Circle Of Shadows

4.50 out of 5 (2 ratings)

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Format:: Paperback
Pages:: 384
Publisher:: Headline Publishing Group
Publication Date:: 26 April 2012
Category:: Thriller and Suspense
ISBN:: 9780755372072

Description

Death at the Carnival: riddle, ritual and murder Shrove Tuesday, 1784. While the nobility dance at a masked ball, beautiful Lady Martesen is murdered. Daniel Clode is found by her body, his wrists slit and his memories nightmarish. What has he done? Harriet Westerman and Gabriel Crowther race to the Duchy of Maulberg to save Daniel from the executioner's axe. There they find a capricious Duke on the point of marriage, a court consumed by luxury and intrigue, and a bitter enemy from the past. After another cruel death, they must discover the truth, no matter how horrific it is. Does the answer lie with the alchemist seeking the elixir of life? With the automata makers in the Duke's fake rural idyll? Or in the poisonous lies oozing around the court as the elite strive for power?

Reader Reviews

Showing 1-2 out of 2 reviews.

Daniel Clode, an Englishman, is found in a locked room with the body of a young lady beside him from the court of the Duke of Maulberg in Germany. With his wrists cut and no memory of what happened, he is in danger of facing the executioner's axe. His wife asks for her sister to be sent for from England, along with her friend, a reclusive anatomist. Together with their friend Graves, and with the help of the local district officer, they start unravelling the secrets running far and wide through Maulberg's polite society.This was an unexpected page-turner which I devoured in a matter of days. This is already the fourth instalment in Imogen Robertson's series of historical murder mysteries featuring Harriet Westerman and Gabriel Crowther, yet her name had never registered on my radar before. It is difficult to give a detailed review of this book, because I would risk inadvertently giving too much away, so suffice to say that I enjoyed it immensely. The characters are all very well drawn, and there is a fascinating personal dynamic at work here which goes back to previous novels. The central mystery is complex (involving alchemy, automata, poison, a confidence trickster, and a secret society (and if one wanted to be critical, possibly just a little far-fetched)), but the reader is always reminded of the individual human stories and tragedies that make up the strands of the bigger picture. The author's style is fluent, the sense of atmosphere of the opulent court and the surrounding towns at the end of 18th-century Germany palpable. Based on the strength of this novel, I will definitely seek out her previous offerings. Recommended.(This review was originally written as part of Amazon's Vine programme.)

5.00 out of 5

passion4reading
Set in the European Duchy of Maulberg, Harriet Westerman and Gabriel Crowther search for answers to a series of deaths in order to save the life of their friend Daniel Clode. Full of mystery, conspiracy, mood and characters that make this another impressive historical detective story, it kept me turning pages late into the night.

4.00 out of 5

thejohnsmith