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DEATH AND THE SISTERS is not a fast read. Set in London in 1814, it describes much walking around a fairly small area of the city, and the pace and arc of the narrative reflect that slower time and smaller scale. Then, too, the novel's structure and vocabulary are reminiscent of an earlier time, more Dickens than, say, Archer. While that may not sound enticing in these days of short attention spans, the premise is sure to be, if you're a Mary Shelley fan. The sisters of the title are primarily Mary Godwin and Jane (Claire) Clairmont whom we meet just as they are beginning to become part of poet Percy Shelley's circle. Still teenagers, the young women discover the body of a murdered man in the family's bookstore. Fearing that it's Shelley himself, they raise the alarm and discover instead another poet—a man possibly mistaken for Shelley by the murderer, just as he was by the sisters. Determined to save Shelley from either death or jail, since he is somewhat of a suspect at times, Mary, Jane, and Shelley himself set out to solve the mystery.
Throughout the novel, there are lots of references to life in London of the early 1800s, the setting is, for the most part, well drawn, and the plot is interesting. If you're interested in a nicely imagined version of Mary Shelley's life before she married Shelley, this novel delivers, and the family dynamics and budding relationships among the real-life characters are its strong points.
It's less successful, however, as a murder mystery. That slower pace of an earlier time boils down to a lot of movement without much forward progress. All the real action occurs in just the last few pages of the book, and, overall, the murder mystery seems a contrivance stuck onto that imagined biography of Mary Shelley. The reader is likely to work out at least some of the solution before Mary, Jane, and Percy do, but much of the motive is quite opaque even at the end and seems a bit of not playing fair by the author (Jane possesses critical knowledge that she alludes to from time to time, but no clues are really given as to what that is). Then, too, some of the action and revelatory scenes at the end stretch believability a little too far. While the "tacked on" murder mystery is somewhat of a let down, and some of the action is unbelievable, the book as a whole is a nice read and fun idea for Mary Shelley fans. It's also the first in a new series for author Redmond, and now that the base is laid, further novels in the series perhaps promise to be even more entertaining.
§ Meredith Frazier, a writer with a background in English literature, lives in Dallas, Texas
Reviewed by Meredith Frazier, December 2023
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