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A distraught scullery maid appears at Dody’s Women’s Clinic begging for an abortion. It turns out she has a case of lead poisoning, which Dody believes she took to induce a miscarriage. Instead of reporting the girl to the authorities, Dody decides to council her and prescribes an antidote. But days later, the maid is found dead from a bungled criminal abortion—and the coroner receives a series of anonymous letters accusing Dody of the crime.
Now, Dody has to find out who has framed her for the maid’s murder—or else she’ll be embroiled in a criminal trial. Chief Inspector Pike is working undercover on another case, playing the piano for an exotic dancer who may be spying for the Germans, but when he hears Dody’s in trouble, he insists on lending a hand. But as Pike and Dody are about to discover, she’s not only fighting for her career, but for her life, too…
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Creators
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Series
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Publisher
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Release date
May 7, 2013 -
Formats
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Kindle Book
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9781101622476
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9781101622476
- File size: 987 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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March 25, 2013
The stakes become uncomfortably personal for Dr. Dody McCleland in Young’s solid second historical set in pre-WWI London. Dody, a part-time assistant autopsy surgeon to Dr. Bernard Spilsbury, hopes for advancement as a result of her research into foods that cause tumors in rats, only to have a jealous male colleague, Henry Everard, steal her findings and present them to Spilsbury as his own. Dody also works at a women’s clinic, a good deed that does not go unpunished. She’s accused of performing a botched illegal abortion that claims the life of a scullery maid, Esther Craddock, who was taking lead pills to end her pregnancy. Dody had encountered those “medications” elsewhere—her autopsy of a three-year-old boy found that he was poisoned by lead pills—and must trace their source to clear her name. A strong lead makes up for a solution that’s less inspired than that of Young’s first book in the series, The Anatomy of Death. Agent: Lisa Grubka, Foundry Literary + Media. -
April 1, 2013
A woman doctor in 1911 is a rara avis who must fight for respect. Dody McCleland considers herself lucky to hold a position as England's only autopsy surgeon. It's her other work at a free clinic for women that may get her jailed for murder. When a young woman comes to her for an abortion, already suffering from lead poisoning from the pills she took hoping to bring on a miscarriage, Dody prescribes an antidote and asks her to return. When the woman is found dead from a botched abortion, Dody is accused. Her suffragette sister suggests that she ask her friend Chief Inspector Pike (The Anatomy of Death, 2012) for help, but a proud Dody, recalling that Pike fled at the last minute from the surgery she had arranged on his bad knee, refuses. Pike, still suffering the mental and physical problems from his service in the Boer War, is in love with Dody. Although she returns his love, she is loath to marry and give up her career. Pike, now with Special Branch, is working undercover to winkle out German spies. When his mission goes south, however, he manages to get assigned to Dody's case. The only evidence against her is some accusatory anonymous letters she suspects may have been sent by a jealous colleague at the morgue. When another woman is found dead, Pike, Dody and even her sister go all-out to discover who is manufacturing the lead pills in the hope that this discovery will lead to the abortionist. The second in Young's promising series features a strong heroine, a twisty mystery and the obligatory historical detail.COPYRIGHT(2013) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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