Goodreads Review: Instruments of Darkness by Imogen Robertson

Instruments of Darkness: A Westerman Crowther Mystery by Imogen Robertson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


What would Law & Order have been like in 1780 if they had met up with Sherlock Holmes? I imagine it would have been much like Imogen Robertson's 'Instruments of Darkness', or at least to some degree. An unlikely duo, Harriet Westerman (mistress of a country manor) and Gabriel Crowther (a man who prefers the dead to the living), team up to solve a murder Harriet found on her property, only to discover they work well together, but that one should never assume they know what's going on around them, especially when a powerful family holds dark secrets and doesn't want those secrets revealed.

I'd have to agree with the review from The Washington Times when they said, "Mayhem runs amok in this period thriller. [Robertson] pulls out all the stops...a roaring soap opera of a novel." That is what it felt like at times - a soap opera with a crime-solving duo.

A reader's opinion...I gave this book four stars because honestly it's a great read. Extremely well written with enjoyable characters and plot that only thickens with each page. However, I had been expecting a bit more suspense when I first picked this up and it definitely is not an edge of your seat suspense (in my humble opinion), but it does leave one guessing here and there, which I enjoy in a good mystery. I suppose it takes a great deal more to keep me up at night as one reviewer stated, but once I realized the tone of the book, I was able to enjoy it without expectations of horror and suspense. The book is a clean read and only had a couple of dry sections that I had wanted to skip over, but knew I would miss some of the story so I didn't.

Overall, a well-written and enjoyable book and one I'll keep in my personal library. I would also read other books by this author.



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