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Apr 09, 2020
JOANNE'S MYSTERY PICKS If you’re a fan of Murdoch Mysteries on CBC television and haven’t read any of the books that the series is based on, then do! I was delightfully surprised when I read this first book in the series. Of course there are differences between the book and the television series, but it’s easy to treat each as a separate entity. In both the book and the series, Murdoch is a man of integrity and treats the people that he encounters in his investigations with dignity and kindness. It is 1895 and the unclothed body of a young servant girl is found in a laneway. She is found to have been greatly liked by the wealthy family that she worked for and its mistress mourns her deeply. Murdoch’s investigation takes him from the wealthiest families to the downtrodden and poor, who sell their bodies for the few pennies that will buy them a crust of bread. He must sort through the many lies that he’s told in order to come to the truth of who killed this young woman. Jennings paints a vivid picture of Toronto in the late 1800s with characters that come to life on the page.