Fictionwise and the Little Niggles

Over the weekend I bought 3 books from Fictionwise, which is a very good e-book site.
The pricing of books which have been in print for a while is fairly competitive, but I cannot bring myself to pay premium prices for a newly "printed" e-book. I don't know about you, but if I'm paying top prices for a book, I'm going to expect it to come with a luxuriously bound hard cover and a jewel bright dust jacket.
But I'm not here to harp on about how you'll want paper and ink for your money. I'm here to chuckle over some of the "historical fiction". When I was young, my best friend used to read out excerpts from books by Georgette Heyer, an author noted for her historical accuracy. I'm not saying, by any means, that I'm particularly knowledgeable about High Society during the 18th and 19th centuries. I like that these authors can take a setting, using names of people who were, in fact, definitely known to exist in these settings at the time of their story, and have them appear, perhaps peripherally, in the story. Let's face it, while there may be a wealth of information available to help with research, adding some romance and intrigue harms none of this.
What I really can't stand is that not one of these authors seems to have visited the UK. Actually, it's not a "can't stand" - it's not their fault, and since there is this wealth of information, freely available on the Internets, they hardly need to be here to check it out. It's more of a niggle.
In the last one, the heroine wears a beaver hat. Here's the deal - beavers have been absent from England for about 500 years. Sure, it's possible that the hat could have come from the US, but it's not really the sort of hat a heroine
(especially not a lady) would wear. You know, you could just leave it at Fur.
In The DaVinci Code (oh god! yes, I did read it!) a huge plot point revolves around the London police surrounding the house in which a suspect has hidden, and shooting him before they could realise that he's not actually the guy they want. Happens every day in New York, I expect, but it doesn't happen in England. Oh, goodness I'm not suggesting that the British police don't make mistakes - I've no doubt they're just as misinformed as their American counterparts. The reason that this couldn't happen in London is that the police don't carry guns. IF (and it's a big if) the police have reason to believe that guns are needed, they tend to get specially trained members of the police force involved, and even then, the chap would have to be shooting before he'd have been shot himself. So, Dan Brown, that's a pretty big issue. It's also a bad assumption. And once again, the Internets could have helped. I just googled "do British police carry guns", and was rewarded with many informative articles.
In the other two "historical romances" I bought there were other, smaller, niggles - mostly the use of names e.g. Lord Petersborough - no, trust me he'd have been Peterborough, and Diccon - read A Secret Garden, the name is Dickon.
However, all that aside, I'm well into the third book I bought (all three for about $4.50 each - not bad value!) and I'm enjoying them immensely. I'm not about to let some Little Niggles stop me enjoying a jolly good romp!