Seventeen-year-old Audrey Rose Wadsworth was born a lord’s daughter, with a life of wealth and privilege stretched out before her. But between the social teas and silk dress fittings, she leads a forbidden secret life.

Against her stern father’s wishes and society’s expectations, Audrey often slips away to her uncle’s laboratory to study the gruesome practice of forensic medicine. When her work on a string of savagely killed corpses drags Audrey into the investigation of a serial murderer, her search for answers brings her close to her own sheltered world.

A creeping suspense look into the beginning of forensic science and investigation. No, I’m serious. This was the era that first introduced dissections, criminal profiling and psychology, toxicology, photo ID, fingerprinting and comparison microscopes. Combining Victorian mystery with the procedural looks into anatomy dissection kept me at the edge of my seat.

It helps to have a distinct protagonist. Initially, her admittance of being not the usual Victorian lady gave me Enola Holmes vibes. However, Enola uses her deductive reasonings and feminine knowledge of flowers and letter-writing, Audrey Rose’s proclivity is in cadavers and science. Hey, all those sewing lessons made her very precise when it came to cutting and stitching. So in spite of societal norms, her uncle allows her to study at his hand. And her “feminine sensibilities” are getting darker as a result.

Audrey Rose’s greatest flaw may be her curiosity which is great for the readers because it makes her determined to seek out clues as well as find ulterior paths to get to the crime scene.

It helps that she is bolstered by her humanity and her love of science. Both tied to the death of her mother which is a cliche, but there were higher morbidity rates back then so I’ll give it a pass. Besides, it allows for a great familial conflict. While her mother’s death caused her father to join religion, and shun science (and become a total germophobic), it prompted the opposite in her. She believes it can help solve the mysteries of death and perhaps could be used for organ implants and other miraculous ideas.
Thematic-wise, Maniscalco does a wonderful job of tying the historical context of Victorians obsession with death and scientific innovation with the myths of Jack the Ripper, combining different theories of religious fervor, playing God, organs to bring the dead back to life, and generally the universal feeling of grief and what a person might do to see their loved-ones to create multiple red herrings tied to the people Audrey Rose loves best. I’ll admit I was able to figure out the real killer by process of elimination, but that was okay because there was so much that was good in the story.

Maniscalco brings the compassion towards the victims, most of who were prostitutes. As Audrey Rose disturbingly notes she’s the only who seems to care. Probably because she’s the only female on the case, and thus connects with them even though she is of a higher-class. She is aware of the limitations placed on her sex at the era, and knows only money is what keeps her from being seen as disposable.

That isn’t all. I mentioned criminal profiling. While her Uncle brings the expert scientific knowledge, and Audrey Rose wields the scalpel, Thomas Cresswell is the analytical mind putting himself into the psychopath’s head. Sometimes he does it too easily, and his ability to shut down his emotions and put up a charming facade initially make him a great suspect for sociopathy. However, one look at the banter between them and how Thomas is the only one who respects Audrey Rose as an equal while riling her feminist sensibilities, you know they’re going to get together. Still, his dismissal of emotions does come as wise advice as Audrey Rose gets deeper into the investigation. While it’s good to have compassion for victims, one cannot become blinded by it and lose sight of the real killer.

Additionally, I enjoyed Audrey Rose’s relations to the rest of the supporting cast like her deep love for her flighty, rich boy older brother, her rule-breaking cousin, and her adversarial relationship with her Father that was complex and touching.

Maniscalco’s detail in the historical setting and Gothic touch of the Victorians regarding science and death add to the immersion. One can see the dirty gutters of the back-alley docks, the petrified heart on the police detective’s table, and lace curtains of the drawing room. Interspersing the heart-pounding danger of the investigation with the cold procedurals of the anatomy lesson and the familial drama of a girl trying to navigate the confines of her father and societal expectations. Plus a rivals to lovers romance that has a real twist when it comes to the betrothed plot so common in the Victorian upper class.

4 stars