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Content snapshot
Flag an inaccuracy →What's in this book, at a glance — five things readers want to know before they start.
Violence
A lot
Murder and thriller violence; the Chorister is genuinely disturbing
Language
Barely any
Period-authentic language; mild
Sexual Content
Barely any
Brief adult relationship; nothing explicit
Substance Use
Barely any
Victorian social drinking
Emotional Intensity
Some
Ideological panic behind political violence, the threat that ideas pose to power, a villain whose motivations emerge slowly
What this book is about
London, 1860. Charles Field — former Inspector of the Metropolitan Police — is pulled back into service when an assassination attempt on Queen Victoria coincides with the publication of Darwin's On the Origin of Species. The suspect: a disturbing figure known as the Chorister, who has sliced off his own nose and kills without apparent motive. Tim Mason's dense, atmospheric Victorian thriller weaves actual historical figures (Darwin, Dickens, the Prince Albert household) through a plot about the panic Darwin's ideas unleashed in the powerful.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
disturbing serial killer with religious motivations
Victorian crime scenes
historical figures in a murder plot
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