A Question of Murder by Fire

A tearful Jessie Beal begs Daniel Pitt to represent her young man, Robert Adwell. He’s accused of murdering Paddy Jackson by setting fire to a warehouse. Paddy is burned to death, but he also has a severe blow to the back of the head. In desperation Daniel goes to his friend Miriam fford Croft, a brilliant woman who wanted to be a forensic scientist, for help. Miriam thinks their only hope is in enlisting the help of her former forensics instructor, Sir Barnaby Saltram, even though she has a fraught relationship with him from her student days.

Daniel wins the case, but then Robert Adwell is killed in a fire identical to the one that killed Paddy Jackson, and Jessie Beal is arrested. He has no wish to take the case, but he’s trapped by his previous case even though he begins to suspect that Jessie is guilty. If she is, it calls into question Saltram’s evidence in the first case and now Daniel and Miriam have a problem. Can they go up against Sir Barnaby?

The book paints a vivid picture of London in 1910. The historical details are accurate. You almost feel that you are living there with cozy pubs and warming fires. However, there were problems with that era. Miriam is an intelligent woman who wanted to be a forensic scientist, but that profession was closed to women. She makes the best of it in her private laboratory, but it’s not the same.

Daniel, being younger than Miriam, is less prone to believe that women are failures unless married. He feels comfortable with Miriam as a close friend and relies on her judgment. I thought Perry did an excellent job presenting a pivotal moment in history where older men saw women as only wives and mothers while younger men were willing to treat them as equals.

This story consists of three court cases. Each grows out of the one before, but requires additional sleuthing. I though the first case was rather slow, but the action built until the third case gripped my interest.

This is the third book in Perry’s Daniel Pitt series although it reads easily as a standalone. I loved the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt books, and their son Daniel’s story is a welcome addition.

I received this book from Net Galley for this review.