Antidote to Murder

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.