by Maureen Jennings
I enjoy the Murdoch Mysteries series on TV so thought that I would check out one of the books.
The TV series has adapted the book very faithfully. Most of the key characters are as described in the book.
This story starts with the discovery of a young woman found dead, and naked in the snow. Murdoch is disgusted that someone would steal the clothes from a corpse. The police interview people in the vicinity but have no leads to the girl's identity nor the perpetrators of the crime. They put a drawing of the woman in the newspaper and two people come forward to identify the girl, her employer (whose home she was running from) and a local alderman. The autopsy determines that the girl was strangled had opium in her body and that she was pregnant.
As Murdoch interviews people near the scene of a crime he meets two women (prostitutes) and a baker who live in a rooming house nearby. Murdoch is sure that the women are hiding something and his suspicions are confirmed when one of the two women is found murdered on the outskirts of the city.
Murdoch manages to save the second girl from the murderer, with assistance of the baker and his dogs.
Murdoch finds the perpetrator of the crimes but it was not the people he originally suspected (the girl's employer, his son, the butler).
It was an enjoyable and easy read, the author does a good job of portraying life in 1890's Toronto.
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