Except the Dying
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4.4 • 22 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
The novel that sparked the hugely popular Murdoch Mysteries television series celebrates its 25th anniversary.
Includes a new introduction and a previously unpublished short story featuring the young Detective Murdoch.
In the cold Toronto winter of 1895, the unclad body of a young woman is found naked and frozen in a quiet laneway. Acting Detective William Murdoch, driven by pity for the girl and the desire to secure his promotion, is determined to pursue every lead and reveal the truth. Although influential people pressure the police to solve the mystery quickly, when the girl is eventually identified, it becomes clear that those connected with her life have secrets to hide.
Murdoch must use every detective skill he possesses as well as his understanding of human nature as he pursues the mystery through both brothels and drawing rooms, desperate to untangle the case before more lives are lost.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this exhilarating first novel, Jennings creates more than a period mystery: she brings alive 1895 Toronto, struggling economically, teeming with immigrants and thick with paupers. William Murdoch is the police department's sole detective, a new rank. Investigating the murder of Therese Laporte, a young servant, leads the intelligent, observant Murdoch through a stratified society, from the gloomy rooms of prostitutes Alice Black and Ettie Weston to the elegant home of the Rhodes family, Therese's employers, and the exclusive Yeoman Club. He also digs into the morality of his suspects, confirming that venery and secrets are universal, which leads to the surprising solution. There are wonderful touches: Murdoch, lonely since his financee died two years earlier, enrolls in a dance class and practices solitary waltzing in his rented room; an unhappy woman treasures a colored vial containing her tears; a house's gable leans "slightly towards its neighbour as if for comfort"; a pock-marked man is "cribbage-faced." In a bravura piece of writing, Jennings describes the annual newsboys' meeting of scruffy, destitute youngsters, cynical and amoral beyond their years. Although occasionally succumbing to melodrama and heavy-handed hints, Jennings is a talented writer. Here's a first novel that whets the appetite for more.
