DOWN A DARK RIVER

The Victorian setting remains the same, but Odden exchanges refined Inspector Hallam, last seen in A Trace of Deceit (2019), for conflicted, determined Inspector Mickey Corravan.

Corravan was a poor Irish orphan who worked as a stevedore and bare-knuckle fighter before signing on with the River Police and then Scotland Yard. So he seems the perfect choice for a murder most likely committed on the Thames. The body of a young woman is found floating in a small boat. Her only jewelry, a locket with initials and a picture, soon identifies her as the missing daughter of a wealthy judge. Although Corravan’s boss orders him to make the case his chief concern, he continues his search for a missing woman, the wife of a shipping magnate, whom he finds in an insane asylum for the poor. She’s speechless and so terrified of returning home that she attacks Corravan, who takes her to Dr. Everett, a medical friend who treats mentally disturbed patients kindly, while he investigates her husband. When a second young woman is found murdered in a rowboat, Corravan starts looking for suspects who may have hated their loved ones. The upper classes close ranks, and only maids and friends of the dead women give him any information. As the body count grows, Corravan’s temper threatens to get the best of him, while Scotland Yard is relentlessly criticized in the newspapers and his job hangs in the balance.

A harrowing tale of unbridled vice that exposes the dark underbelly of Victorian society.