Category: Mystery
Publisher: McClelland & Stewart Ltd.
ISBN-13: 9780771043956
Series: Detective William Murdoch, #3
Pub. Date: July 2002
Date Read: March 2008
In this third installment, Detective William Murdoch first appears bundling up and heading out to the police station before dawn. He doesn't have to show up quite so early but a painful toothache is making his life hell and roused him out of bed. As soon as he arrives at the station he is asked to go check on Constable Wicken who hasn't reported back from duty.
Det. Murdoch might not be feeling well but he hurries out to look for the young constable. He knows Wicken to be a smart and dependable officer so why isn't he back? His misgivings were not unfounded for on a quiet street with many empty lots, he finds Wicken in a vacant house. The officer apparently dead from a self-inflicted wound.
The coroner thinks this is an open and shut case but Murdoch still doesn't understand why Wicken would kill himself? And, now who will take care of his mother and his invalid sister. When Det. Murdoch receives some new evidence he can't help but further investigate the constable's death.
Aside from an engaging mystery, the author also presents the reader with what life at the turn of the twentieth century was like. Whether suffering from a toothache or treatment for the mentally ill, it's very obvious that medicine had a long way to go.
Detective Murdoch is a very likable character and so are some of the other recurring characters. I'm really looking forward to the next book in the series.