I requested this book from NetGalley because

a) I love mysteries,

b) I like Japan, and

c) The idea of a Japanese novelist writing a mystery set in London in 1770 really intrigues me for some reason. Not to mention the fact that this novel has won the 2012 Honkaku Mystery Grand Prize, which means that it’s supposed to be authentic.

The Resurrection Fireplace is about Professor Daniel Barton and two of his students – Edward and Nigel. He has other students, but these are the two most important ones. Because Professor Barton and his students use stolen corpses for their dissection, they have to hide the body when the Bow Street Runners come. But when they pull the corpse back up, they realise that there are two additional corpses: that of a young boy with all his limbs cut off, and a man without his face. The professor and his students are basically forced into helping the investigation by Sir John, the magistrate, and Anne, his eyes and hands.

At the same time, Nathan, a young poet from the countryside, arrives in the city with two manuscripts. He visits Tyndale, expecting to be published, but things don’t go as they plan. Luckily for him, he meets Edward and Nigel.

So at the start of the book, I thought it seemed pretty Japanese. The way that Barton’s students talk to him were quite similar to the way that students in Japan talk. But as I continued reading, I was pulled into their world and completely forgot about who the author was.

I gotta say, the first few chapters are very long, but the book does pick up pace and the last few chapters were amazing. There were so many twists and even though they were pretty out there, I thought they were plausible. The ending was very strong and I loved it.

Out of all the characters, my favourite was (unsurprisingly) Anne. She’s basically the only female character with substantial page-time and she showed that she could hold her own against all those guys. As the representative of Sir John, she gets to go to a lot of places to make enquiries and has a fair amount of agency. The other female characters, either don’t appear a lot or are dead. And the Professor was smart but clueless most of the time, while his students were a little shady. So yup, favourite character in the book.

This was an interesting book. I was a bit confused at the start, given that three bodies turn up in one chapter, but once I was drawn into the world, I found myself unable to stop reading until I found out what had happened.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.