This is the sophomore effort in Sarah Gilchrist’s Gothic series; and even if the reader missed the precursor (‘The Wages of Sin’), it can be sampled as a ‘stand-alone’ novel without undue difficulty.
The year is 1893 and protagonist Sarah Gilchrist is virtually exiled from her life in London society after being labelled a ‘fallen woman’. She’s forced into an engagement with Edinburgh based Miles Greene - a rather dull and uninteresting man, but her family hope that this engagement will restore her reputation (and of course Miles’s family have their own reasons in agreeing to this match).
For Sarah, there is a bright side to being in Edinburgh, as she’s one of only a handful of women to have been accepted as a medical student at the University. It’s been her lifelong ambition to study medicine in some form, particularly forensic science.
Having survived rape, incarceration inside a mental asylum, and a betrayal by someone she thought she could trust; Sarah is determined to make a life for herself in the newly emerging forensic sciences; however this field is a strongly male dominated environment, where women are treated with contempt, so she’s not in for an easy ride. She does have an ally though, in the form of professor Gregory Merchitson - a brilliant but troubled man, who sees something special in Sarah, in complete opposition to his peers. The professor becomes determined to assist Sarah, in any way he can.
When a housemaid in fiancé Miles’s family is murdered, it is Miles himself who comes under suspicion. Gregory Merchitson carries out the post-mortem assisted by Sarah, but when yet another murder occurs within Miles’s household, Sarah’s future begins to take an unexpected turn - she’s compelled to become a detective, essentially becoming Miles’s defender, though she may not want to marry him, but she won’t see him accused of murder - not when she has her suspicions about who really committed these terrible acts.
This is a distinctly character driven novel, where the crimes take something of a backseat. The narrative focuses on Sarah but it also introduces secondary characters (mainly female), vividly. It underlines just how difficult it was for a female to have professional aspirations in Victorian times, and the resistance that they experienced from masculine authority.
Welsh’s second novel is an engaging historical mystery, with a little romance thrown in for good measure. It also includes detailed forensic examinations that leave nothing to the imagination. (the squeamish reader may find this challenging); but all indications are, that it will be an intriguing series.
