I’m coming to like historical crime thrillers more and more. They just set a good tone and force people out of the comforts of their lives into situations that are so far beyond what’s normal for them and it just brings me joy. Especially because it’s usually women (at least in the books I’m reading) who are trying to do these dastardly things in the fashion of the day and still they blaze through it, blisters and corsets and all.

Madeleine is non-traditional to start because she wants to be educated and wants to rise above the role that society has allotted her because she’s a woman. She wants to follow in her father’s footsteps. She wants to go into medicine. She wants to have more than a passive role in what her father does for the commissioner with solving causes of death. She pushes and pushes and forces her way into roles because that’s the only way she’ll succeed at her dream and I love her for it.

I just wish her voice was a little more interesting. The events going on in the story were interesting enough without any flourish to the writing but at the end of the day Madeleine’s voice was dull. Had the story not been so exciting it would have been a slog to get through the book. She’s overly clinical in her approach to the world, hyper-logical, and it makes for a very dry telling. From her associations with her father to the professor and the commissioner, they’re all at arm’s length and observational. Almost like she doesn’t know how to relate with the living. She reminds me of Tempe Brennan from Bones. If it were just from her POV with nothing else around her to balance out her textbook view of the world the show wouldn’t have ran for as long as it has. Same thing with the book. There’s a lot going on to balance out her dryness but her voice leaves something to be desired.

She did seem the most human toward the end of the book where she got into a confrontation with one of the suspects. You see genuine fear in her. All of her training and all of her clinical decorum flies right out the window and she becomes a scared young woman in the face of great danger. Even before that she makes a comment or two to herself where she’s grateful to be able to cast off the strong persona and let someone else take the reins. It doesn’t signify her weakness, just that she’s human and can’t do it all. I found her all the more relatable because of that.

The story itself was really interesting too and I found myself constantly trying to guess who was responsible for what and just what were those gross little bugs doing there after all? Ick. It was a murder mystery with quite a few layers and just when one element is revealed and you think all is solved there’s another layer waiting just underneath it with something else to reveal. It kept me guessing and it kept the story fresh. No worrying about formulas or stale storytelling here.

This is the first in a series and I can assure you I’ll want to be reading more. The author sets a fantastic scene, both in place and time, and even though her main character is a little dry she’s still well-developed and relatable and likable. Even the characters around her, namely her father, the commissioner, and the professor, all bring admirable qualities to the table and leave Madeleine to do what she does best. Perhaps it a bit of wish fulfillment for the time but I’ll take it.

4

I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.