Asylum Murders
by Michael G. Colburn
My rating: 2.5 / 5
Genre: Historical mystery
Edie Black has a history as a thief, but she has a fresh start in Melbourne, Australia and hopes to help the local police investigate crime instead of committing it herself. She gets involved in the search for a missing government artifact, which leads her to a reunion with Britina, a young woman from her criminal past. Britina, now a nun in Australia, is assigned to work in a local asylum and quickly suspects foul play amongst some of the staff.
The setting and tone of this book are dark and gothic and provide a mysterious atmosphere for the story. The storyline that revolves around the asylum is intriguing, though not what I thought the focus of the book would be. The theft of a ceremonial mace used in Parliament and the beating of a woman on the same night are where the story starts, and the sections with Britina seem more like a departure for a while. The investigation into the theft and assaulted woman leads Edie to the asylum, but the two storylines are never really all that connected. I can’t say there’s really much mystery in this book, as the foul play in the asylum is laid bare to us in POV scenes from the bad guys’ perspectives. The perpetrators of the theft and assault do remain a mystery for most of the book, but again, that storyline takes a back seat, and thus so do the actual mystery elements. And only some of the theft/assault storyline is actually solved by the people investigating it, which is not normally how I prefer my mystery stories to end.
The first couple of chapters of this book set a content level that I wasn’t comfortable with, between the attempted rape of the assaulted woman described from her perspective (fortunately it’s brief and only a little of what I’d call graphic) and the orgy. Yes, that’s right…the orgy. On the night the ceremonial mace goes missing, it’s brought to an orgy before then disappearing completely. As you might imagine, then, much of the investigation into the mace involves Edie discussing with the attendees of the orgy their actions that night. I’m not a fan. At all. Again, nothing super graphic, but enough to make me uncomfortable.
On top of all of that, there is the dialog. Nothing reminds me more that I’m reading fiction (as opposed to being caught up in the story) than dialog where the characters constantly say each other’s names as they’re talking. People don’t like that in real life, and it’s a huge pet peeve of mine in fiction. So clearly I was the wrong audience for this book, since many of my issues are personal preferences. It’s also the 2nd book in a series, the 1st of which seems to have taken place quite some time before this (and in London). The major events of that book, which led to both Edie and Britina being in Australia, are briefly explained, but it was difficult for me to follow most of it. Sounds like it was a fairly complex plot. But maybe this book would be more enjoyable to people who’ve already read that previous book and become invested in the characters. To me, Edie (who calls herself “Lady Edith,” though apparently she doesn’t have any actual rank) is fairly bland, while Britina gets a little more characterization in the book. So while I have no plans to read the first book in this series or any that might come after, if the overall idea of this book, its setting, or its characters interest you, I’d suggest you consider reading the first book in the series first.
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