I really enjoyed this debut mystery novel from Ritu Mukerji! The story held many twists and turns and kept me guessing throughout, and I really loved the main character of Dr. Lydia Weston as a pioneering doctor of her time in 1875 Philadelphia who assists the police in an investigation of the murder of a patient of hers. At times the medical terminology and descriptions of autopsy procedures threw me off and the story got a bit meandering for me in the middle, but it finished strong and kept me interested the entire time. 4 stars!

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for this e-ARC!

I have been enamored of the city of Philadelphia ever since I attended medical school there. I also love mysteries and historical fiction, so when I saw the blur.b for Murder by Degrees, I had to read it.

Written by a physician, Murder by Degrees is an absolutely wonderful book. The main character, Dr. Lydia Weston, teaches at Women’s Medical College. She also runs their clinic where she befriends one of her patients, Anna. When Anna is found murdered, she becomes involved in the investigation.

I just loved Lydia’s character. She’s so well drawn and so real. Her encounter with a chauvinistic male physician was so well written that I couldn’t stop chuckling. Actually, all the characters are well done. The plotting is deft and with lots of twists and turns. Philadelphia in 1875 is well portrayed, and is almost its own character.

I just loved Murder by Degrees, and highly recommend it.

My thanks to Simon and Schuster, and to Netgalley, for providing an ARC of this very enjoyable mystery.

This book immediately draws you in. There are many homages to 1800s murder mysteries, but this one does the genre superbly.

If you like Sherry Thomas, you will love this book.

The only downside is that there aren’t more yet!

A mystery series set in the 1870s with a female physician as the main character is a fascinating premise in and of itself. Knowing that the author is a physician who went to medical school in the city where the book is set explains the sensitivity of the main character when she's working with patients and, sadly, the body of a former patient. The main character deals with a significant amount of misogamy, as you'd expect for the time period. It's almost a secondary plot line and it's very satisfying to watch her handle an adversary, a male physician from UPenn.

The secondary characters are well developed and with the main character working at a medical school, there's always room for new characters to arrive as this series [hopefully] continues.