7 May 2012

Review: A DISSECTION OF MURDER, Felicity Young

Australian/US cover
  • published 2012
  • e-book supplied to me by publishers Harper Collins Australia through NetGalley.com
Synopsis (author website)

At the turn of the twentieth century, London's political climate is in turmoil, as women fight for the right to vote. Dody McCleland has her own battles to fight. As England's first female autopsy surgeon, she must prove herself as she proves that murder treats everyone equally.

After a heated women's rights rally turns violent, an innocent suffragette is found murdered. When she examines the body, Dody McCleland is shocked to realize that the victim was a friend of her sister - fuelling her determination to uncover the cause of the protestor's suspicious death.

For Dody, gathering clues from a body is often easier than handling the living - especially Chief Detective Inspector Pike. Pike is looking to get to the bottom of this case but has a hard time trusting anyone-including Dody. Determined to earn Pike's trust and to find the killer, Dody will have to sort through real and imagined secrets. But if she's not careful, she may end up on her own examination table.

My Take

US/ UK? cover June 2012
The first of the Doctor Dody McCleland series, A DISSECTION OF MURDER (aka THE ANATOMY OF DEATH - US) was published in March (Australia/NZ) and will be published June (US with UK distribution) 2012. It will be available in all good bookshops as well as Amazon and Kindle.

For Felicity Young this novel is a successful departure from her Australia-based police procedurals into the world of historical crime fiction. Felicity confesses that she has blended fictional characters with historical ones. I think she has done an excellent job of populating authentic settings with interesting and believable characters. She has captured the essence of the suffragette era that preceded the First World War, a world that was about to change forever. I certainly hope A DISSECTION OF MURDER is just the first in a long series.

My rating: 4.7

Another review on Fair Dinkum Crime.

Other Felicity Young titles reviewed in MiP

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Kerrie - I'm so glad this series will soon be available. It looks like a well-written one at an interesting historical time. I'll be looking out for it.

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