Murder by Degrees

[cornerofmadness]

Murder by Degrees by Ritu Mukerji

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


TSVM to Netgalley for the arc of this. This one had personal intersections with my own life (the history of women in medicine is part of my research and I am a female physician) Dr. Lydia Weston is a pioneer in the field, practicing and teaching at the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia (again a school part of my research which made me so happy). She becomes worried about Anna, a young maid who is both her patient and someone Lydia is trying to help up in society via education. Anna was acting weird and has stopped coming to see her.

She relates her concerns to her benefactors Harlan and Anthea (both doctors) and he introduces her to his friend detective Volker and his junior, Davies. It seems Anna has met with an unfortunate end and Lydia helps them by talking to some of Anna's friends while the detectives do their best to unravel a case, they weren't sure wasn't actually suicide by drowning. Once the autopsy proves it's murder, they have to navigate the waters shaped by large class disparity when not one but two very wealthy families have ties to the girl. It's a race to discover what happened before Lydia herself is the next victim.

I very much liked Lydia (and the detectives). I thought there was a nice balance between her seeing patients, the medical details, the ties to India and her childhood and most of all her going up against and winning against her male colleagues. I know how dead set against women doctors some of my own colleagues were in 1990. I can't imagine the hardship of the real women Lydia was drawn forth from in 1875. So content warning: misogyny, medical details that some might find gory (I'm not a good judge of that).

The mystery was well paced with nice twists and turns and some very good red herrings. I would absolutely look for more from this author. I hope to see Lydia again (though next time I'm hoping if someone is literally in her house she doesn't dismiss it and tells the cops, that crap makes me nuts)



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Comments

[under_the_silk_tree]

Oooooh this does sound good. I love a good historical mystery. Especially when we also get a good cross-section of their life. (Like getting to see Lydia also practice medicine.) I'll have to keep an eye out for it when it comes out on the 17th

[cornerofmadness]

I enjoyed it (and it gave me places to research for my paper should I ever get my sabbatical back