Golden Age of Detective Fiction

Iris Woodmore is covering two female political candidates on their campaign to be the first female MP. One is a progressive feminist who has taken the torch from the suffragette movement; the other is a pampered landed lady, stolid, conservative, and wealthy, who is stepping into her husband’s coveted political position after his sudden accidental death. Iris Woodmore, the daughter of a suffragette, Violet Woodmore, who mysteriously drowns while defacing parliament, is partial to the feminist candidate who has acted as a surrogate mother to Iris since her mother’s death.

However, Iris travels to Crookham Hall to interview the woman stepping into her late husband’s campaign after his accidental death. Iris uncovers that one of the housemaids, Rebecca, has disappeared; she wonders if this housemaid holds any clues to the death of the late candidate, who Iris believes has been murdered, and Iris heavily suspects that it was done by someone in his own family.

Covering the political campaigns opens old wounds. Iris is still baffled by her mother’s mysterious drowning. No one can account for why she jumped into the river while escaping apprehension after defacing parliament. The women with her at the time are silent, and the watchman who saw her go into the river swears she jumped of her own volition. However, Iris believes there is more to the story.

As Iris digs deep into the lives of these powerful women she unearths many secrets and discovers the lengths women are forced to go to gain and keep power.

The Review

Originally titled “The Suffragette’s Daughter,” Michelle Salter’s first Iris Woodmore mystery is a feminist rendition of the much-minded Golden Age detective story. It’s an unflinching exploration of the power women wield in a patriarchial society and how they are often exploited and abused.

From maids trying to erase their existence to powerful mistresses who are taken advantage of by their partners. Death at Crookham Hall is an unflinching look at how domestic violence festers in a patriarchal society and nearly ruins a family and how the women who are victims try to live their lives with dignity and hang onto whatever power they can hold.

There are a lot of historical details that enrich the story, the hunger strikes of the suffragettes, the plight of wounded soldiers, a society on the brink of change with conflicting ideals, changing socio-economic status, women entering the workforce, and the old guard full of grand houses and domestic service eroding in real-time.

Despite containing several heavy topics, Michelle Salter’s book is easy to read. The characters are rich, the prose is charming, and Iris Woodmore is a delightful protagonist. Woodmore’s growth and ability to embrace nuance and empathy towards people she once viewed as privileged is astounding; her individualism and identity are counter cultures; from her pants to her profession, she is a modern woman, but she moves easily amongst all walks of life. She struggles to understand her past and present but is always willing to learn more information, even if it challenges her previous worldview. There’s a lot to admire about Iris Woodmore.

Death at Crookham Hall reflects a lot on what a woman’s love can do: it can, in act, change, it can lead to a happy marriage, it can lead to violence, it can lead to death. Love and power are twin flames in this book, and the way they give purpose and destroy in this book is fascinating and tragic.

To lighten the book’s mood, Iris is embroiled in a rather comic love story with a man, best described as a golden retriever in human form. This ends in a cliffhanger, which surprisingly made me very invested in the second Iris Woodmore mystery! It was an excellent counterweight to the more severe topic explored in Death at Crookham Hall.

I highly recommend this book and can’t wait to dive into Michelle Salter’s works.