1878 River disaster!

Under a Veiled Moon (Inspector Corrovan #2) by Karen Odden  

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Michael Corravan, acting superintendent of the Wapping River Police is drawn into the murky flow of truth and lies as a disaster of devastating magnitude rips across London. A pleasure boat, The Princess Alice, filled with over 600 people is rammed by a steel-hulled collier on the River Thames.

As the death toll soars the newspapers are out for blood, and it’s the Irish Republican Brotherhood that they’re ire has focused on. 

Corrovan is tasked with leading the enquiry. The mayhem and loss of life is shocking. He’s also puzzled by a dead man at the East Lane Stairs, Southwark along the riverbank.

Closer to home, Colin Doyle, a younger son of the family he grew up with, is in a spot of bother with moneylenders. This necessitates a visit to James McCabe of the Cobbwaller gang in Whitechapel.  Corrovan has his hands full as one investigation bleeds into the next. Along with his fears for his adoptive mother Ma Doyle and the rest of the family, watching for patterns, and making sense of things, finding the threads is a close run thing.

Belinda Gale, novelist and playwright, with whom he has a discrete and loving relationship, shares Corravan’s worries.

A fabulous addition to the series. Odden has written a searing Victorian investigation that gives enough information to make the next leap, but not too much to have it solved quickly. Rather we’re hanging on by our fingertips until the last moment. Beware of gifts unlooked for is all I can say.

A Crooked Lane ARC via NetGalley.                                              

Many thanks to the author and publisher.