Review
Devoured steeps us in the danger of Victorian London and the discovery of modern forensics, combining classic storytelling with a finely-executed historical moment. Meredith packs her debut with charm and wit enough to carry us into any adventures to come with these sparkling characters. - - Matthew Pearl, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Dickens
Devoured is an absorbing mystery, with an atmosphere that captures wonderfully the contrasts of science and superstition, of domesticity and imperial exoticism, that made the Victorian era so richly interesting. Hopefully a sequel is already on the way! - - Charles Finch, author of The Fleet Street Murders
Lovers of Victorian mystery will delight in Denise Meredith's terrific debut, where murder, the science of specimen collecting, and early forensic medicine combine into a riveting adventure.
--Stefanie Pintoff, Edgar Award-winning author of In the Shadow of Gotham
Meredith' TMs debut novel delves into the ugly secrets of that straight-laced time and believably renders life among the different social strata... Think Michael Cox (The Meaning of Night) meets Jonathan Barnes (The Somnambulist). Strongly recommended for fans of historicals. --Library Journal, starred review
If this debut is any indication, we are in for a long run of entertaining and thoughtful books. Dark, creepy and fascinating Devoured is a book that lingers long after the reading is done. --Crime Spree magazine
Meredith' TMs debut novel delves into the ugly secrets of that straight-laced time and believably renders life among the different social strata... Think Michael Cox (The Meaning of Night) meets Jonathan Barnes (The Somnambulist). Strongly recommended for fans of historicals. --Library Journal, starred review
If this debut is any indication, we are in for a long run of entertaining and thoughtful books. Dark, creepy and fascinating Devoured is a book that lingers long after the reading is done. --Crime Spree magazine
Meredith' TMs debut novel delves into the ugly secrets of that straight-laced time and believably renders life among the different social strata... Think Michael Cox (The Meaning of Night) meets Jonathan Barnes (The Somnambulist). Strongly recommended for fans of historicals. --Library Journal, starred review
If this debut is any indication, we are in for a long run of entertaining and thoughtful books. Dark, creepy and fascinating Devoured is a book that lingers long after the reading is done. --Crime Spree magazine
Meredith' TMs debut novel delves into the ugly secrets of that straight-laced time and believably renders life among the different social strata... Think Michael Cox (The Meaning of Night) meets Jonathan Barnes (The Somnambulist). Strongly recommended for fans of historicals. --Library Journal, starred review
If this debut is any indication, we are in for a long run of entertaining and thoughtful books. Dark, creepy and fascinating Devoured is a book that lingers long after the reading is done. --Crime Spree magazine
Product Description
London in 1856 is gripped by a frightening obsession. The specimen-collecting craze is growing, and discoveries in far-off jungles are reshaping the known world in terrible and unimaginable ways. When the glamorous Lady Bessingham is found murdered in her bedroom, surrounded by her vast collection of fossils and tribal masks, Professor Adolphus Hatton and his morgue assistant Albert Roumande are called in to examine the crime scene – and the body.
In the new and suspicious world of forensics and autopsy examinations, Hatton and Roumande are the best. But the crime scene is not confined to one room. In their efforts to help the infamous Scotland Yard detective Inspector Adams track down the Lady's killer, Hatton and Roumande uncover a trail of murders connected to a packet of seditious letters that, if published, would change the face of society and religion irrevocably.
D.E. Meredith's measured prose and eye for exquisite detail moves seamlessly from the filthy docks on the Isle of Dogs to the jungles of Borneo and the drawing rooms of London's upper class. Her slow-burning mystery builds to a shocking conclusion, consuming Victorian London – and victims – as it goes.
