Archeological female amateur sleuth!

Interesting start to a new series set in London in 1900. Honorary Dr. Margaret Murray seems somewhat like a younger Miss Marples. She’s shrewdly intelligent, totally committed to her discipline, curious, and a pioneer for women in what has mostly been a man’s world. Based loosely on real person, Murray is an junior archeological lecturer at University College, London at a time when women academic staff are an athemna in the male dominated halls of academia.
A young woman who attends Margaret’s public archaeological sessions one afternoon a week, and moonlights as a street walker is dead. Another of her students, Adam Crawford (a constable with Scotland Yard) is convinced her death is a murder and not a suicide as the senior constabulary would want. Margaret is determined to investigate and makes the acquaintance of retired Inspector Edmund Reid.
Reid is drawn into the investigation by curiosity, another dead body, and a barely concealed disdain for the way Detective Inspector Blunt ( his successor) is stomping all over the murders, wanting a quick result, whether that is the truth or not.
Actually there were so many characters we were introduced to I became a tad confused. I delighted in the Doctor’s unflappability, but the pace of the story was uneven. In the end the reasoning behind the resolution and Margaret’s actions were just a bit too Dan Brownish for me.
Still, I’m eager to see where the good archaeologist might go in the future and will continue to monitor her progress.
The undercurrents of relationships, particularly sexual, in the hallowed halls of learning, have all the hallmarks of an academic Midsummers Murder type community, or as Jane Marples tells us the microcosm of a village (our village being the London halls of learning in the early 1900’s) where all types of negative behavior in the wider world are present.

A Severn ARC via NetGalley
(Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.) ( )

I am sometimes hesitant to read fiction that uses real-life people as characters, but for some reason, I couldn't resist M.J. Trow's Four Thousand Days. Perhaps it was the time period-- 1900, right at the end of Victoria's reign. Perhaps it was the fact that Margaret Murray was a female archaeologist. For whatever reason, I'm glad I picked up this enjoyable historical mystery (and I appreciated the author's The Real Margaret Murray at the end of the book).

Dr. Margaret Murray isn't the only interesting character in the book. There's the handsome Constable Adam Crawford who attends Murray's free archaeology lectures on Fridays and has a keen eye for rooting out clues to solving crimes. There's retired Scotland Yard inspector Edmund Reid, subject of the popular Inspector Dier mystery novels. There's Tom, a former thief and erstwhile chef and server at Murray's favorite watering hole, the Jeremy Bentham. Of Murray's students, the standout for me was Janet Bairnsfather, "the Job of University College," who's much too rigidly proper to fit in well with Murray and her inner circle of students. Even the characters on the periphery are interesting, and sometimes good for a laugh or two, like the Herne Bay Decorum Society, "...a not-very-well-meaning clique of busybodies, largely female...who twitch curtains and look for outrage."

The mystery is a good one, and I was dying to find out what the archaeological find was. When I did learn, I think my jaw hit the floor. (And that was also when I learned the significance of the book title.)

Four Thousand Days is a well-written, thoroughly enjoyable historical mystery, and I'm looking forward to seeing Margaret Murray in the future.

(Review copy courtesy of the publisher and Net Galley) ( )

1900, London, archaeologist, university, professor, ex-cop, murder, murder-investigation, historical-fiction, historical-figures, historical-research, history-and-culture, historical-setting, amateur-sleuth, sly-humor, class-consciousness, private-investigators*****

Professor Margaret Murray and Egyptologist Flinders-Petrie were real as is University College, London. The problems of class distinction and severe bias against women mitigated a little since then. The story is good whodunit fiction.
The publisher's blurb is a good hook, and I don't do spoilers, but I loved this fun read that has so many things that interest me (law enforcement, amateur sleuths, archaeology, sleuthing with due diligence) and even has a little romance going on between a university student and a constable. Awaiting the next in series!
I requested and received a free e-book copy from Severn House via NetGalley. Thank you! ( )

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley.

This wasn't really for me. There were too many characters to keep on top of - students, lecturers, police officers, characters with more than one alias, stuffed owls etc etc. It was quite a 'cosy' mystery, with a tone that grated on me and was very sexist and dated. I appreciate that this was set in 1900, but it wasn't written then! I'm not entirely clear why the male victim had to die and I find it very hard to believe that Margaret would have done what she did to the explosive secret document at the end - it would go against all her training and beliefs. ( )

It's such a delight to discover what could be the first volume in a very satisfying historical mystery series. M.J. Trow has some fine mysteries behind him, so this new one featuring turn-of-the-20th Century archaeologist Margaret Murray promises to be exactly that. Murray is a lecturer at University College London with an interesting mix of students attending her tutorials, as well as others attending her Friday lectures, which are open to the public. Shortly after befriending one of Murray's "regulars," a policeman who is a Friday attendee discovers another of Murray's students dead. Then Murray pulls in Reid, a famous retired detective, and this cohort of academics and law enforcement are on the case.

Margaret Murray is an historical figure: raised in India, later a largely self-trained archaeologist and lecturer at University College London, and finally a well-known folklorist and scholar of Wicca. She's the perfect character around whom to build a series, particularly given her academic (and now law enforcement—and even one underworld) connections. This first mystery involves a discovery that may challenge a major historical timeline, adding to the excitement of the novel.

If you enjoy historical mysteries (particularly if you've been mourning the loss of Elizabeth Peter's Amelia Peabody), you'll be delighted by this new title both for itw own sake and for what it make promise in the future. I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley; the opinions are my own. ( )