- publication date 1 August 2015
- e-ARC from publishers HarperCollins Australia via NetGalley
- #4 in the Dody McClelland series
- see author website for two chapters
- Available for Amazon pre-order
To Doctor Dody McCleland, the gruesome job of dealing with the results of an explosion at the Necropolis Railway Station is testing enough. But when her suffragette sister Florence is implicated in the crime, matters worsen and Dody finds her loyalty cruelly divided. Can she choose between love for her sister and her secret love for Chief Inspector Matthew Pike, the investigating officer on the case?
Dody and Pike's investigations lead them to a women's rest home where patients are not encouraged to read or think and where clandestine treatments and operations are conducted in an unethical and inhumane manner. Together Dody and Pike must uncover such foul play before their secret liaisons become public knowledge - and before Florence becomes the rest home's next victim.
My Take
Australian writer Felicity Young has certainly grown as a crime fiction author and this latest offering in the Dody McCleland series brims with confidence and authenticity. I have somehow missed reading #3 and feel that is an omission I must rectify.
Dody McCleland works as an assistant to Dr Bernard Spilsbury and is right at the centre of the suffragist world. If she is not present, then her lover Inspector Pike is, and between them they are a formidable pair. Besides being a murder mystery, the novel does a good job of presenting the injustices of a world where women lack equality and where males can deal with unwanted females in the most radical manner.
If you like authentic history in your crime fiction then give this series a go.
My rating: 4.6
I've also read
A CERTAIN MALICE
HARUM SCARUM
TAKE OUT
4.7, A DISSECTION OF MURDER
4.5, ANTIDOTE TO MURDER
About the author
Felicity Young was born in Germany, educated in the UK and settled in WA. She lives on a small farm with her family, has trained as a nurse, studied music, reared orphan kangaroos and is a volunteer firefighter. The world of the Dr Dody McCleland mysteries is based on her grandmother's old memoirs.
Her books
Also stand-alone title: A Certain Malice (2005) being reprinted as FLASHPOINT later in 2015 with a sequel promised in 2016.
1. The Anatomy of Death (2012)
aka A Dissection of Murder
2. Antidote to Murder (2013)
3. The Scent of Murder (2014)
4. The Insanity of Murder (2015)
The next Dody McCleland book, A Donation of Murder, is set for release on May 1st 2016.
1 comment:
This is a good series, Kerrie - Glad you enjoyed this entry.
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