Imogen Robertson Island of Bones (2011)
Imogen Robertson Anatomy of Murder (2010)
What it is about Book No. 2? Sometimes there seems to be a little wobble. Or maybe it is just chance that of late I have read the second book in two series and have found myself thinking "not as good as the first". You know: not BAD, but just missing some of the spark of No. 1 that had made reaching for No 2. so automatic.
I had this feeling with the second Flavia de Luce book about which I was a bit ho-hum (and then read the third one anyway and it blew my socks off with its brilliance).
Is it my expectations? Or is it (as I can only imagine!) a truly daunting task to provide the follow-up to an acclaimed debut?
I enjoyed Imogen Robertson's first book in the Harriet Westerman / Gabriel Crowther series, Instruments of Darkness (a few remarks here). The second one just seemed to have less of a natural rhythm about it: the cutting back and forth between the Westerman/Crowther narrative and the secondary narrative of the fortune-teller Jocasta Blair seemed a little forced. The background was fascinating and detailed - a spy story set against the naval struggles of the English and the French in 1781 and the visit of a famed castrato singer to London. But the plot just left me rather cold and I thought the characterisation of Harriet Westerman was going somewhat off the rails. As I said about Instruments of Darkness, the heroine was rather feisty for 1780, and there seemed to be a subplot of soul-searching going on in Anatomy of Murder about Mrs. Westerman's dubious reputation. I thought it rather bogged things down. Do we really care that she's too feisty?
But there was such a tantalising final sequence at the end of Anatomy of Murder that I had to read on to No. 3 - Island of Bones - straight away and, yes, again, No. 3 hit the spot perfectly.
Gabriel Crowther watched his brother hang for the murder of their father thirty years before. Now he is summoned back to his childhood home in the Lake District to examine a mysterious corpse found in a tomb on the decorative island, the Island of Bones, of the estate. Naturally, Mrs. Westerman must accompany him - [spoiler] as she tries to get over the untimely death of her husband - and together they set out to unravel a long-buried crime and a likely miscarriage of justice. There is a lot of unravelling of the mystery of Gabriel Crowther in this book, and a lot less dithering about Mrs Westerman's reputation. It is a well-plotted meaty crime novel with many interesting characters who flesh things out and provide some most agreeable byways to explore.
Gabriel Crowther watched his brother hang for the murder of their father thirty years before. Now he is summoned back to his childhood home in the Lake District to examine a mysterious corpse found in a tomb on the decorative island, the Island of Bones, of the estate. Naturally, Mrs. Westerman must accompany him - [spoiler] as she tries to get over the untimely death of her husband - and together they set out to unravel a long-buried crime and a likely miscarriage of justice. There is a lot of unravelling of the mystery of Gabriel Crowther in this book, and a lot less dithering about Mrs Westerman's reputation. It is a well-plotted meaty crime novel with many interesting characters who flesh things out and provide some most agreeable byways to explore.
So, I'm back being a Westerman/Crowther fan now (oh and am waiting to see what will happen - and how - now that Mrs. Westerman is a widow).
Rating: Anatomy of Murder 6/10; Island of Bones 8/10.
If you liked this... younger woman, older man - must be the Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes books.
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