The Highgate Cemetery Murder: A completely gripping and addictive historical mystery (A Tate and Bell Mystery)

A young journalist, Victor Tate, walks to a cemetery to put flowers on his wife's grave. Once there, to his horror, he sees a beautiful young girl hanging, tied to a cross. He's shocked and hysterical but does report the crime to a constable and gives a quick description of the man he saw in the cemetery. Before he makes it to work, he is tragically killed. Was it an accident or murder? Detective Sebastian Bell is assigned the “Hanging Angel” case. Nobody really cared about the girl's extremely brutal and vicious murder until it's discovered that she's not a prostitute, as previously thought, but is the daughter of a rich and powerful man. Sebastian believes that he was assigned the case because his superintendent wants to get rid of him. Ever since the murder of his wife, he's been spiraling out of control…too much opium and alcohol. Gemma Tate has just lost her brother when he's run down in the street. She reads his last entry in his notebook that says since he found the dead woman in the cemetery, he's sure he's being followed. Gemma believes that he was murdered and she begs Sebastian to let her help. Together, they work to dig out clues that will lead to the brutal murders of the Hanging Angel and Victor Tate. They discover that in the past few years, similar crimes had previously been reported, but the victims were scoffed at and shoved aside because the women were either shop workers or prostitutes and they don't matter. All of the brutal attacks took place on All Hallows Eve and seemed to be ritualistic. Nineteenth-century England (or anywhere in the world, for that matter) is an extremely dark place and time for women. If you're born into a well-to-do family, you're sold to the highest bidder in marriage. When you're poor, life is minute-to-minute. If you have a job, it's not secure; you could be out on the streets with no one to turn to. If you don’t have a job, prostitution is a last resort. Ultimately, women are considered some man's property and have few choices in their lives. If you have no man to take care of you, society looks at you like there's something immoral about you. Yet one young prostitute, who was brutally attacked and tried to report the crime without success, was given a coin and a kind smile by a stranger who felt sorry for her. She says that she hasn't lost hope because there's still kindness in the world. Unimaginable. I love the Redmond and Haze mysteries, and I think this will quickly become a favorite, too. It takes place before Redmond and Haze meet, but some names will be familiar to those who've read that series.

Author, Irina Shapiro, paints a vivid picture of 1850’s London, England, providing the reader with visceral sights, sounds and scents of the period. Her narrative is both compelling and driving as she adeptly reveals her colorful character’s inner angels and demons. Her description of past personal experiences informs the reader in perfect detail providing rich and varied life tragedies that have shaped them.

Each chapter effortlessly leads into the next page calling the reader to continue on the journey of intrigue and discovery.

Thank you, Ms. Shapiro, for creating the delightful team of Tate and Bell. I look forward to Book 2, in this series.

The characters were great. Especially Gamma. She can be professional at the right times. And Bell said near the end, she was there to help him through his healing, of bones and habits. It felt right that she helped him. But her grief is unrelieved. Nurses do they a lot. The mystery was a bit of a stretch. And I am not sure the bad guys would have given up the confession so easily. But I like the characters and will read more books.