It wasn't too long ago that I posted my review of The Spiritualist by Noah Alexander, a mystery novelette in the Maya series taking place in British India. You can find that review here. Now here I am reviewing The Anatomist's Secret, another mystery in which Maya is the detective. I normally don't read two books in the same series so close together because for me there's the risk of being less engaged by a book that is too similar to one that I'd read recently. I like variety. I brought this danger up in the context of my discussion about reading WWII novels in another August review.
By the way, I have posted a record number of reviews this month. I haven't posted eight reviews in one month in the entire history of this blog. I hope that my readers don't expect me to maintain this level of frequency. That's unlikely to happen.
The reason why I felt I had to review this book now is because I'm reviewing it for Story Origin. I should have considered that this would pose difficulties for me before I accepted the author's invitation to obtain a review copy through Story Origin. I discovered some time ago that Story Origin has a time limit, and I have commitments in September that would prevent me from shoehorning very many books into my schedule during that month. So it had to be in August. Well then, I'd better get back to my review of The Anatomist's Secret.
This is a book with a complex plot, surprises and a great deal of suspense. I thought that the plot aspect of this mystery was very well handled. I also learned a great deal about how those studying human anatomy obtained cadavers (dead bodies) during the 19th century. On the other hand, I did have some problems with The Anatomist's Secret.
Maya remains concerned that Henry Camleman, her employer at the Bombay Detective Agency, won't allow her to be a detective. She's actually the administrative assistant. So she avoids the problem by making sure that the client in this case doesn't get an opportunity to speak to Mr. Camleman. This is a clever tactic, but I hope it doesn't get repeated in the next book. I think it could be a breach of professional ethics to do this type of end run around your boss. Surely there has to be a point where Henry Camleman comes to accept Maya as a detective.
There's another thing that I'd rather not see in a book that appeared in this one. I debated including a trigger warning, but I doubt it's the sort of thing that would actually trigger someone. It's just repugnant. A trigger warning is always a spoiler, and I try not to have what I'd consider to be major spoilers in my reviews. Let's just say that this book earned an "ugh" rating for disgusting content.
I generally don't mention errors when they are typos, but there's something about vocabulary misuse that really stands out for me. This means that the word doesn't mean what the author intends. There are three incidents of vocabulary misuse. Two of them are a misuse of "mirth". Since it occurred twice in a similar context, I'm wondering if this is a common means of avoiding an expletive among those who speak British English. In American English the common euphemism for that expletive would be "sugar". I couldn't find "mirth" as a euphemism when I ran a search.
If it occurs to you that I'm being hypercritical in these comments, I want you to know that this isn't my intention. I always love books that give me research opportunities. I had one while reading The Anatomist's Secret when Maya mentions being interested in bicycles. That sent me to the Wikipedia article on the history of bicycles. Maya comments that bicycles were dangerous, and they really were at that time. According to that Wikipedia article, African American inventor Isaac R. Johnson re-designed the bicycle to be safer and more comfortable in 1889. Johnson's version is still in use today. If you would like to know more about Isaac R. Johnson, and his bicycle re-design see this article.
I'd give this book a grade of B+. It's a pretty good mystery with some very interesting historical material.
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