Death Comes to Dartmoor: A Merriweather and Royston Mystery

Set in Victorian England, Conroy’s muddled sequel to 2018’s The Butterfly Conspiracy finds zoologists Merula Merriweather and Lord Raven Royston on their way to a remote village in Dartmoor to see a private zoological collection. On arrival, the pair discover their host, Charles Oaks, behaving strangely. The reason becomes clear when they’re awakened the next morning by a mob of locals crying for Oaks’s head. Tillie, a servant who worked for Oaks, has been found dead on the beach with strange markings on her neck. The villagers are convinced that the “kracken” in Oaks’s menagerie of preserved animals comes to life and prowls for victims at night. When Raven and Merula finally piece together a motive, they set an unlikely trap to catch Tillie’s wholly human murderer. Unfortunately, Conroy conveys no sense of Victorian-era mores and uses a very American voice for her English characters. Lovers of historical mysteries who insist on characters who fit the era and story locale would do better to look elsewhere. Agent: Jill Marsal, Marsal Lyon Literary. (Aug.)