Lady Lydia Farrell has come to see Dr Thomas Silkstone regarding a very
delicate matter. He is a well known anatomist, and she wants him to
exam her recently deceased brother to determine whether he was
poisoned. Rumour has it that he was poisoned by her husband so that he
could gain her brother’s inheritance.
Silkstone must travel to Oxford to examine the body, which has been dead
for a week now. After presenting his credentials to the coroner,
Silkstone is given the opportunity to perform an examination of the
body. It is badly decomposed, but he is able to remove a few intact
organs for further study. He returns to London to do that.
The evening of his return to London Silkstone receives a letter telling
him to stay away from Oxford. The following morning, Lady Farrell’s
cousin, Francis Crick, brings Silkstone a vial containing cyanide.
Could this be what killed the young man? Working together, they
eliminate it. So what killed him? The evening he returns to Oxford he
is badly beaten. Someone doesn’t want him giving his report to the
coroner’s inquest! Fortunately, he survived and was able to tell the
inquest that the victim didn’t die as a result of cyanide poisoning.
However, he was sure that the victim was poisoned somehow, but he had
yet to discover by what.
The brother-in-law is the prime suspect, and when he apparently takes
his own life in jail, Silkstone is sure that he didn’t. How will he be
able to prove it when the deceased’s lawyer is preventing him from
accessing the body or the widow?
Author Tessa Harris’ first novel in this series is intriguing and mind
gripping. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and am looking forward to
reading the sequels.
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