In Murder by Degrees, Ritu Mukerji introduces us to Dr. Lydia Weston, a practicing physician in 1875 Philadelphia and instructor at the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, at a time when little faith and confidence was put in lady doctors by not only patients but her male counterparts as well.
Weston’s sharp eye, love of poetry and compassion for her patients and students puts her right in the middle of a murder investigation, when a patient is dragged from the Schuykill River and believed to have committed suicide.
With an undeterred fervor, she works alongside her mentor Dr. Charles Stanley and a reluctant police inspector and his sergeant to find the truth.
Mukerji, a practicing internist for 15 years, layered in beautifully explained medical details without losing the reader. She also came to know the City of Brotherly Love while attending the Sidney Kimmel Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia and well translated the marvels of the Philadelphia landscape.
The author also has a BA in history from Columbia University, so it’s no wonder that when this avid mystery reader decided to write her own crime fiction, it would be an historical mystery set in the city in its grand heyday, just before the Centennial Exhibition where the telephone, typewriter and sewing machine would be introduced.
This post-Civil War era also marks the early years of the women’s suffrage movement and is ripe with possibilities for Dr. Lydia Weston. With her protagonist now established, I look forward to Mukerji’s future installments of the series and the development of an even richer character, drawing even farther on lessons learned from her youth, as well as possible romantic involvement with a local police sergeant.
I recommend Murder by Degrees to mystery, historical mystery and medical drama fans. I received this Advance Reader’s copy of Murder by Degrees from Simon & Schuster, courtesy of NetGalley.
Order online or buy now at your favorite independent bookstore. Mine is Sellers Books and Art in Jim Thorpe, PA.
Weston’s sharp eye, love of poetry and compassion for her patients and students puts her right in the middle of a murder investigation, when a patient is dragged from the Schuykill River and believed to have committed suicide.
With an undeterred fervor, she works alongside her mentor Dr. Charles Stanley and a reluctant police inspector and his sergeant to find the truth.
Mukerji, a practicing internist for 15 years, layered in beautifully explained medical details without losing the reader. She also came to know the City of Brotherly Love while attending the Sidney Kimmel Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia and well translated the marvels of the Philadelphia landscape.
The author also has a BA in history from Columbia University, so it’s no wonder that when this avid mystery reader decided to write her own crime fiction, it would be an historical mystery set in the city in its grand heyday, just before the Centennial Exhibition where the telephone, typewriter and sewing machine would be introduced.
This post-Civil War era also marks the early years of the women’s suffrage movement and is ripe with possibilities for Dr. Lydia Weston. With her protagonist now established, I look forward to Mukerji’s future installments of the series and the development of an even richer character, drawing even farther on lessons learned from her youth, as well as possible romantic involvement with a local police sergeant.
I recommend Murder by Degrees to mystery, historical mystery and medical drama fans. I received this Advance Reader’s copy of Murder by Degrees from Simon & Schuster, courtesy of NetGalley.
Order online or buy now at your favorite independent bookstore. Mine is Sellers Books and Art in Jim Thorpe, PA.