Instruments of Darkness by Imogen Robertson
Review by Jerelyn H. (I-F-Letty)
Don’t you love when you are introduced to a new author who, just leaves you spell bound? Well this is what happened to me. One of my friends H/F friends is a mystery buff, and she is always telling me about great books. I requested Instruments of Darkness by Imogen Robertson from her. I was very excited to read this, so I finished up the books I had going and picked this one up. I was tearing up by page 50, always a good sign. Any book that can illicit that kind of emotion from me so early on is good.
This series is set in Georgian England during the American Revolution. A dead body is found on the country estate of Mrs. Harriet Westerman, a woman newly come to the area. Her husband Commander Westerman of his Majesty’s navy is at sea, and until the birth of her children Harriet had traveled with him, but now she is running the estate and raising their children.
Upon finding the body, Mrs. Westerman; who is not only a practical woman but one with worldly experience and intelligence, is leery about involving the local Earl. There are dark secrets that are whispered about, along with her own dealings with the Thornleigh family that make her reluctant to involve “The Hall”. She sends for the magistrate, but as it happens she has recently read a paper written by a reclusive neighbor. Mr. Gabriel Crowther, an anatomist, she goes to him for help and reluctantly he agrees to help her.
Meanwhile London is simmering in the summer heat, and we meet Alexander Adams and his precocious children, a widower and owner of a small but successful music shop; he is murdered in front of his little family the very same day that the man is murdered miles away. Is there a connection between his death and the one in Sussex?
Well get ready for an incredibly well written, page turner, and be ready to have the second book on hand. I down loaded it immediately upon finishing Instruments of Darkness, and had the third ordered before I had read a few chapters of the second because, it is one of the best series I have read in quite some time. Even knowing who “done it” I am ready to read them again as I wait for book three.
5 stars
