About this item
The first novel in the Westerman and Crowther historical crime series that The New York Times Book Review called “CSI: Georgian England” and Tess Gerritsen called “chillingly memorable”Debut novelist Imogen Robertson won the London Telegraph’s First Thousand Words of a Novel competition in 2007 with the opening of Instruments of Darkness. The finished work is a fast-paced historical mystery starring a pair of amateur eighteenth-century sleuths with razor-sharp minds. When Harriet Westerman, the unconventional mistress of a Sussex manor, finds a dead man on her grounds, she enlists reclusive anatomist Gabriel Crowther to help her find the murderer. Moving from drawing room to dissecting room, from dark London streets to the gentrified countryside, Instruments of Darkness is a gripping tale of the forbidding Thornleigh Hall and an unlikely forensic duo determined to uncover its deadly secrets.
About the Author
I grew up in Darlington in the North East of England, studied Russian and German at Cambridge and spent a year in Russia in a city called Voronezh during the early nineties. Lots of vodka, lots of falling over in the snow.Before I started writing full-time I directed children's television, film and radio. There is less sticky paper and glitter in my life now. Shame. I decided to try and make a career out of writing after I won the Telegraph's 'First thousand words of a novel' competition in 2007 with the opening scene of Instruments of Darkness, my first book. I've written six novels; five in the Georgian Westerman and Crowther series and a standalone, Paris Winter. Paris Winter, Island of Bones and Theft of Life have been shortlisted for the Crime Writers' Association Historical Dagger. Since Theft of Life was published, I've co-authored King of Kings with the legendary Wilbur Smith, and Liberation the story of WWII SOE operative Nancy Wake, with Darby Kealey under our joint pseudonym Imogen Kealey. My political thriller with Tom Watson arrives on bookshelves in October 2020. I love co-authoring - it reminds me of the creative energy of a team I loved while working in TV. I live in London with my husband, cheesemonger and author, Ned Palmer, and am Chair of the Historical Writers' Association
