[TSS] Musings: Instruments of Darkness

Instruments of Darkness is the first book in Imogen Robertson's mystery series set in 1780s England.  One morning, Mrs. Harriet Westerman comes across a dead body on her property.  She immediately notifies one of her neighbors, Mr. Crowther, a recluse well known for his scientific studies and papers.  They find a signet ring on the corpse that matches the coat of arms of the Earl of Thornleigh, the most prominent landholder in the region.  Could the body be that of the long-missing heir?  And if not, how is the dead man involved in all the dark doings of Thornleigh Hall?

If you've been reading this blog for some time, you know that I am basically obsessed with Georgian era Britain.  I've branched out a bit in my reading in recent years, but the long 18th century in England is still the one that I am most comfortable with as a setting and the setting for which I am most likely to make an impulse buy.  It seems like these days, historical mysteries are a dime a dozen, particularly those set in this general time period.  So I'm not sure why a blurb review drew me to this series over all the others.  But I'm so glad that it did.

I rarely read a mystery novel for the mystery itself.  I realize this is odd, but I have always been much more drawn to the characters than to the mystery.  The characters that populate this book are wonderfully real.  I am particularly intrigued by Harriet Westerman and am looking forward to knowing her better as the series continues.  Harriet is very happily married to a successful Navy man.  She used to accompany him on his ship on travels around the world, but when she had her first child, they both decided that it would be best for her to stay on firm soil to raise him.  But Harriet does not want to be a society wife and mother, and you can see how this frustrates her.

I loved Robertson for creating a woman like Harriet.  She is highly intelligent, fiercely loyal, and fairly naive in the way she approaches the world.  In the partnership that forms between her and Mr. Crowther, she is a full partner who does just as much dirty work and makes as many deductions as her scientist friend.  But I mostly appreciated Harriet because I think she is probably quite representative of women at the time.  She loves her husband and adores her children, but she feels limited and constrained:

Happily or unhappily, you have only one decision to make in your life and your whole life hangs on it.  The weight of the thought had left her breathless...she pretended to sleep, looking out over her gardens from her bedroom window, though of course, like everything she wore or ate, the horse she rode or the pen she used to write up the accounts, it all belonged to her husband.  She lived on sufferance, like every prettily dressed lady in the world. 

This and other sections like it in the book really made me feel for Harriet.  She struggles against the life she is forced to lead even as she enjoys the comforts and the security that it gives her.  It makes her a very realistic character, and I look forward to the opportunity to see her interact with her husband if he makes an appearance in later books.

And that was another thing I really loved about this book.  Though this detective team is comprised of a man and a woman, there is no romance there at all.  Mr. Crowther is not interested in Harriet, and Harriet obviously cares deeply for her husband.  What comes to exist between them is a deep and lasting friendship.  I am so grateful for Robertson for not putting Harriet at the center of some love triangle, for not falling into the trap of creating sexual tension in all relationships.  There is beauty and warmth and kindness in platonic love, too, and I am glad that it was acknowledged here.

I haven't talked much at all about the plot of this book or the other characters.  I had difficulty at first getting into the rhythm of the book because there were three stories woven together.  It was a bit jarring for me at first to go from one scene to another, especially because they all involved completely different sets of characters.  But they eventually come together and I got the hang of it.  While I don't love that style of writing, it seems like Robertson keeps up the multiple story lines in subsequent mysteries, too.  And my dislike of the style won't keep me from reading further in the series.  I'm very excited to spend more time with Westerman and Crowther and get to know them better as they go sleuthing over the English countryside.