A Rare Interest in Corpses by
Ann Granger
hbk out May 06
Published by Headline
at £19.99
Well-known for her Fran Varady series and her long list of Mitchell and
Markby novels, Ann Granger here provides a one-off based in 1860's
London.
A thirty-year old woman, Elizabeth Martin, arrives in Marylebourne to be
the companion of the widow of her late god-father. Lizzie has fallen on
hard times after her father, a doctor in Derbyshire, died and left her
virtually destitute, so she is glad to be taken in to a rather opulent
household. However, she soon discovers that her predecessor, Madeleine
Hexham, had been murdered and the body dumped in a demolition site
which will soon be St Pancras station. The death is investigated by
Scotland Yard's youngest detective-inspector, Ben Ross, who turns out to
have known Lizzie when they were children – in fact, her father paid for
his education, lifting him out of child labour in the mines.
The plots unravels by means of alternate chapters related in the first
person by Lizzie and Ben and the small list of suspects is well-secured
until the last chapter.
The plot is straightforward and makes a satisfying 'whodunnit', but the
book's main strength is the characterisation and the realistic portrayal of
London in the mid-19th century, with its contrasts between the 'haves and
have-nots' and the squalor and poverty of the great city.
(
Bernard Knight
ex Home Office Pathologist and author of the highly acclaimed Crowner John series)
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A Rare Interest in Corpses by
Ann Granger
