as were held, then, were always
held out-of-doors in some remote location, and near the county border so
that if the location were discovered by the local magistrates it could be
easily continued in another jurisdiction.

As the present book begins, Sergeant Cribb is led to a body found
floating in the Thames. The body is headless, but otherwise bears all
the hallmarks of a bare-knuckle fighter. Someone has committed murder,
and the murderer is almost certainly belongs to the Fancy. Time for some
undercover work, and hence the silk drawers of the title.

In my review of Wobble to Death I noted that there wasn’t
anything particularly memorable about Cribb, but in this book his
personality begins to emerge. He’s clever, and is willing to do quite
unorthodox things in pursuit of his investigations, as he shows when he
enlists a young detective who’s good with his fists to infiltrate the
Fancy. Prize-fighting is illegal, and no exceptions are made for
detectives working a case; both of their careers are at stake.
And though he’s loyal to his underlings in his own way, he has a
remarkably cheerful–one might even say sadistic–lack of concern for their
comfort, a trait that only increases in later books.

So, the book is better than its predecessor, in that Cribb and Thackery
are more fully developed; otherwise it’s much the same, and that classic
Lovesey flair is still lacking.