Four Thousand Days (A Margaret Murray mystery, 1)
Archaeology focuses on the past, not on the dawn of the 20th century. So, for lecturer Margaret Murray (her doctorate appears merely decorative), Egyptology usually holds more sway than the death of one of her female public lecture students at University College, London. Yet when facts emerge that persuade the police that Helen Richardson was prostitute Alice Groves by night, and the policeman who investigates the case is also one of her public lecture students, Margaret does what she does best—asks questions about dead people.
Meanwhile in the north of England, retired Inspector Edmund Reid, infamous for failing to solve the Jack the Ripper murders, stumbles upon another dead female archeologist. Emmeline Barker was excavating a first-century Roman dig when she unearthed an olive wood box containing a secret she was willing to die for. To Margaret, female archaeologists are rare enough that losing two is intolerable, and she sets out to link seemingly disparate events.
Trow’s extensive research into British turns of phrase in the late 1890s amazed this American reader and provided many chuckles, but most went well over my head. The characters and their traits—students, fellow faculty, suspects, and police—are brazenly drawn so as to elicit reactions that propel the story forward. Revealing the meaning of the title will disclose the secret, but the resolution is so satisfying that (despite appearing to begin a new series) this novel can stand alone as a testimony to an intrepid and visionary real-life feminist.
