Thanks to rainbow3 for this birthday book to register. This looks to be right up my street but then I'd be more surprised if you did not know some of my tastes by now!!

Hi Flutterbies9 I'll pop the book details in here then...HAPPY BIRTHDAY GREETINGS, cheers rainbow3
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Synopsis from Book cover: ‘A labyrinthine mystery in the heart of a teeming London, involving fashionable castrati, espionage and bodies in the Thames… The city is evoked with a Dickensian exuberance’ Independent

LONDON, 1781 The city seethes with rumour as the King’s navy battles the French. In on part of town, the privileged revel in their wealth and celebrity. But elsewhere a body is dragged from the Thames’ murky waters. Is this an ordinary drowning – or part of a treacherous conspiracy betraying England’s most precious secrets?

A DANGEROUS PURSUIT Harriet Westerman awaits news of her husband, gravely injured at sea, and seeks distraction. A passionate believer in justice, she and reclusive anatomist Gabriel Crowther agree to examine the dead man’s body, risking accusations of an unnatural interest in murder. With the nation’s safety at stake, personal reputation must yield to the search for truth, but Harriet and Crowther do not realise how dangerous their investigation will become…

ANATOMY OF MURDER (Crowther & Westerman, 2) by IMOGEN ROBERTSON (2010) | ISBN: 9780755348442 (UK PB) | Publisher: Headline

NB Posted from Aberdeen
Here's a brilliant review, I do so agree so I’ll quote it, found at the beginning of the book:

‘The pleasure lies in the steady unfurling of a period series (1781) that doesn’t rely on declamatory villains and rhurbarbing local colour. Robertson’s language is spry and digestible, her scene-setting broad and detailed, her prose gracefully pressed into the service of a serpentine plot that still allows room for personal passions, particularly music and the theatre.’ Christopher Fowler, Financial Times
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Historic mysteries are such a gripping read especially when the setting is rich with as many intriguing features as this. I appreciate the idea of letting examination of the corpse reveal murder details to the observant eye though I also would have appreciated greater character depth. Ariana Franklin’s Adelia Aguilar Mistress of the Art of Death historic series with a mediaeval setting, also employs the device of having the ‘corpse’ reveal its own story but something in the depth of character building or dialogue or both, I cannot easily put my finger on it, compelled my appreciation more.

Yet I have to say Robertson’s really created an affecting tale to which her use of descriptive language and well observed insights add pleasingly satisfying elements. Indeed, now I’m actively seeking more of this series! As fate would have it I have discovered the second book of the Crowther & Westerman series first and I am now keen to track down the first book, Instruments of Darkness (2009). Island of Bones (2011) is third in series followed by a fourth novel Circle of Shadows (2012) which brings the reader to the fifth and currently last in this series Theft of Life (2014).
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Hi Flutterbies9 I know you also like mystery and suspense novels so this seems like a real birthday winner, a readable treat for you! I thought you would be happy to register this with BookCrossing and now that’s done I’ve slipped in a review here as I took the opportunity to read it.
Please note ANATOMY OF MURDER is still in the hands of Flutterbies9.

Hopefully, you will enjoy this.

Happy travels little book.

Apologies, got carried away there, this was not being released for a Birthday RABCK at all! It was to go into a bookbox which I am awaiting shortly, it was on the wrong pile!

Released into a bookbox for further travels.

Another heading to my tbr. I cannot resist a good mystery, historical, cosy,modern day. ANY!!! ;-)