"Murder"

"Murder," a novel authored by Sarah Pinborough (who lives in West London) is the second in her Dr. Thomas Bond series -- and, hopefully, the last!  Sarah's picture on the flyleaf and on the fantasticfiction.co.uk site show her to be this very happy young woman which is hard to equate with the horror, supernatural thrillers she's authored.  She's also written for the popular BBC crime drama, "New Tricks," which is one of my favorite series.

Although "Mayhem," (the first book in this series) and "Murder" are based on a real-life police surgeon, Dr. Thomas Bond, this account is total fiction but it uses the supernatural to account for real events in Dr. Bond's life.  Unlike the real Dr. Bond who was twice married and had six children, the fictional Dr. Bond is unmarried.  The real Dr. Thomas Bond worked with Scotland Yard detectives to identify and capture Jack the Ripper and the Torso Killer and both play a feature role in these two books.

"Murder" finds Dr. Bond trying to get back to a normal life after the Ripper and Torso Killer investigations but it proves difficult as the corpses of murdered children begin turning up.

He finally professes his love for the widowed Juliana Harrington but his proposal of marriage is thwarted when another suitor appears on the scene, Edward Kane.  Edward was a friend and European traveling companion of Juliana's late husband who decides to pay a visit on her and her young son while he is in London on business.  After meeting Juliana he  prolongs his visit so he may court the young widow.

As Dr. Bond becomes more tortured and alienated from his close friends, they are deeply concerned for him and his behavior begins to affect all of them leading to the climactic ending.

Although I found the books interesting, there are too many books out there begging to be read so I probably won't seek out any more Pinborough novels in the near future.  pazt