Who is stalking Florence Nightingale and her nurses? Is it the legendary Beast of the Crimean, or someone closer to home? In 1855, Britain and France are fighting to keep the Russians from snatching the Crimean Peninsula from the Ottoman Empire, and Nightingale, a wealthy young society woman, has made it her mission to improve the wretched conditions in the British military hospitals in Turkey—despite fierce objections from the male doctors around her. When young women start turning up dead, their mouths sewn shut with embroidered fabric roses, Inspector Charles Field (the real-life inspiration for Charles Dickens’s Inspector Bucket in Bleak House) is sent from England to find the killer among the doctors, military men, journalists, and others swarming Turkey’s famous Barrack Hospital. Here Field meets both the famous Nightingale as well as Nurse Jane Rolly, the woman who will become his wife, and as he races to protect them, the prime suspect takes his own life.
Case closed. Or is it?
Twelve years later, back in London, amid the turmoil surrounding the expansion of voting rights, women again start turning up dead, their mouths covered by that telltale embroidered rose. Did Field suspect the wrong man before, or is he dealing with a deviant copycat? Either way, he must race against time to stop the killer before more bodies are discovered, and before his own family gets pulled into danger. Populated by real figures of the day, from Benjamin Disraeli to novelist Wilkie Collins to, of course, Florence Nightingale herself, and steeped in historical details of 1860s London, The Nightingale Affair plays out against a backdrop of a rapidly changing society. Most of all, it is a pure reading delight, offering shocks, unforgettably vivid scenes, and surprising twists.
The Nightingale Affair by Timothy Mason
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This was 3.5 stars for me. I had a hard time keeping focus on the book.
I felt like there were too many characters to keep track of at times.
Inspector Charles Hunt is searching for the person stalking Florence Nightengale and her nurses. He is sent to find the killer among doctors, soldiers, journalists and others swarming around Turkey's Barrack Hospital. While protecting Nightengale and the woman who will become his wife, the prime suspect takes his life.
Case closed.
Twelve years later in London, women begin to show up dead with roses embroidered over their mouths. Did he suspect the wrong man or is he dealing with a copycat?
Thank you to the author and Hachette Audio for this ARC to review.
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