A Murderous Malady by Christine TrentMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I love a good historical murder mystery, so I couldn't wait to start reading A Murderous Malady. I discovered later that it's actually the second book in the series, but I don't think that I missed out by having not read the first. It works fine as a stand-alone novel.
Choosing to use real people as the characters in your book is always a challenge. Are you just borrowing the names of these people, or are you trying to faithfully recreate them as they were. In this book, not only is the main character a real person but so are many many of the other characters. On the whole, I think this worked and worked well. I will admit that this isn't really my period, so I don't know much about any of these people and can't comment on how true to life they are. From a murder mystery novel point of view, they all work really well. I don't know if I can picture Florence Nightingale being an amateur detective, as well as all of the nursing reforms that she undertook, but in terms of the book, it worked well.
There were a few Americanisms that crept into the story, which for me at least, did detract from the overall read. I know that this book is probably mostly for an American audience, but it is set in Victorian Britain and personally, I prefer it to be more faithful to the language that would have been used. The word 'stoop' was used quite a bit, I tried to look it up and I think that it's something to do with the front of the house, but I'm still not entirely sure. Apparently, it comes from the Dutch language originally. Either way, it's not something that we have ever used in Britain and it really got on my nerves.
Little niggles like this aside, I really enjoyed the story and the mystery setting. I'd be more than happy to read more in this series.
I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
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