Anatomy of Murder by Imogen Robertson

From author's website

The historical murder-mystery binge continues with the follow up to Instruments of Darkness. Although I did enjoy the first book in the series, I could see Robertson’s development as a writer in the second.  I thought the plot was more engaging, there was greater depth both to Mrs. Westerman and Crowther and to the new characters (I enjoyed reading about Jocasta and Sam’s exploits. I thought she handled the dual narrative device better and it was more of a surprise when the two narratives overlapped) and overall there seemed to be greater confidence in her writing.

This time, Mrs. Westerman and Crowther investigate the murder of musician, encountering opera singers and spies along the way. Harriet was also affected by the illness of her husband, who suffered from a serious brain injury, which I thought was handled well and added emotion to the book. It was nice to have the returning characters which gave a sense of continuity but they were also part of the plot so that there wasn’t a sense that she had just put them in there for the sake of it.  I thought that the use of the castrati singers in the plot was highly interesting. I also liked the way that she described the emotions and history of the murderer at the end. The main criticism I had was that perhaps there were too many characters, it got quite difficult to keep up with who was who. Nevertheless, it was an enjoyable book and I have already started the next book in the series, Island of Bones.