If you’re interested in reading my academic work about detective and crime fiction (free PDFs available), check it out here. Or take a look at my short story collection featuring Victorian “lady detective” Meinir Davies; order now!
See also
These lists capture other detective/crime stories and characters that I thought of as I was reading this piece. I won’t explain why, to avoid spoilers, but they’re associations and not ‘if you liked this, then you’ll love…’ recommendations!
- The Observations by Jane Harris
- Some classic C19 fiction like The Woman in White and The Portrait of a Lady
Review
I read this novel as an eARC courtesy of the author, publisher and NetGalley.
I am 100% the target audience for this novel (female crime/detective fiction author and reader with a PhD in Victorian literature). And I loved it.
Lots of Neo-Victorian novels attempt to introduce or explore sexual violence openly as almost an escalation of the sorts of crimes written about during the period, but do so in a way that feels exploitative or unimaginative. (Anthony Horowitz’s House of Silk comes to mind, for example.) I love the way Musson blends the Victorian tradition of exploring coercive control – both of wives and servants – with being more explicit about the sorts of sexual violence that those power dynamics enable and encourage.
The two main female characters feel very genuine, and the monstrous master of the house is wonderfully depicted as a man hiding his cruelties in plain sight alongside his very real charm and charisma. We see clearly the difficulties for servants in a large household, rubbing along together and keeping their place, and the ease with which people living in close quarters can always mistake and misunderstand one another’s actions and intentions.
If there is one criticism I’d make, it is that the songbird analogy is slightly overdone, but it’s clearly necessary for the dramatic capture that Musson needs to bring about the court scene.
Take a look at my short story collection featuring Victorian “lady detective” Meinir Davies; order now!
Dominique Gracia 
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