INSTRUMENTS OF DARKNESS.

INSTRUMENTS OF DARKNESS by IMOGEN ROBERTSON.

SOURCE: A Readers Group read.

Thornleigh Hall, seat of the Earl of Sussex, dominates its surroundings. Its heir is missing, and the once vigorous family is reduced to a cripple, his whore and his alcoholic second son, but its power endures.

Impulsive Harriet Westerman has felt the Hall's menace long before she happens upon a dead man bearing the Thornleigh arms. The grim discovery cries out for justice, and she persuades reclusive anatomist Gabriel Crowther to her cause, much against his better judgement; he knows a dark path lies before those who stray from society's expectations. That same day, Alexander Adams is killed in a London music shop, leaving his young children orphaned. His death will lead back to Sussex, and an explosive secret that has already destroyed one family and threatens many others.
..... Outer back cover

FIRST SENTENCE {Part 1: 1.1: Friday, 2 June 1780, West Sussex, England}: Gabriel Crowther opened his eyes.

MEMORABLE MOMENT {Page 26}: "Well, at least, sir, this gentleman had the consideration to be murdered relatively close to your home. So the inconvenience is kept to a minimum."

MY THOUGHTS: What started out as a thousand word entry to a writing competition four years ago we now have the published book that is part one in the Crowther and Westerman series.

The story of anatomist Gabriel Crowther, 'to the educated, he was a man of science cursed with an appalling lack of manners; to everyone under ten he was a devil doctor who cut the souls from the living bodies of naughty children and ate them', and his sidekick Harriet Westerman. I was hoping for an Olde Worlde Crime Scene Investigation type of read instead of which I got this old fashioned farce in the form of a murder mystery where talk at the 'Big House' turns rather unfathomably from murder to the weather in the blink of an eye.

With more strands (and probably more cheesy) than a packet of cheese strings I found the novel a rambling read that jumped from one event to another. Full of similes, lacking in atmosphere and positively dripping with cliches not to mention the bland, unbelievable characters (I personally thought it rather incredulous that an 18th century matron was to be heard ruminating on breast feeding) , I'm afraid Instruments Of Darkness just wasn't my kind of book.

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