Devoured by D.E Meredith

Devoured by D.E Meredith

 Devoured has been selected as Allison & Busby’s Book of the Month.

Visit their website to get a promotional code offering £2 off the hardback edition

The first book in the Hatton and Roumande mystery series.
A stunning debut rich in period detail and sinister intrigue that introduces a memorable duo – one of London’s first forensic detectives and his irreplaceable assistant.

London in 1856 is gripped by a frightening obsession. The specimen-collecting craze is growing, and discoveries in far-off jungles are reshaping the known world in terrible and unimaginable ways. When the glamorous Lady Bessingham is found murdered in her bedroom, surrounded by her vast collection of fossils and tribal masks, Professor Adolphus Hatton and his morgue assistant Albert Roumande are called in to examine the crime scene – and the body.

In the new and suspicious world of forensics and autopsy examinations, Hatton and Roumande are the best. But the crime scene is not confined to one room. In their efforts to help the infamous Scotland Yard detective Inspector Adams track down the Lady’s killer, Hatton and Roumande uncover a trail of murders connected to a packet of seditious letters that, if published, would change the face of society and religion irrevocably.

D.E. Meredith’s measured prose and eye for exquisite detail moves seamlessly from the filthy docks on the Isle of Dogs to the jungles of Borneo and the drawing rooms of London’s upper class. Her slow-burning mystery builds to a shocking conclusion, consuming Victorian London – and victims – as it goes

 

‘This book features London’s ‘first forensic investigators’, Bart’s Professor Hatton and his assistant Albert Roumande. The detailed description of their primitive mortuary and newly invented methods od dissection and analysis make a fascinating contrast with the numerous contemporary novels by and about forensic pathologists…It is full of interesting ideas, neat phrases and vivid images – an enjoyable read.’

 Literary Review


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