A Murderous Malady by Christine Trent

I listened to this book and thoroughly enjoyed it. It is the second book in the Florence Nightingale series. I had read the first book in the series, No Cure for the Dead, when it was lent to me by our Mystery Book Club leader, Kay. I really liked that book also. I was on a FB book club site a few weeks ago, and Christine Trent was the featured author one day. Once I realized there was a second book in the Florence Nightingale series, I picked if for my Audible choice for the month. 

holera has broken out in London, but Florence Nightingale has bigger problems when people begin dying of a far more intentional cause—murder.

The London summer of 1854 is drawing to a close when a deadly outbreak of cholera grips the city. Florence Nightingale is back on the scene marshaling her nurses to help treat countless suffering patients at Middlesex Hospital as the disease tears through the Soho slums. But beyond the dangers of the disease, something even more evil is seeping through the ailing streets of London.

It begins with an attack on the carriage of Florence’s friend, Elizabeth Herbert, wife to Secretary at War Sidney Herbert. Florence survives, but her coachman does not. Within hours, Sidney’s valet stumbles into the hospital, mutters a few cryptic words about the attack, and promptly dies from cholera. Frantic that an assassin is stalking his wife, Sidney enlists Florence’s help, who accepts but has little to go on save for the valet’s last words and a curious set of dice in his jacket pocket. Soon, the suspects are piling up faster than cholera victims, as there seems to be no end to the number of people who bear a grudge against the Herbert household.

Now, Florence is in a race against time—not only to save the victims of a lethal disease, but to foil a murderer with a disturbingly sinister goal—in A Murderous Malady.

About: 
"Cholera has broken out in London, but Florence Nightingale has bigger problems when people begin dying of a far more intentional cause—murder.

The London summer of 1854 is drawing to a close when a deadly outbreak of cholera grips the city. Florence Nightingale is back on the scene marshaling her nurses to help treat countless suffering patients at Middlesex Hospital as the disease tears through the Soho slums. But beyond the dangers of the disease, something even more evil is seeping through the ailing streets of London.

It begins with an attack on the carriage of Florence’s friend, Elizabeth Herbert, wife to Secretary at War Sidney Herbert. Florence survives, but her coachman does not. Within hours, Sidney’s valet stumbles into the hospital, mutters a few cryptic words about the attack, and promptly dies from cholera. Frantic that an assassin is stalking his wife, Sidney enlists Florence’s help, who accepts but has little to go on save for the valet’s last words and a curious set of dice in his jacket pocket. Soon, the suspects are piling up faster than cholera victims, as there seems to be no end to the number of people who bear a grudge against the Herbert household.

Now, Florence is in a race against time—not only to save the victims of a lethal disease, but to foil a murderer with a disturbingly sinister goal—in A Murderous Malady."

 There are really two mysteries to this story; who attacked Elizabeth and why are so many people coming down with cholera. Florence is determined to solve both mysteries. We get to see not only the caring, nurturing and hardworking side of Florence the nurse, but also her determination, courage and ability to stand up to people as Florence the detective. This book has many factual instances and most of the characters were real people.

I like this series so much for a few reasons. I am a nurse and know all about Florence Nightingale. I think I even read her autobiography when I was young. Nurse's week was the week of May 6th, ending on May 12th, Florence's birthday. I listened to it during that time. I had read about the cholera epidemic in London before and knew much of what Christine writes about is true to what was happening. When cholera was a story line in the series Victoria, this year, I had to go read about it. Florence is asked to help get Middlesex Hospital up to par and assist in caring for all the people coming in with cholera. I have relatives that live in the Middlesex area so of course that interested me.  As I mentioned, many of the characters in the book were also people that Florence knew and many of the circumstances have some truth to them. The author has very cleverly written an intriguing story incorporating all of these people that really lived, and were friends and acquaintances of Florence. The audible book shares this history at the end and I presume the book does also. I found the book very intriguing and interesting. The book ends with what I hope is an opening for the next book.

Check out Christine's website. She writes of historical fiction too.

https://christinetrent.com/