Crowther and Westerman - Imogen Robertson

Crowther and Westerman series by Imogen Robertson (retail mobi/epub):

1. Instruments of Darkness



Sussex, 1780. Anatomist and recluse Gabriel Crowther is reluctantly drawn into the lives of local high society when a dead body is found by impulsive, frustrated Harriet Westerman. Her lands share a boundary with the great estate of the county, Thornleigh Hall, home of the crippled Earl of Sussex, his beautiful second wife and his alcoholic younger son. The Earl's heir disappeared after a family dispute some fifteen years earlier, and has not been seen since. Meanwhile, inLondon, two children lose their father in a violent attack. Their new young guardian, a young writer, attempts to protect them in the confusion of the anti-Catholic Gordon Riots as he dodges his creditors among the alleyways, and learns more of his wards' complicated history -- which may lead back toSussex. When a second body is discovered near Thornleigh Hall, the pressures on Harriet and Gabriel begin to mount and the secrets of the Hall, both ancient and modern, threaten to overwhelm them all.

2. Anatomy of Murder


London, 1781. Harriet Westerman anxiously awaits news of her husband, a ship's captain who has been gravely injured in the king's naval battles with France. As London's streets seethe with rumor, a body is dragged from the murky waters of the Thames.

Having gained a measure of fame as amateur detectives for unraveling the mysteries of Thornleigh Hall, the indomitable Mrs. Westerman and her reclusive sidekick, anatomist Gabriel Crowther, are once again called on to investigate. In this intricate novel, Harriet and Gabriel will discover that this is no ordinary drowning-the victim is part of a plot to betray England's most precious secrets.

3. Island of Bones


Gabriel Crowther's brother was hanged for their father's murder in 1751. Thirty years later, his sister returns with her wayward son to their childhood home of Keswick. A body has been found on the little 'island of bones' in nearby Derwent Water, and the town is sick with rumours and suspicion. All eyes turn towards Crowther and his friend Harriet Westerman to cure them, but he finds that his own past will not stay buried.

4. Circle of Shadows


A locked room. A dark threat. A place of poisonous lies. Germany, 1784. Daniel Clode cannot say whether or not he killed the woman. They were found together in a locked room, dressed for the Carnival. But what of the strange madness he feels, and how did she drown on dry land? Harriet Westerman knows Daniel is not a murderer; her sister would not have married such a man. She and the reclusive anatomist Gabriel Crowther must travel to the Duke of Maulberg's Court to save him from the silken, venal plotting of the castle, and from the axeman's steel. But their journey across Europe brings them to an alien and capricious land, full of lies and shadows, where no one can be trusted.

5. Theft of Life


London, 1785. When the body of a West Indies planter is found pegged out in the grounds of St Paul's Cathedral, suspicion falls on one of the victim's former slaves, who was found with his watch on the London streets. But it seems the answer is not that simple. The impact of the planter's death brings tragedy for Francis Glass, a freed slave now working as a bookseller and printer in the city, and a painful reminder of the past for William Geddings, Harriet Westerman's senior footman. Harriet is reluctant to be drawn in to the difficult and powerful world of the slave trade, but she and her friend, reclusive anatomist Gabriel Crowther, begin to understand the dark secrets hidden by the respectable reputation of London's slave owners. Together, they negotiate the interests of the British government, the secrets of the plantation owners, and a network of alliances stretching across the Atlantic. And they must confront the uncomfortable truth that some people are willing to do great evil when they believe their cause to be just.