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eggcatsreads 's review for:
Murder by Degrees
by Ritu Mukerji
A huge thank you to the author, NetGalley, and Simon & Schuster for providing this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.
A murder mystery set in 1875, starring a woman doctor who becomes embroiled in the police investigation when a patient of hers suddenly seems to go missing - and the body they discover in the river matches her description. We follow Lydia as she investigates alongside the police to determine what exactly happened to Anna Ward - and whether it was simply suicide, or if it was murder.
This book was a solid mystery novel, where at no point were you completely positive where the investigation was going to go, nor who was actually at fault. I enjoyed Lydia as a character - as a female doctor and a professor at her school educating OTHER women to become a doctor - she has an interesting insight to the events going on around her. I liked that while this was a mystery novel, we do spend a decent portion of the book as Lydia goes about her life and the sexism she faces for her profession.
When Lydia finds a personal diary from Anna Ward that seems to contain poetry that alludes to her knowing something that someone might want to keep secret - as well as her being frantic the last time she was seen - it adds intrigue to the case. Was someone hunting her? Did she know a secret she should not have? And while the police focus on interviewing suspects, Lydia focuses on discovering the secrets of the journal - which slowly piece together the events that lead to Anna Ward being found dead.
Mystery novels involving a complicated and intricate investigation, where you have many suspects but no clear evidence until the end, can be difficult to pull off properly. This book is able to do it convincingly, where even with there being multiple suspects and culprits, how they all fit together works extremely well. I liked how Lydia was able to work alongside the police for the investigation - but also, when she has her own leads will go off on her own.
This is a great murder mystery novel, and the meshing of the investigation with Lydia’s daily life almost felt like I was reading something similar to Katherine Arden’s Cemeteries of Amalo series.
I would only caution readers reading this if they are squeamish about descriptions of bodies, surgeries, and autopsies as while the descriptions are not overly graphic, they are described fairly well.
A murder mystery set in 1875, starring a woman doctor who becomes embroiled in the police investigation when a patient of hers suddenly seems to go missing - and the body they discover in the river matches her description. We follow Lydia as she investigates alongside the police to determine what exactly happened to Anna Ward - and whether it was simply suicide, or if it was murder.
This book was a solid mystery novel, where at no point were you completely positive where the investigation was going to go, nor who was actually at fault. I enjoyed Lydia as a character - as a female doctor and a professor at her school educating OTHER women to become a doctor - she has an interesting insight to the events going on around her. I liked that while this was a mystery novel, we do spend a decent portion of the book as Lydia goes about her life and the sexism she faces for her profession.
When Lydia finds a personal diary from Anna Ward that seems to contain poetry that alludes to her knowing something that someone might want to keep secret - as well as her being frantic the last time she was seen - it adds intrigue to the case. Was someone hunting her? Did she know a secret she should not have? And while the police focus on interviewing suspects, Lydia focuses on discovering the secrets of the journal - which slowly piece together the events that lead to Anna Ward being found dead.
Mystery novels involving a complicated and intricate investigation, where you have many suspects but no clear evidence until the end, can be difficult to pull off properly. This book is able to do it convincingly, where even with there being multiple suspects and culprits, how they all fit together works extremely well. I liked how Lydia was able to work alongside the police for the investigation - but also, when she has her own leads will go off on her own.
This is a great murder mystery novel, and the meshing of the investigation with Lydia’s daily life almost felt like I was reading something similar to Katherine Arden’s Cemeteries of Amalo series.
I would only caution readers reading this if they are squeamish about descriptions of bodies, surgeries, and autopsies as while the descriptions are not overly graphic, they are described fairly well.