{"id":6950,"date":"2026-03-04T07:48:21","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T15:48:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=6950"},"modified":"2026-03-04T07:48:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T15:48:21","slug":"patrice-mcdonough-murder-by-moonrise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/patrice-mcdonough-murder-by-moonrise\/","title":{"rendered":"Patrice McDonough: Murder by Moonrise"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr. Julia Lewis #3<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>In 1867 London, the Isle of Wight was a holiday destination, one even favored by the royal family.\u00a0 Queen Victoria had a home there and was often in residence.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 She hasn\u2019t heard from him and alongside worrying that he\u2019s OK, she\u2019s also worried that she was too forward, and that he doesn\u2019t feel about her as she does about him.<\/p>\n

While she\u2019s on the Isle of Wight she\u2019s asked to do an autopsy on a drowning victim.\u00a0 The girl turns out to have been a member of the royal household.\u00a0 Back in London, the royal household in the form of the Princess of Wales\u2019 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\u2019s been waiting to talk with the dead girl\u2019s sister.\u00a0 The sister never turns up, and when a body is discovered, the returned Detective Tennant asks Julia to take the case.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 Meanwhile, McDonough\u2019s portrayal of a working doctor in Victorian London \u2013 and a female doctor, no less \u2013 is excellent.\u00a0 Julia runs her grandfather\u2019s clinic \u2013 he is technically retired \u2013 and she\u2019s a consultant to the police, performing autopsies for them.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, her connection to Lady Styles blossoms as she brings different members of the royal household to Julia\u2019s private offices for a consultation.\u00a0 The most prominent royal in the narrative is Princess Louise, Queen Victoria\u2019s sixth child, and something of a free spirit.\u00a0 She also sees the Princess of Wales, Alix, who was experiencing mysterious lameness and increasing deafness at a young age.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

Though they are side characters, McDonough vividly illuminates both the widowed and reclusive Queen as well as her \u2013 what we might now think of as a \u201cbody man\u201d \u2013 John Brown, who appears to be heartily disliked by the royal household as well as the Queen\u2019s family.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 This book was much better paced and focused than the second book.\u00a0 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. \u00a0These books very much remind me of the late, great Victoria Thompson\u2019s wonderful gaslight series, sharing with her books vivid characterizations and settings as well as tight and interesting stories.\u00a0 This is my favorite in the series to date.\u00a0 —\u00a0Robin Agnew<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr. Julia Lewis #3 In 1867 London, the Isle of Wight was a holiday destination, one even favored by the royal family.\u00a0 Queen Victoria had a home there and was often in residence.\u00a0 In our story, Dr. Julia Lewis is vacationing on the Isle of Wight with her grandparents and missing and wondering about Detective … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1525,10,162,2211,2437,1524,1224,1276,1586],"class_list":["post-6950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-dr-julia-lewis","tag-historical","tag-kensington-books","tag-light-romance","tag-murder-by-moonrise","tag-patrice-mcdonough","tag-queen-victoria","tag-robin-agnew","tag-victorian-london"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6950"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6950\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6952,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6950\/revisions\/6952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}