A review by kittykornerlibrarian
The Wages of Sin by Kaite Welsh

4.0

The plot was terrific; I enjoyed the first-person narrator, Sarah Gilchrist; and the dark mood was just right. Sarah, an Englishwoman with a dark past, is one of the first women medical students at the University of Edinburgh in 1892. Alongside her medical studies, she decides to investigate the mysterious death of a young prostitute called Lucy. This is an interesting historical mystery. However, I had some problems with the way the novel was constructed. Some moments were due, I am sure, to sloppy editing; for example when a character was referred to as James Ross on one page and (presumably the same guy) as James MacFarlane on the next (p. 144-145). The pacing was maybe a little off. There were plenty of events and memories from the past unfolding, but sometimes it wasn't clear when the author was moving from scene to scene. I think the transitions were perhaps lacking. Still, I would read another by this author. The story and the main character were engaging, and I especially liked the thoughts and discussion about the roles of men and women in English and Scottish society in the 1890s.