Dr. Julia Lewis #3
In 1867 London, the Isle of Wight was a holiday destination, one even favored by the royal family. Queen Victoria had a home there and was often in residence. In our story, Dr. Julia Lewis is vacationing on the Isle of Wight with her grandparents and missing and wondering about Detective Richard Tennant, who has been abroad and on the hunt for a villain for months. She hasn’t heard from him and alongside worrying that he’s OK, she’s also worried that she was too forward, and that he doesn’t feel about her as she does about him.
While she’s on the Isle of Wight she’s asked to do an autopsy on a drowning victim. The girl turns out to have been a member of the royal household. Back in London, the royal household in the form of the Princess of Wales’ lady in waiting, Susan, Lady Styles, not only gives Julia some work in the form of private patients from the royal household but shares that she’s been waiting to talk with the dead girl’s sister. The sister never turns up, and when a body is discovered, the returned Detective Tennant asks Julia to take the case.
This is a story of the renewal of the relationship between Julia and Richard, and while at first they are both awkward around one another, things warm up by the end of the book. Meanwhile, McDonough’s portrayal of a working doctor in Victorian London – and a female doctor, no less – is excellent. Julia runs her grandfather’s clinic – he is technically retired – and she’s a consultant to the police, performing autopsies for them.
Meanwhile, her connection to Lady Styles blossoms as she brings different members of the royal household to Julia’s private offices for a consultation. The most prominent royal in the narrative is Princess Louise, Queen Victoria’s sixth child, and something of a free spirit. She also sees the Princess of Wales, Alix, who was experiencing mysterious lameness and increasing deafness at a young age. The fact that Julia is a woman allows her to diagnose some of the issues the women are experiencing that have been discounted by male doctors.
Though they are side characters, McDonough vividly illuminates both the widowed and reclusive Queen as well as her – what we might now think of as a “body man” – John Brown, who appears to be heartily disliked by the royal household as well as the Queen’s family.
The plot involving the two dead girls appears to be tied to Irish unrest and attacks in London, and McDonough narrows the focus to a clever assassin, which tightens the plot and amps up the suspense. This book was much better paced and focused than the second book. I really love this series and I love the main character, and find her work as a London doctor fascinating, as was the insight here into the royal family. These books very much remind me of the late, great Victoria Thompson’s wonderful gaslight series, sharing with her books vivid characterizations and settings as well as tight and interesting stories. This is my favorite in the series to date. — Robin Agnew