I love reading debut authors and Kieran Shields does not disappoint with his novel, The Truth of all Things. He has written a fantastic historical thriller that combines the best of both worlds at least for me, a ‘Sherlock Holmes like’ detective and a serial killer. Y’all know I love a good MURDER or two or three!!
Deputy Marshal Archie Lean is called to the scene of what is assumed to be another killing of a prostitute until he arrives and sees that the victim”s body has been place in a very stylized way. The body has been placed in the shape of a pentagram and the murder weapon is a pitchfork which has pinned the body to the ground. After doing some investigating Archie learns that death by “sticking” is an old traditional way to kill a witch. When he learns this and being that it is 1892 in Portland, Maine, 200 years after the Salem Witch Trials and the mayor really putting the pressure on to sweep this crime under the carpet, Archie secretly calls in some help, Dr. Virgil Steig, Helen Prescott, a historian, and Perceval Grey, a criminalist and Pinkerton detective.
I don’t want to tell too much because I found this book extremely fun to read. There were a few times that I thought I had figured it and would turn the page to realize I was completely wrong. Also this was the first book I have read in a while that I found myself extremely drawn to every character. I was worried about them when “danger was lurking around the corner” and I loved the fact that the characters were unsure of each other. They all have very distinct personalities and are skeptical of each others methods of crime solving which added to the tension especially while following the killers trail through “opium dens, the spiritualist societies and lunatic asylums of Gothic New England”.
If you are looking for a good read for vacation travel time or just sitting on the porch with a glass of iced tea this is it!!
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