“The instruments of darkness tell us truths” is a quote from Macbeth by Shakespeare and the title of this first book in a series by author Imogen Roberston. Set in England in the summer of 1780, the book’s lead characters are Harriet Westerman and Gabriel Crowther. Harriet is the wife of a naval commander. She has given up sailing with her husband to make a home for her children and younger sister. When Harriet finds a man with his throat cut on her property she asks for help from Crowther, a recluse with an interest in anatomy. Harriet suspects there is a connection between the murdered man and nearby Thornleigh hall. Living at the hall are Lord Thornleigh, old and in failing health, his young, pretty wife and Captain Hugh who fought in the Revolutionary War in America and came home maimed.
There is also a second setting in London near Soho Square. Living there are a music store owner, Alexander Adams, and his son Jonathan, age six, and daughter Susan, age nine. Adams is a widower who has broken off all contact with his birth family. How do all these characters fit together? Readers who are patient and enjoy forensic historical fiction should enjoy this novel.
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