This book takes place in 1813, Dublin, and we follow Abigail Lawless, a very bright young woman who is fascinated by all things science and worldly, encouraged by her father who is a city coroner in North Dublin. When a maid from a young family nearby kills her newborn baby and herself, Abigail is attracted to the mystery of what would make the young woman commit such a crime and she is drawn into the darker world of religious group 'The Brethren' with every step uncovered in the potential crime bringing Abigail further into danger.

This book was an interesting and engaging read on audiobook, and I enjoyed hearing a story set in the 1800s in Dublin as I don't think I've read enough books during this particular time period. We are following a group of upper middle class people with Abigail a lady of leisure, finished her schooling and available for luncheons, dances and all sorts (but prefers to be studying or writing scientific articles). I'm always happy to read a character like Abigail who is very much a blue-stocking and ahead of her times in the way she thinks and acts - she was extremely clever but also empathetic to her friends and acquaintances, yet at the same time she was still a young woman who liked to go to a dance, and look well in her dress - and be disappointed when a young man didn't dance with her.

I think the initial story/plot became lost a little bit near the middle as we delved more into Abigail's world of science and professors, as well as dances and dinners, and while I didn't mind the author straddling two genres (crime/mystery and straight historical fiction), I think there could have been a firmer grip on the two to mesh it together better. Abigail did get a little annoying at some parts when she consistently walked straight into danger without thinking about it (following Devlin straight into the house for example). I also could have done without a pretty upsetting death of a horse in the last part of the book (dragged by a carriage off a cliff to a miserable, slow death).

This book is well written and researched though - and it was fun with some scenes taking place in areas I'm in all the time and I love imagining what it must have been like back then when the houses in Fitzwillam Square were homes and not offices. I think this would be a great first book in a series following Abigail and her father's assistant Ewan investigating suspicious deaths, and it would be a shame if the author didn't take the opportunity to continue.