⭐⭐⭐ & 1/2

By Tess Gerritsen

I would call this book “cute”— as in, it did everything that it was supposed to do and stayed comfortably in its lane. The story was compelling. It entertained. It had a good historical angle. It just never really “blew my socks off”— to borrow a cliche.

The story centers around a young girl and a medical student who get swept up in the mystery surrounding a spate of killings on the poorer side of Boston circa the late 1880’s. There’s a little bit of romance. There’s some true-life historical figures thrown in; even resurrectionists make an appearance in a nod to our modern macabre fascination with that antique practice. It has a little bit of everything to thrill readers of cozy, historical mysteries, including a past vs. present angle.

My gripes about it are my own really. I’m just super picky about writing style and subject matter combining to something that gets me to turn off my critical author brain. This book entertained but never quite got me to the full immersion point. This is a quirk of my own and will not be an issue for most readers. So if this is your preferred genre of book, I highly recommend reading this story. It knows what sort of book it is and delivers.