It is 1868 and Chad Hobbes has just travelled to Victoria, British
Columbia where he hopes to article as a lawyer. However, after meeting
Judge Matthew Begbie, Hobbes becomes a constable in the Victoria police.
Several months later, Constable Hobbes, Superintendent Parry and
Constable Harding are called out to the forest where a body of an
American has been found. Parry arrests the chief of the band and a
young girl for the murder based on his suspicions. The magistrate,
Augustus Pemberton, assigns Hobbes the job of detecting who the criminal
really is.
The victim was an alienist, a doctor of phrenology and mesmerism.
Hobbes discovers that the doctor left San Francisco under suspicious
circumstances. Several days after this, a body of a young woman is
found off the quay of a local businessman. It appears that she has
committed suicide because a large rock is found in her dress. Hobbes is
not totally convinced that she had committed suicide. Hobbes discovers
that she had recently had an illegal abortion, and that the man she had
been a servant for had been taking advantage of her. He informs Hobbes
that the original victim had been the one who had performed the
abortion.
Hobbes investigation will take him on uncharted paths, but he finally
comes to the realisation of who the killer is. The task of arresting
the killer will not be easy. Author Sean Haldane has created a very
good historical murder mystery, well worth the read.
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