I did enjoy this book, even though I didn't realize it was the second book in the Dody McCleland series. Cody is the first female autopsy surgeon in England's history. She is trying to make her mark on the world in 1911's England. A young woman comes to see Dody in the free women's clinic the she works on in addition to her job at the Home Office. The woman is obviously pregnant and very distraught. Cody detects signs of lead poisoning when she examines the woman, and knows that ingestion of lead is a common way for women to force a miscarriage - dangerous, but common. This sets Dody on an investigation to find out who is selling high concentrated lead pills to to young women in London's notorious East End. Women dead from botched abortions are turning up on Dody's autopsy table too. I enjoyed Dody's, and Chief Inspector Pike's efforts to try to track down a notorious killer. The relationship between Dody and Pike escalates during their investigation. It's a series that has a good sense of time and place, and the women in the book are strong and independent at a time when it was not common for women to be that way. If I had any complaint at all, it's that the book does seem to get deep into the women's liberation movement via the suffregette upheavals. A bit too much, maybe, but I am intrigued enough to continue with the series. ( )

This is the second book in the Dody McCleland mysteries that I have read and it was just as good as the first. Dody McCleland is one of only a few trained women doctors living in London at the beginning of the 20th century. She is based upon the real life of the author's grandmother.

In addition to Dr. McCleland's paid work at the Home Office's mortuary she also works for free at a Women's Clinic. It was there she saw a young maid who was pregnant and had been taking lead tablets to induce a miscarriage. However, they had not worked and the maid wanted an abortion. Abortions were illegal and Dody would not perform one but she did give the young woman an antidote for the lead and something to calm her and asked her to return in a week. Before that time the maid was dead from a perforated uterus as a result of an illegal abortion. The coroner presiding into the inquiry into her death had received some letters accusing Dody of performing the abortion and as a result she was charged. Her sister, Florence, was willing to do anything to help Dody and since the sufragette cause she supported was on hold because of labour unrest she had time to do it. However, she really thought Inspector Pike should be called in to help but Dody had not seen Pike since he slipped out of a hospital bed before his bad knee could be operated on. Pike was working undercover in a music hall trying to determine if Mata Hari was a German spy or if someone else was involved.

The plight of women, especially poor women, when they became pregnant is the focus of this book. Even the sufragettes did not agree on whether women should have access to contraception. Without contraception women faced either illegal abortion or bringing a child into the world that they could not afford. We don't have to look too far back in our own history to find that situation and, certainly, women in the third world still face that difficult choice. ( )

Australian crime fiction author Felicity Young does a good job with a historical setting, giving her novel a feeling of authenticity, at the same time presenting the problems which women faced in the medical profession in the early 20th century.

Set in London in 1911, when conducting an abortion is a criminal offence, and encouraging women to practice birth control is also illegal, Dody assists the famous Sir Bernard Spilsbury in autopsies. But even with the great man's patronage, she treads a very thin line as she advises women towards better contol of their child bearing.

Dody faces not only public opposition to women like her breaking into the professions, but also opposition among males already working there. And treachery comes from an unexpected place, almost resulting in her death. ( )

http://www.girllostinabook.com/2013/08/review-antidote-to-murder-by-felicity.htm... ( )

ANTIDOTE TO MURDER by Felicity Young is an interesting Edwardian London Historical Mystery set in 1911 England. #2 of the "A Dody McCleland Mystery" series,but can be read as a stand alone. See,"A Dissection of Murder",buyer beware The Anatomy of Death and A Dissection of Murder are the same book".
Follow Dody McCleland and Chief Inspector Pike on a journey of with a German spy,murder,criminal abortions,illicit drug trade,erotic dancers,and the life of a female coroner. Dody is the first British female autopsy surgeon. With a bit of romance and lots of murder,for someone is butchering pregnant women,using illicit drugs and implicating Dody for the murders. From government to the slums of London,you will find you are not only intrigued but transported to a time when woman had to fight for their rights. Ms. Young's story will draw the reader in,hold you there until the very end while transporting you to a different era. Dody and Inspector Pike must find the truth about the murders,find a rogue doctor, and stop a spy all before Dody loses not only her career but her very life. All of this while Dody ad Pike's love is blossoming or trying too. Fast paced and filled with action with a cast of characters that will keep you turning pages from the first sentence to the last. Don't let the first sentence derail you,"Antidote to Murder" is not written in first person. I would recommend "Antidote to Murder" to historical readers as well as readers of mystery,medical mysteries,and those who enjoy a great read. Received for an honest review from the publisher.
RATING: 4
HEAT RATING: Sweet
REVIEWED BY: AprilR, Review courtesy of My Book Addiction and More ( )