Under a Veiled Moon

by Karen Odden

Overview

In the tradition of C. S. Harris and Anne Perry, a fatal disaster on the Thames and a roiling political conflict set the stage for Karen Odden’s second Inspector Corravan historical mystery.

September 1878. One night, as the pleasure boat the Princess Alice makes her daily trip up the Thames, she collides with the Bywell Castle, a huge iron-hulled collier. The Princess Alice shears apart, throwing all 600 passengers into the river; only 130 survive. It is the worst maritime disaster London has ever seen, and early clues point to sabotage by the Irish Republican Brotherhood, who believe violence is the path to restoring Irish Home Rule.

For Scotland Yard Inspector Michael Corravan, born in Ireland and adopted by the Irish Doyle family, the case presents a challenge. Accused by the Home Office of willfully disregarding the obvious conclusion, and berated by his Irish friends for bowing to prejudice, Corravan doggedly pursues the truth, knowing that if the Princess Alice disaster is pinned on the IRB, hopes for Home Rule could be dashed forever.

Corrovan’s dilemma is compounded by Colin, the youngest Doyle, who has joined James McCabe’s Irish gang. As violence in Whitechapel rises, Corravan strikes a deal with McCabe to get Colin out of harm’s way. But unbeknownst to Corravan, Colin bears longstanding resentments against his adopted brother and scorns his help.

As the newspapers link the IRB to further accidents, London threatens to devolve into terror and chaos. With the help of his young colleague, the loyal Mr. Stiles, and his friend Belinda Gale, Corravan uncovers the harrowing truth—one that will shake his faith in his countrymen, the law, and himself.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781639101191
Publisher:	CROOKED LANE BOOKS
Publication date:	10/11/2022
Series:	An Inspector Corravan Mystery , #2
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	166,193
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Karen Odden earned her Ph.D. in English from New York University and subsequently taught literature at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She has contributed essays to numerous books and journals, written introductions for Victorian novels in the Barnes & Noble classics series, and edited for the journal Victorian Literature and Culture (Cambridge UP). Her previous novels, also set in 1870s London, have won awards for historical fiction and mystery. A member of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime and the recipient of a grant from the Arizona Commission on the Arts, Karen lives in Arizona with her family and her rescue beagle Rosy.

Editorial Reviews

★ 08/15/2022

The real-life 1878 collision on the Thames of the Princess Alice, a pleasure steamer, with the much larger and heavier Bywell Castle, a cargo ship, propels Odden’s exceptional sequel to 2021’s Down a Dark River. More than 500 people died in the crash, mostly passengers on the steamer. The Commissioner of Wrecks takes charge of raising the sunken Princess Alice and determining the cause of the accident. Meanwhile, the head of the Wapping River Police asks Michael Corravan, who has overcome a troubled past to rise to the rank of acting superintendent, to ascertain whether the disaster was deliberately caused, possibly by the Irish Republican Brotherhood, a group that recently dynamited a rail line. Corravan’s conclusions could affect nascent discussions of granting Ireland home rule. Born in Ireland and adopted by an Irish family, Corravan has a personal stake in the inquiry’s outcome. Odden never strikes a false note, and she combines a sympathetic lead with a twisty plot grounded in the British politics of the day and peopled with fully fleshed-out characters. Fans of Lyndsay Faye’s Gods of Gotham trilogy will be enthralled. Agent: Josh Getzler, HG Literary. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for Under a Veiled Moon:
“[An] exceptional sequel . . . Fans of Lyndsay Faye’s Gods of Gotham trilogy will be enthralled.”
—Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Victorian skulduggery with a heaping side of Irish troubles.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“Will keep readers curious and guessing to the end.”
—Manhattan Book Review, 5-star review

“Fans of Anne Perry’s William Monk series, now completed, will love Corravan’s investigations.”
—Poisoned Pen Bookstore

“A page-turning historical mystery . . .  Fans of methodical police procedurals will be impressed.”
—Bolo Books

“Odden’s expertise in Victorian London, including the social unrest and distrust of the police and Scotland Yard, gives readers a vivid depiction of life on the River Thames.” 
—The Big Thrill

“Well-drawn and believable . . . a plausible and involving story of people caught up in desperate and tragic situations.”
—Historical Novel Society

“Fans of methodical police procedurals will be impressed.”
—Deadly Pleasures

“Charismatic police superintendent Michael Corravan is back in a gripping sequel about the mysterious sinking of the Princess Alice. Odden deftly weaves together English and Irish history, along with her detective's own story, in a way that will keep readers flipping pages long into the night.”
—Susan Elia MacNeal, New York Times bestselling author of Mother Daughter Traitor Spy and the Maggie Hope series.

“A treat for those of us who love skulking about Victorian London . . . Odden has a gift with well-researched history and then making us care about her characters. What more could a mystery reader ask?”
—Will Thomas, award-winning author of the Barker and Llewelyn Mystery Series

“The tragic crash of the Princess Alice makes for a thrilling set piece in the triumphant return of Inspector Michael Corravan. When the disaster is dubbed an act of terrorism, the Irish-born Corravan goes back to his old neighborhood of Whitechapel to investigate. He finds "the Chapel" much changed by gangs, prejudice, and violence which threatens to engulf the people he loves and the city of London itself. Rich in emotion and historical detail, Under a Veiled Moon is a brilliant tale of the dark, thorny places where the personal and the political intertwine.”
—Mariah Fredericks, Edgar award-nominated author of the Jane Prescott series

“A fascinating and mostly forgotten real-life maritime disaster, the sinking of the Princess Alice in the lower Thames, provides the centerpiece to the second novel in Odden’s spectacular Michael Corravan series, Under a Veiled Moon. Odden unpacks the historical implications of the disaster and then spins the story from there, sending Corravan, a former bare-knuckled boxer turned Scotland Yard inspector, on a heart-pounding investigation through the atmospheric streets of 19th century London, and finally taking him right to his own backyard. Under a Veiled Moon provides a perfect launching point for those new to the series.”
—Edwin Hill, Agatha-award nominated author of The Secrets We Share

From the Publisher

2022-07-13
Inspector Mickey Corravan, now promoted to acting superintendent of the Wapping River Police, investigates a real-life 1878 disaster whose tentacles reach throughout his homeland and into his own adoptive family.

Mickey’s daily concerns are abruptly put on hold by the collision on the River Thames of Princess Alice, a wooden pleasure steamer, and Bywell Castle, an iron-built collier, that ends with Alice’s sinking and the deaths of hundreds of passengers and crew members. Suspicion quickly falls on John Conway, the Irish helmsman who replaced William Schmidt, Capt. Thomas Harrison’s usual pilot aboard Bywell Castle, at the last moment when Schmidt was murdered. Members of Alice’s crew are all too ready to blame Conway for the accident, and rumors mounting in intensity link Conway to the Irish Republican Brotherhood, who are also charged with causing a disastrous recent rail accident outside the Sittingbourne station. Mickey, who’s Irish himself, is eager to find other suspects and even more eager to keep Colin Doyle, his foster mother’s youngest son, out of the trouble he seems determined to cultivate through his dealings with James McCabe, powerful leader of the Cobbwaller gang, and his unsavory lieutenant, Seamus O’Hagan. The cost will be high, but eventually Mickey will uncover a plot whose instigators Odden has shielded from suspicion by the simple expedient of omitting them from the “Select Character List” that introduces the tale. The appended “Reading Group Questions,” by contrast, are uncommonly provocative.

A densely imagined anatomy of Victorian skulduggery with a heaping side of Irish troubles.

Kirkus Reviews