Instruments of Darkness: A Novel [Hardcover]

Imogen Robertson (Author)

Book Description

Release date: February 17, 2011

An intricate historical page-turner about a forbidding country estate and the unlikely forensic duo who set out to uncover its deadly secrets.

In the year 1780, Harriet Westerman, the willful mistress of a country manor in Sussex, finds a dead man on her grounds with a ring bearing the crest of Thornleigh Hall in his pocket. Not one to be bound by convention or to shy away from adventure, she recruits a reclusive local anatomist named Gabriel Crowther to help her find the murderer, and historical suspense's newest investigative duo is born.

For years, Mrs. Westerman has sensed the menace of neighboring Thornleigh Hall, seat of the Earl of Sussex. It is the home of a once- great family that has been reduced to an ailing invalid, his whorish wife, and his alcoholic second son, a man haunted by his years spent as a redcoat in the Revolutionary War. The same day, Alexander Adams is slain by an unknown killer in his London music shop, leaving his children orphaned. His death will lead back to Sussex, and to an explosive secret that has already destroyed one family and threatens many others.

Instruments of Darkness combines the brooding atmosphere of Anne Perry with the complex, compelling detail of Tess Gerritsen, moving from drawing room to dissecting room, from coffee house to country inn. Mrs. Westerman and Mr. Crowther are both razor-sharp minds and their personalities breathe spirit into this gripping historical mystery.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Set in West Sussex in 1780, Robertson's auspicious debut introduces the unlikely sleuthing team of anatomist Gabriel Crowther and independent-minded Harriet Westerman, mistress of Caveley Park. When Westerman happens on the stabbed body of a man, eventually identified as Carter Brook, on her land on the track to Thornleigh Hall, Crowther agrees to help her catch the murderer. The secretive Crowther, who's maintained a reclusive existence since moving to the area, finds that Brook's death may be connected to the search for a long-lost heir to the Thornleigh estate. Meanwhile in London, someone knifes to death Alexander Adams, who bears the same first name as the lost heir, in Adams's music shop. While the killer's identity will surprise few, the book works splendidly as a period thriller, with complicated leads and informative details that illuminate 18th-century England for modern readers. Dry humor leavens what otherwise would be a grim story line. (Feb.)
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Review

"The book works splendidly as a period thriller, with complicated leads and informative details that illuminate 18th-century England for modern readers." ---Publishers Weekly

--This text refers to the MP3 CD edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Pamela Dorman Books (February 17, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 067002242X
• ISBN-13: 978-0670022427
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #391,220 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 30 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Georgian England with a touch of Gothic May 31, 2010

By L. J. Roberts TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

First Sentence: Gabriel Crowther opened his eyes.

Harriet Westerman, wife of a navy commander, has given up sailing with her husband to raise their family and provide a home for her sister at Caverly Park in West Sussex. When she finds the body of a man whose throat has been slit, she summons help from anatomist Gabriel Crowther. The victim has a ring bearing the crest of neighboring Thornleigh Hall. Was the man Alexander Thornleigh, the missing heir to the Earl of Sussex?

London music shop owner Alexander Adams is murdered. Before dying, he tells his daughter to find a box hidden under the counter. Was Alexander the missing heir and how can his children be removed from the city in spite of a killer and the anti-Catholic Gordon Riots?

Wonderful characters make this book a treat to read. Jane Austin fans will quickly associate Harriet Westerman with Mrs. Croft, the captain's wife from "Pursuasion." She has traveled, seen war, is outspoken and not to be put off. Her younger sister, Rachel Trench, is "Jane Eyre," in her attraction to the war-wounded Hugh Thornleigh, younger brother of the missing Alexander and the Mr. Rochester of our story. Gabriel Crowther is a scientist, and something of a recluse until being pulled into the investigation by Harriet and his own curious mind.

There are a lot of characters, including some real historical figures. It was occasionally is difficult to keep track of who is whom. However, they each played their part and added to the overall Gothic feel of the story.

Ms. Robertson convincingly transported me to Georgian England in sight, sound, dialogue appropriate to the period and historical fact. I had not known of the Gordon Riots until now. She also included a perspective of the American Revolution from the viewpoint of a British soldier.

There is a lovely, Gothic feel to this book, but it was not perfect. Happily, in spite of identifying the villains fairly soon, the motive remained a secret until the end. Although story did feel over-long, I was completely involved and never found myself skipping through it.

The book was engrossing and suspenseful, with interesting historical information. The different threads of the plot were brought together well in a slightly overly dramatic fashion.

The most important question is whether I would read another book by this author. The answer is a definite "yes," and it's already on order.

INSTRUMENTS OF DARKNESS (His Mys-Gabriel Crowther/Harriet Westerman-England-1780) - G+
Robertson, Imogen - 1st in series
Headline, ©2009, UK Hardcover - ISBN: 9780755348398

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars "We must suspect everything, and believe nothing...." February 17, 2011

By E. Bukowsky HALL OF FAMETOP 50 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Imogen Robertson's "Instruments of Darkness" is set in the village of Hartswood, West Sussex, at a time when the colonies were waging war against England. The male protagonist, the brusque Gabriel Crowther, is a recluse whose vocation is the study of anatomy. One day, a local woman, Mrs. Harriet Westerman of Caveley Park, has her maid give Crowther the following note: "I have found a body on my land. His throat has been cut."

The scene shifts to Tichfield Street near Soho Square in London. Residing there are a music store proprietor, Alexander Adams, and his two children, nine-year old Susan and six-year old Jonathan. Alexander is a widower who has broken off contact with his birth family for reasons that will later become clear. He ruefully states "that the past must be looked at squarely or it will chase you down," but he fails to follow this sound advice. Adams has the support of close friends, including a writer, Owen Graves, and Mr. and Mrs. Chase, whose single daughter, Verity, has caught Graves's eye.

How do all these characters fit together? Readers will need to be patient while the author presents us with puzzling scenarios that initially make little sense. Although Crowther and Harriet are not romantically involved (she is happily married to a commodore, James, who is at sea), the two collaborate in trying to learn the identity of the dead man as well as his killer. Harriet suspects that there is a connection between the murder and the well-to-do inhabitants of Thornleigh Hall. She insists, "There is something wrong in that house. Something wounded and rotten. I am sure of it." Living there are the ailing Lord Thornleigh, Earl of Sussex; his low-class, pretty young wife; Captain Hugh Thornleigh, who fought against the colonists and came back maimed both in body and spirit; and Hugh's steward, the obnoxious Claver Wicksteed.

"Instruments of Darkness" is reminiscent of Anne Perry's books, in that it examines the moral rot that can destory some titled and wealthy families from within. The mystery is not difficult to solve once the clues are laid out, but the villains prove to be so utterly evil that they cease to be realistic. Robertson goes back and forth in time and shifts settings frequently, which can be dizzying. In addition, Crowther and Harriet make for a strange pair. He is reticent; she is voluble. He is a man of science and reflection. She is a woman of action. For their own reasons, they go out of their way to learn the truth, with a bit of help from Harriet's eighteen-year-old sister. The conclusion is melodramatic, and the body count rises alarmingly before the dust finally settles.

To her credit, the author depicts her time period and settings nicely; the dialogue and prose style are pleasantly fluent. She shows how the redcoats underestimated the American farmers who took up arms against them. In addition, she explores the ways in which the skeletons in someone's closet can emerge without warning. The characters of Susan, her father, and Graves, are particularly appealing, and their story is poignant. Finally, Robertson shows how imperfect the criminal justice system was in those days. If Crowther and Harriet had not intervened, no one would have learned who the guilty parties were. Although this is not a top-tier novel--it is a bit too long and has too many subplots, including one about the bitter conflict between Protestants and Catholics--"Instruments of Darkness" will be of interest to readers who enjoy forensics and historical fiction with gothic overtones.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent period-piece murder mystery March 13, 2010

By Steve Benner VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

The name of Imogen Robertson is probably best known to those who scrutinise the credits of the UK children's TV and radio shows she directs, or else to those who follow the contemporary poetry scene to which she contributes as both poet and poetry reviewer. "Instruments of Darkness" is her first novel -- a period murder mystery set in the late eighteenth century, at a time when the American Revolutionary War was at its height and had escalated to a global conflict. The book does not dwell on the events of that conflict, however, which feature more in backdrop, but instead concentrates on domestic events in London at the beginning of June 1780, when the capital was the scene of a short but bloody and violent anti-Catholic uprising, known as the Gordon Riots, events which will be familiar to anyone who has read Charles Dickens' "Barnaby Rudge". Interwoven with these historical events in London is a connected tail of a series of mysterious murders in or around the seat of the Earl of Sussex, Thornleigh Hall, which, it quickly becomes apparent, is itself home to a good few other mysteries.

Imogen Robertson weaves a lively and engaging tale, handling the story and its events well at many levels, evoking the customs, habits and foibles of the period with a deftness that is delightful and easy to read. The plot is nicely involved but never overly complex, while the solution to the mystery itself is neither obscure nor yet totally clear until the very end. One or two passages do tend towards melodrama, especially the work's climax, but somehow this all seems in perfect keeping with the work, which is all very Charlotte Brontë at times!

All of the main characters are wonderfully developed and the rapport that develops between them is every bit as excellently handled as the plot. All I all, I don't think I've enjoyed a murder mystery as much as this since the "Brother Cadfael" series of Ellis Peters. I do hope Imogen Robertson doesn't leave it here.