Anatomy of Murder by Imogen Robertson
Anatomy of Murder is Imogen Robertson’s follow up to Instruments of Darkness; winner of The Telegraph’s ‘first thousand words of a novel’ competition in 2007.
This reappearance of eighteenth century sleuths Gabriel Crowther and Mrs Harriet Westerman is set against the back drop of England’s naval battle with the French, London is seething with paranoia and a body has just been pulled from the Thames.
Crowther continues to be a restrained man of logic, albeit with a sneaking affection for Harriet who, in contrast, remains his emotional and instinctive partner.
The body in the Thames is revealed to be Mr Fitzraven, an employee of the London opera house His Majesty’s Theatre and Robertson loses no time in creating a tangled web of French spies, cherubic castratos and Georgian insane asylums.
In addition to characters already familiar from Instruments of Darkness, the reader is introduced to Jocasta, a tarot card reader, and her familiars, Boyo the dog and Sam the street urchin.
Working in parallel to Crowther and Harriet, Jocasta investigates the disappearance of a shop girl and the sinister Tonton Macoute, a vampiric creature snatching young boys from the streets of London.
As Jocasta begins to cross paths with Harriet and Crowther, further characters from Intruments of Darkness begin to appear and all involved are placed at risk.
Robertson has produced an incredibly ambitious novel, complete with a Dickensian cast and a skilfully macabre atmosphere. Place and social niceties (and nasties) in particular are rendered with a delightful smirk;
“The furniture was too large and dark for the space, and gave the impression of a room filled with fat and uncongenial relatives forced into a joint vigil round a miser’s deathbed.”
Alongside these vibrant observations, Robertson displays a satisfying understanding of crime writing traditions. Rich men are evil or eccentric, orphans are spirited, beautiful girls bleed the most profusely and leaps of logic are unapologetic.
Unfortunately the over-riding question left in the readers mind at the end of this book is; how can someone make fortune tellers, insane asylums, castratos, multiple murders, French spies and child snatchers tedious?
A tendancy on the part of Robertson to drip feed new information effectively castrates (apologies) the plot’s ability to surprise the reader. Attention to detail is comendable but good lines like the one quoted above are submerged in a mass of unecessary detail.
Overly long, overly populated, Anatomy of Murder is an occassionally rewarding, deeply frustrating and frequently boring read.
Want to see for yourself? Published in paperback by Headline this week, you can pre-order it for £4.03, or get the Kindle edition for £4.99.
Rating: 2/5
Recommended for: Only the most die-hard crime fans.
Other recommended reading: For historical crime done well and a salacious plot living up to expectations, read Fingersmith by Sarah Waters.
Beulah Devaney
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