Pros: Interesting look back at the movement for women’s right to vote in England
Cons: For me, there seemed to be some tonal and genre confusion
Rating: 4 out of 5 (3 for me personally)

Review book courtesy of Penguin Group

Dody McCleland is a female autopsy surgeon in England at the beginning of the 20th century, one of a very few women allowed to practice any kind of medicine. Despite her unusual and forward-thinking career choice, she doesn’t entirely agree with her younger sister Florence’s flamboyant rallies and marches for women’s rights. She thinks a slower, quieter method would be more effective than the more militant stance taken by some women. But when a rally turns violent, Dody finds herself examining the body of one of her sister’s own friends, a lady of some station, who was apparently beaten to death.

Tensions between the women and the police rise. One police inspector, Pike, who particularly loathes the use of brute force to solve problems—particularly against women—manages to get several of the instigators out of the department even though he doesn’t agree with the women’s cause. Then he meets Dody, listens to the woman’s concerns about the suspicious death, and begins to suspect that something larger and more important is afoot.

The police superintendent is eager for any reason to get rid of Pike and smooth over the woman’s death; the women of the suffragette movement believe they have to up the ante in order to get anywhere; and Dody is caught somewhere in the middle just trying to figure out where it all went wrong.

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