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    A Dissection of Murder
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    A Dissection of Murder
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    A Dissection of Murder
    Ebook323 pages4 hours

    A Dissection of Murder

    By Felicity Young

    3.5/5

    ()

    Unavailable in your country

    Unavailable in your country

    About this ebook

    A compelling new series about Dr Dody McCleland, the first female autopsy surgeon. Murder treats everyone equally...
    A woman. A doctor. A beastly science. At the turn of the twentieth century, London's political climate is in turmoil, as women fight for the right to vote. Dody McCleland has her own battles to fight. As England's first female autopsy surgeon, she must prove herself as she also proves that murder treats everyone equally... After a heated women's rights rally turns violent, an innocent suffragette is found murdered. When she examines the body, Dody is shocked to realise that the victim was a friend of her sister - fuelling her determination to uncover the cause of the protester's suspicious death. For Dody, gathering clues from a body is often easier than handling the living - especially Chief Detective Inspector Matthew Pike. Pike is looking to get to the bottom of this case but has a hard time trusting anyone - including Dody. Determined to earn Pike's trust and to find the killer, Dody will have to sort through real and imagined secrets. But if she's not careful, she may end up on her own examination table ...
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins Publishers Australia
    Release dateMar 1, 2012
    ISBN9780730496434
    Unavailable
    A Dissection of Murder
    Author

    Felicity Young

    Felicity Young was born in Germany and educated in the United Kingdom whilst her parents were posted around the world with the British Army. In 1976 the family settled in Perth. Felicity trained as a nurse followed by an arts degree. In 1990 the family moved from the city and established a Suffolk sheep farm in Gidgegannup WA. Here she studied music, reared orphan kangaroos and started writing.

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    Reviews for A Dissection of Murder

    3.5/5

    37 ratings6 reviews

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    • 5/5
      The first of the Doctor Dody McCleland series, A DISSECTION OF MURDER (aka THE ANATOMY OF DEATH - US) was published in March (Australia/NZ) and will be published June (US with UK distribution) 2012. It will be available in all good bookshops as well as Amazon and Kindle.For Felicity Young this novel is a successful departure from her Australia-based police procedurals into the world of historical crime fiction. Felicity confesses that she has blended fictional characters with historical ones. I think she has done an excellent job of populating authentic settings with interesting and believable characters. She has captured the essence of the suffragette era that preceded the First World War, a world that was about to change forever. I certainly hope A DISSECTION OF MURDER is just the first in a long series.
    • 2/5
      This is the first book in the Dr. Dody McCleland series. I had inadvertently read the second one first, so wanted to read this now, After the two books, I've decided not to continue with this series. My main complaint is that the main characters in the series are not likeable. Dody is too sanctimonious and her sister Florence too ditzy. And as I had noticed in the book I read first, there is too much emphasis on social issues and women's rights. I like to read a book for enjoyment, not for unending propiganda with a little story mixed in. That is what I feel like after I read these books. I cannot recommend them.
    • 5/5
      Against the backdrop of the suffragette movement in turn of the century Britain, Felicity Young introduces Dr Dody McCleland, the first female autopsy surgeon. Fresh from training with the preeminent surgeon of the time, she is eager to start her job at St Thomas Hospital but finds she must recuse herself from her very first case for the corpse is an acquaintance, a suffragette, who has died in a vicious riot sparked during a peaceful demonstration calling for women's right to vote. Despite being only nominally concerned with the strident calls of the suffragettes, Dody allows herself to be convinced by her sister, Florence - an avid supporter of the cause- to investigate the autopsy findings. It becomes obvious that Lady Catherine Cartwright was savagely murdered and a member of the police force is suspected to be to blame.As the first book in a new series, Young takes time to establish the historical and social backdrop of the book, having chosen quite a unique era in which to set A Dissection of Murder. The turn of the century was a period of budding social change, as evidenced by the suffragette movement, as well as being a period of emerging medical competency and forensic science and I love that Young has chosen to combine the two. Though I am not generally keen on historical fiction, yet a fan of the crime genre, particularly forensic and medical mysteries, I am surprised at how intriguing I found both aspects of the novel. The mystery behind the cause of Lady Cartwrights death is well plotted though it does drift a little as a central plot as Young is distracted by grounding the series, but that is to be expected in the first book of a series.Dody McCleland proved to be a surprise, I was expecting her to be a stalwart feminist, intimately involved in the cause, having fought to become an autopsy surgeon against social convention. However it is Dody's younger sister, Florence, who is militant, and Dody vaguely supportive in principal, but uninterested in becoming actively involved. Daughters of wealthy, 'bohemian' parents the McCleland sisters are strong-willed women but with different approaches to life. Even though Dody has taken an unconventional path she wants only to use her interests and skills to do the job that fascinates her. While she is concerned about injustice, it is her intellectual curiosity that drives her rather than the passion in this case.Chief Detective Inspector Matthew Pike of New Scotland Yard is in charge of the investigation into the cause of the riot and Lady Cartwright's death. A principled man he refuses to allow his superiors to sweep the matter under the carpet, despite not being particularly sympathetic to the suffragette movement.The interaction between Pike and Dody is enjoyable and though there is a frisson of romantic interest, that the relationship is complicated by the social expectations, opinions and conflicts of the time, adds an additional layer of interest.While I hope that the next book concentrates a little more on Dody's role in forensic autopsy, as she did not have the opportunity to do so in A Dissection of Murder, I am very impressed by this debut series. The concept is unique, the scope for development is wide and the characters are appealing. Felicity Young has earned herself a fan and I can't wait for the next installment.
    • 3/5
      A DISSECTION OF MURDER is the first in a series of books from Western Australian author Felicity Young. Set in London at the turn of the twentieth Century, featuring Dr Dody McCleland, the first female autopsy surgeon, the action in this book takes place in the midst of the Suffragette struggle, with the crime being investigated the death of a prominent suffragette during a rally that turned particularly violent.More historical crime fiction, in other words. Not so long ago I'd have been dodging this particular sub-genre. Particularly when it comes with a hefty mixing of fictional and non-fictional events and characters. It's worth reading Young's author note at the end of the book to get your head around who and what are the fictional aspects of the book, just to keep reality straight in your head, because A DISSECTION OF MURDER really has a most authentic, realistic feel about it. Needless to say, I've been converted recently, mostly because of some excellent local authors.Readers will have to stick with the early part of book as it does take a while for things to get moving. To be fair, it is the start of a new series, and there's a fair bit of background explanation, the whys and wheres of Dody McCleland becoming the first female autopsy surgeon, and a significant amount of scene setting going on. Once all of that is worked through, the book quickly becomes extremely compelling. Part of this is due to the characters - Dody and her sister Florence seem like very real people, the world that they live in is very vividly drawn. There's a fullish cast of characters surrounding them, and whilst many of them are, by necessity, very much bit players, there's also some starring roles - not the least of which being the Morgue attendant. In what seems like quite a deliberate styling, the two sisters are poles apart - Dody is considered, cautious, almost withdrawn; Florence more vivacious, outgoing, impulsive. Obviously these two character traits are going to dictate the parts that both women play in the unravelling of the plot, but that set-up didn't come across as overly manipulative. Perhaps because the relationship between the two sisters, whilst sometimes volatile, seemed right, supportive and understanding. Undoubtedly accepting who and what they are is helped by their bohemian family background, as clichéd as that may sound, somehow it gives the girls licence to be willing to push the boundaries.The main police character in the book - Pike - is a man very much of his time. Jilted widower, father of a young daughter, he supports the concept of the women's vote, but not the methods being used to achieve it. He carries an injury from his time as a serving soldier, which constantly weighs on both his mind, and his career prospects, making him vulnerable to the whims of the upper-hierarchy of the Force. He is a nice combination of stickler for the proprieties and bender of rules when justified by the circumstances, his life has not been as privileged as the McCleland sisters, but he is an interesting combination of acceptance, contentment and longing.The plot of the book is reasonably strong, although there is the occasional point at which the death of the suffragette disappears a little into the difficulties of the struggle in general, the violence of the police and their motivations, and the involvement of Irish Nationalists. There's also just the slightest hint of possible romantic leanings for the two main characters, which will undoubtedly appeal to many readers. Given it's the opening in a series which is obviously setting up a world for Dr Dody McCleland to function in; particularly as many of the difficulties she experiences as a female doctor, let alone autopsy surgeon, are very far removed from our own current day female experience; I was more than a bit surprised about how happy I felt going with the scene setting. It's a sure sign that A DISSECTION OF MURDER is the opening book in a series I'll be looking forward to seeing more of.Publication Date: 1st March, 2012.
    • 4/5
      Women have come a long way since the beginning of the twentieth century and this book does a good job of reminding one of that. Women couldn’t vote and were barred from many professions; marriage in most cases meant giving up control of decision-making but not getting married was construed as unnatural. In this book Dody McCleland has just qualified as a pathologist in Edinburgh and returned to England. Her sister, Florence, is an ardent supporter of the suffragette cause. Just the day before Dody’s return hundreds of women, including Florence, had marched on the Houses of Parliament to demand votes for women. Police and bystanders had attacked the women and three died in the melee. Dody was requested to attend the autopsy by the Home Office but when the third body was revealed Dody realized she knew her as a friend of her sister’s. Dody felt it would be improper for her to do the autopsy and left. Later she reconsidered as the doctor who did the autopsy was incompetent. She asked the police for permission to examine the body but the Superintendant refused. Dody figured out a way to get into the mortuary and at least take some measurements of the injuries. She determined that the blows could have been caused by a police truncheon or by a belaying pin used by dock workers. She told DCI Pike, the detective in charge of the murder investigation, of her conclusions because he had seemed supportive of her mission to re-examine the body. Pike was also investigating the policemen who had attacked the women but none of them admitted to killing the suffragette. Dr. McCleland and DCI Pike came to trust each other and work together. Perhaps something more will come of their working relationship?Dr. McCleland comes from a wealthy family but they are socialists so it makes sense that the two daughters would be unconventional. It seems most of the suffragettes were also independently wealthy although there were a few from the working class. Maybe only the well-off women had the time to devote to causes; the working class women were too busy earning a living.Interesting book. I would read more by this author.
    • 4/5
      The Anatomy of Death
      4 Stars

      One of the first female pathologists, Dr. Dorothy “Dody” McCleland is called in to autopsy the body of a suffragette killed during a riot. Upon learning that the victim is a friend of her rebellious sister, Dody is determined to uncover the truth about her death even if it means trusting Detective Chief Inspector Matthew Pike, the man assigned by the police to investigate or perhaps cover up the crime …

      An entertaining mix of historical fiction, mystery and romance.

      The social and historical background on the suffragette movement is well-researched and expertly detailed. Unfortunately, the characters, both real and fictitious, are not as fully fleshed out and come across as one dimensional whether they be feminist extremists, militant Irish, or corrupt police officials.

      The burgeoning relationship between Dody and Pike has definite potential despite its rocky start, and it is refreshing when the couple in question is older, wiser and more practical in their realistic perceptions of the world and each other.

      The mystery is good although it does take a back seat to the characterization and portrayal of the political issues of the time. The investigation moves along at a strong pace and the climax and resolution are exciting albeit a little predictable.

      All in all, a satisfying read and I look forward to reading more about Dody and Pike.