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Barb in Maryland's Reviews > The Anatomy of Death
The Anatomy of Death (Dr Dody McCleland, #1)
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Well, this is not a first book, but it does read like one. The author really crammed too much into this--so much so that I was confused about the focus of the book.
Dr.Dorothy (Dody--unfortunate nickname)McCleland has just won the privilege of being an autopsy surgeon for the London police in 1910. But, we hardly see her at work at all, so don't get too excited about that.
Her younger sister Florence is a militant suffragette, so we get a lot about the suffrage movement. Indeed, at least half of the book is focused on Florence, not Dody.
The two plot strands come together at the beginning, when it appears that a member of the police killed a very upper crust suffragette during a demonstration that quickly disintegrated into a riot.
But don't get too excited about solving the murder, because it gets forgotten for vast stretches of time. And then Dody and Florence seem to go their separate ways (plot-wise).
Of course we need a sympathetic policeman and we get one in Detective Chief Inspector Pike (if he has a first name I've already forgotten it. My impression is that he doesn't). He's not overly tall and has a limp, has no love for suffragettes but he's willing to dismiss members of the force who overstepped their bounds during the riot. And he seems taken with Dr. Dody.
We are also introduced to the eccentric McCleland family(they are Fabians) and a couple of semi-charming Irish rogues who are quite active in the violent side of the drive for Irish independence(i.e. Fenians).
By the end of the book we finally find out who smashed Lady Catherine on the head during the riot--I can't say that who did it was a surprise because we hadn't really seen any investigating going on, so we had no list of suspects.
All in all, it was disappointing as a mystery, it was disappointing at seeing Dr Dody in action as a forensic doctor. But it did okay in the setting a romance in motion department. And it was readable. So I may remember to pick up book two when it comes out, but I won't beat myself up if I forget.
Dr.Dorothy (Dody--unfortunate nickname)McCleland has just won the privilege of being an autopsy surgeon for the London police in 1910. But, we hardly see her at work at all, so don't get too excited about that.
Her younger sister Florence is a militant suffragette, so we get a lot about the suffrage movement. Indeed, at least half of the book is focused on Florence, not Dody.
The two plot strands come together at the beginning, when it appears that a member of the police killed a very upper crust suffragette during a demonstration that quickly disintegrated into a riot.
But don't get too excited about solving the murder, because it gets forgotten for vast stretches of time. And then Dody and Florence seem to go their separate ways (plot-wise).
Of course we need a sympathetic policeman and we get one in Detective Chief Inspector Pike (if he has a first name I've already forgotten it. My impression is that he doesn't). He's not overly tall and has a limp, has no love for suffragettes but he's willing to dismiss members of the force who overstepped their bounds during the riot. And he seems taken with Dr. Dody.
We are also introduced to the eccentric McCleland family(they are Fabians) and a couple of semi-charming Irish rogues who are quite active in the violent side of the drive for Irish independence(i.e. Fenians).
By the end of the book we finally find out who smashed Lady Catherine on the head during the riot--I can't say that who did it was a surprise because we hadn't really seen any investigating going on, so we had no list of suspects.
All in all, it was disappointing as a mystery, it was disappointing at seeing Dr Dody in action as a forensic doctor. But it did okay in the setting a romance in motion department. And it was readable. So I may remember to pick up book two when it comes out, but I won't beat myself up if I forget.
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Reading Progress
Started Reading
June 12, 2012
– Shelved
June 12, 2012
– Shelved as:
romance
June 12, 2012
– Shelved as:
mystery-thriller
June 12, 2012
–
Finished Reading
