The telling of this solid tale is somewhat overwrought, but it is likely intentional to convey the novelty of forensics as a crime-solving tool in the Georgian period. The repartee between Crowther, who has his own dark past to contend with, and Westerman is delightful (as he reinforces her feminist leanings and she, in turn, lures him from his reclusiveness). Robertson’s plot cleverly ranges from the Gordon Riots, the violent anti-Catholic uprising in London, to everyday domestic life in a small Sussex village to harrowing glimpses of the American Revolution as she dissects the disintegration of a once prominent family. In a second murder, the owner of a London music store is slain, leaving an orphaned daughter and son, as well as clues that link him to Thornleigh Hall. Westerman is convinced the body is connected to her secretive neighbors at foreboding, gloomy Thornleigh Hall-where the ailing Lord Thornleigh, his wanton young wife, and his alcoholic second son, a former soldier, reside. Combining crime-solving talents are the solitary anatomist Gabriel Crowther and the strong-willed Harriet Westerman, the wife of a frequently absent naval officer, who asks Crowther for help after she discovers a corpse on her property in Sussex. Imogen Robertson offers up a fascinating forensic duo in her debut mystery set in England in 1780.
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