In The Symptoms of Death, we are introduced to Dr. Alexandra Gladstone, a female doctor with a special license to practice medicine, who has inherited her father’s practice. She’s at a weekend party that the local earl is hosting when a hysterical maid bursts into the dining room brandishing a kitchen knife, saying that she’s going to kill the earl. Dr. Gladstone calms her down and gives her a sleeping draught, but the next day the earl is found with a knife sticking out of his chest and the maid missing. Dr. Gladstone and another guest, Mr. Forsythe, believe in the maid’s innocence, but the public is clamoring for her arrest and execution. Can they find the real killer before it’s too late?
I found this book to be a really good read. I was unsure when I started it, but Paul’s writing was surprisingly sophisticated. Just when you get a little worried that the story is starting to be too plain, she twists and turns at all the right points. The only piece of the story that I got slightly irritated was Dr. Gladstone herself, as she became too stereotypical of a character as the story went on.
As a female doctor (one of the very, very few for her time), Dr. Gladstone is tough and aloof, as many people wash her away or think her incompetent because of her sex. Her attitude is totally understandable, but she’s not any different in private. She’s always cool, calm, collected, analytical, and extremely bullheaded. She gets threatened and injured, but is constantly pushing on and scolds her maid and friend for letting her sleep too long, worrying about her safety, etc. She’s so unemotional that she seems more like a robot than she does a woman who’s met with some challenges in her life. She may change further in the series, and it will be good to see if she does. I don’t want her to lose her toughness, by any means, but I would like to read about a character who’s slightly more human.
Regardless of my faults with Dr. Gladstone’s character, this was a really well-written book and I will be reading the next one. I didn’t expect to get as sucked in as I did, but the plot was quite good and I enjoyed it a lot.