A Dark Anatomy: A Mystery
*Starred Review* Blake, a British art historian and longtime producer and presenter for Capital Radio in the UK, sets the first in a projected trilogy of historical mysteries in the small town of Preston in Lancashire. It’s 1740. Robert Peel has yet to invent the police. Many towns are self-governing, and Preston has only a coroner-lawyer to collect and present evidence for inquests. It also has a population who largely regard crime as evidence of witchcraft. The squire’s wife has been found thrown from her horse with her throat slashed in the woods above a stately home. Coroner Titus Cragg must gather evidence for the inquest. He enlists the help of his friend Dr. Luke Fidelis and starts interviewing the panicked and superstitious members of the squire’s household. Cragg soon uncovers a welter of hatred for the wife, Dolores Brockletower, and the family itself. More murder and disturbing bits of body-snatching follow. This is a fascinating examination of how crimes could have been solved before the nineteenth century gave us the rudiments of forensic science. Cragg and Fidelis make a terrific detecting duo. Unlike many current mysteries that attempt to ape eighteenth-century language by writing floridly, Blake’s writing is direct and crisp. In addition, his knowledge of an eighteenth-century backwater just shaking off medieval superstitions is deep and engaging. A solid winner. --Connie Fletcher