The Darwin Affair by Tim Mason

 

When Charles Darwin finally publishes On the Origin of Species, it has an extremely polarizing affect on the people of Britain.  The Prince Regent, Albert, is impressed with it and wants to give Darwin a knighthood.  Other members of the British elite are willing to go to great lengths to make sure that doesn't happen.  When inspector Charles Fields starts to investigate an assassination attempt on the Royal Couple, he gets sucked into a dangerous web of power, influence, dark forces and madness that threatens, not only Charles Darwin and Prince Albert, but Field's own life and reputation.

This is the current "Big Read" book of the Utah Beehive Consortium.  It is a decent historical mystery, but maybe a little too dark for me.  The body count was pretty high, and there is a lot of depiction of cruel psychological abuse of some children.  The plot is intricate and interesting, and  the depiction of the time period and historical characters is carefully researched.  I think there are a lot of readers who like mystery and intrigue authors like Michael Crighton and James Patterson, who will really enjoy this book.  (2019, 373 p.)