Devoured by D E Meredith

Devoured by D E Meredith
Buy Devoured by D E Meredith at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: Crime (Historical)
Reviewer: Linda Lawler
Summary: The brand-new science of criminal forensics helps to solve a series of murders in Victorian England.
Buy? Yes	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 336	Date: November 2010
Publisher: Minotaur Books
ISBN: 978-0312557683
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It is the 1850s, and religion and science are at war. Hatton and Roumonde carry out investigations in the morgue, and even at crime scenes, but their findings are seen as of little value in Victorian England. Indeed, to many of their colleagues, what they do to the human body is downright blasphemous. They struggle on, sending begging letters to rich patrons so they can buy equipment, and trying to persuade the police to accept the findings of their autopsies, but they make slow progress. In this engrossing case, their efforts are rewarded and they are called in by Inspector Adams of Scotland Yard to help with the murder of Lady Blessingham, who has had her head smashed in with a fossil. This immediately plunges them into a series of murders, each more bizarre and horrible than the last, which are all connected to theories of evolution and the creation of the world.

The Church at this time, and consequently the State, insisted that God created the world in seven days. After all, it argued, this is clearly demonstrated in the Bible. But scientists were discovering fossils which called this literal interpretation into question, suggesting a more gradual development. Travellers were going further and further afield in their search of rare butterflies, animals and plants, sponsored by rich free-thinkers, and the discoveries they made were forcing people to question whether the human race's relationship with apes was closer than has been previously believed. To modern readers this is all old hat: Darwin's ideas of evolution, and those of other scientists and explorers, are familiar territory these days. But to most Victorians it was a frightening concept, bringing into question the primacy of humanity on the Earth, and thereby the whole issue of faith and redemption.

D E Meredith skilfully weaves a range of attitudes into her story, without pushing the reader to adopt any particular view. But this is not some dull extended tract. True, the Victorian age had its high-minded thinkers, and many people welcomed the debate about the nature of humanity, but it was also an age of prejudice, inequality and hypocrisy. Scotland Yard willingly investigates the murder of a socialite, but has little or no time to spare to look into the horrible deaths of a series of poor little girls. The rich and powerful have the police in their pocket, openly hiring them for their own affairs, and a policeman would risk his whole career if he even suggested they might be involved in a crime. And, of course, foreigners are automatically suspects, for the flimsiest of reasons.

Reader, be warned: there are grisly details aplenty in this tale of seamy backstreets and shameful secrets. The murders, and they way the bodies are displayed for the police to find, leave little to the imagination. But the book also employs the staple elements of the 'penny-dreadful' to excellent effect, to create the murky, foggy atmosphere of Victorian London so popular with readers of Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins. The rich and powerful abuse and exploit those they consider beneath them. Poverty and death are familiar bedfellows in the back streets of London, and illiteracy and ignorance are the trademarks of the country-side. Purloined letters and an extremely complex plot all add to the mystery and pleasure of this fascinating book, and many readers will look forward impatiently to the next volume in the series.

Many thanks to Minotaur Books for sending this intriguing tale to Bookbag.

Further reading suggestion: Try The Suspicions of Mr Whicher by Kate Summerscale, a true crime written as a story. And in Murder in Paradise by Alanna Knight, a detective from Edinburgh travels to London to investigate murky doings in the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.

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