Death Comes to Dartmoor
A Merriweather and Royston Mystery
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
The mist-shrouded moors of Devon proffer a trove of delights for two vacationing zoologists—but also conceal a hoard of dark secrets reaching down to the fathomless depths of the ocean.
Miss Merula Merriweather barely saved her uncle from the gallows after he was wrongly accused of murder—and now, she’s left the bustle of Victorian London to recuperate in the fresh air of Dartmoor with her fellow zoologist, Lord Raven Royston. The trip offers a unique treat, as they’ll be staying with a friend of Raven’s, who owns a collection of rare zoological specimens—including a kraken, a sea monster of myth and legend.
But all is not right in the land of tors, heaths, and mist. Their host’s maid has vanished without a trace, and the townspeople hold him responsible, claiming that his specimens are alive and roam the moors at night, bringing death to anyone who crosses their path. Merula and Raven are skeptical—but the accusations become more ominous when they find several specimen jars empty.
As the two hunt for clues across a desolate and beautiful landscape, a stranger appears bearing a shadowy secret from Merula’s past. Could there be a connection between her family history, the missing girl, and a fearsome monster that could be on the loose? The race is on to find the truth.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Set in Victorian England, Conroy's muddled sequel to 2018's The Butterfly Conspiracy finds zoologists Merula Merriweather and Lord Raven Royston on their way to a remote village in Dartmoor to see a private zoological collection. On arrival, the pair discover their host, Charles Oaks, behaving strangely. The reason becomes clear when they're awakened the next morning by a mob of locals crying for Oaks's head. Tillie, a servant who worked for Oaks, has been found dead on the beach with strange markings on her neck. The villagers are convinced that the "kracken" in Oaks's menagerie of preserved animals comes to life and prowls for victims at night. When Raven and Merula finally piece together a motive, they set an unlikely trap to catch Tillie's wholly human murderer. Unfortunately, Conroy conveys no sense of Victorian-era mores and uses a very American voice for her English characters. Lovers of historical mysteries who insist on characters who fit the era and story locale would do better to look elsewhere.
