“The Bedlam Cadaver” by Robert J. Lloyd

Harry Hunt’s fortunes have definitely changed since the events of The Poison Machine, the outstanding previous novel in this series. He has been gifted a considerable sum of money by his noble patrons and has since devoted himself to furnishing his newly acquired house in Bloomsbury Square in anticipation of his marriage proposal to Grace Hooke, the niece of his mentor, the famous scientist Robert Hooke.

So it’s been a while since he’s gathered with the rest of the Royal Society of London for the Improving of Natural Knowledge at Gresham College. Their royal patron, King Charles II, has joined them to dissect a corpse from Bethlehem Hospital, a home for the insane commonly and disparagingly known as Bedlam. None other than the renowned architect and polymath Sir Christopher Wren will be conducting the experiment on the corpse’s brain and nervous system.

Therefore, perhaps no one is more shocked than Harry himself when he begs Christopher to stop the procedure. The dead woman before them is no poor woman whose body has been donated to science. The body belongs to Harry’s beautiful young neighbor Diana Cantley, daughter of the powerful Sir Benedict Cantley. Harry himself had seen her coming out of her townhouse just days before. How could she have come to this?

Having previously entrusted Harry with other delicate and confusing tasks, King Charles now enlists him to help with the investigations of the stern Sir Joseph Reresby. Harry and Joseph soon learn that Diana disappeared on the very day Harry last saw her. Someone then sent Diana’s father a blackmail letter, which Benedict willingly paid. As Harry and Joseph investigate, they learn that Diana is not the only high-born woman to have recently disappeared. But when all the evidence points to Harry himself, what must he do to clear his name?

Although I found the previous book in the series a little more engaging in its adventurous narrative, there’s no denying that Harry remains a protagonist to root for, as he applies both a scientific mind and a wellspring of compassion in his dealings with others. Even when he’s pushed to carry out the King’s justice, he refuses to treat matters of life and death as mere entertainment, as many of his contemporaries do:

Harry had seen executions. He usually preferred to avoid them. He never enjoyed the spectacle, or what the sight of such violence did to people in a crowd. It separated them from their true nature – or, just as unpleasantly, perhaps revealed it. He had no need of the supposed lesson that an execution taught him; whether he committed a crime or not was up to him to decide. Justice seemed so arbitrary anyway that hanging, burning, or disemboweling hardly provided any useful lessons.

Although this novel was meticulously researched, it still surprised me with the reminder that it is based almost entirely on real people, including Harry Hunt himself. Given how little is known about the historical figure, Harry provides a blank but inspiring canvas for Robert J. Lloyd’s adaptation of very real events. Set against the backdrop of political upheaval surrounding the question of the King’s heir, Harry becomes our perspective on a turbulent time full of intrigue and invention.

This perhaps makes the development of Harry’s feelings for Grace all the more bittersweet, given what history tells us about her. Grace is not impressed by Harry’s newfound wealth and the way he flaunts it. Harry, in turn, comes to a realization he has long tried to avoid:

But he could not fight the thought any longer: Harry’s feelings for Grace were changing. This change was accompanied by a sense of panic and a need to hold on to them; these feelings had dominated the course of his life for so long. Grace’s declared love for him had felt like an obligation. Instead of jumping joyfully and headlong into marriage, companionship and eternal happiness, he had immersed himself in renovating his house. Not to prepare the house for her, but to postpone his proposal.

I honestly don’t know how Mr. Lloyd plans to deal with Grace, but I hope he shows the same humanity and empathy that Harry has shown throughout the series so far. This compassion sets the Hunt & Hooke mysteries apart, although I can’t think of any other Restoration-era historical novel that is as detailed and engaging. It will be truly fascinating to read the next book in this series and be transported back in time, right into the real events that feel fresh even though they seem to be completely made up, despite having a solid historical basis.

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