Anatomy of Murder
by Imogen Robertson (Viking)
Modern forensic science has taken a lot of the fun out of detective novels. Which is why modern writers are increasingly casting their lines into the distant past for plots where human intelligence, not DNA, reels in a murderer. In her second venture into historical crime fiction, Robertson once again offers up the talents of Harriett Westerman and anatomist Gabriel Crowther, and makes us believe that the primitive scientific techniques of 1781 Britain could be used to solve a murder.
More important, the author gives us a vivid re-creation of late 18th century London, from the polluted Thames to the drawing rooms of the high-born.
The Bedlam Detective
by Stephen Gallager (Crown)
Britain in the years immediately preceding World War I provides the setting for this compelling examination of what constitutes sanity as American Sebastian Becker, now a resident of London, is called upon by the Crown to determine if a rich landowner is capable of managing his own affairs. Owain Lancaster’s scientific venture in the Amazon led to the violent deaths of his family and colleagues but has it also driven him to madness?
And is it somehow connected with the death of two local girls in a community where other children have come to violent ends? The police think they have the killer and secure a conviction but Becker isn’t so sure and launches his own private inquiry. His struggle for justice is made all the more poignant since at the same time he and his wife must also deal with the needs of their own special-needs child.
One Blood
by Graeme Kent (Soho)
Soho Press specializes in bringing out quirky books in unusual settings that most other publishers would spurn. Kent’s second book featuring Solomon Islands policeman Sgt. Ben Kella and young American nun Sister Conchita is set in 1960 during John F. Kennedy’s presidential campaign. Kella is off to the lush Western District of the islands to look into sabotage plaguing an international logging operation while Sister Conchita discovers a murdered American tourist in the mission church under her control. Somehow both events are connected to the sinking of JFK’s PT-109 boat in 1943. But it’s the setting that steals the story here. Author Kent gives us a nuanced tour of a lush place and time that is rapidly fading in memory.
Tom Schantz writes about mystery books each month for The Denver Post.
