4 Stars
One Liner: Entertaining

September 1920
A young bride is found dead at the country house of her would-be husband. People claim that she is a victim of the Withington curse which affects all women who marry into the family. However, Dr. Spilsbury is sure the cause of her death is a human and not some curse. With help from Violet and Charlie, the famous forensic pathologist is ready to find the killer.
The story comes in the third-person POVs of Dr. Spilsbury and a few other characters.

My Thoughts:
While the book works as a standalone, I would recommend reading the first. Violet’s introduction is necessary to understand her character (and she is still my favorite).
Yet again, we start with something that seems pretty simple at the beginning only to realize there’s much we don’t know. There is much more than a curse, which gets only a teeny space as Dr. Spilsbury is not the one for such stuff.
The victim was a force to reckon with and a stickler for rules. We know such people make a lot more enemies than they should simply because they don’t know where to draw a line.
The list of suspects is pretty long, though a certain clue cuts it down by half. The mystery is intriguing as we get multiple flashback scenes from the past (involving the victim). I did guess the killer, though I had to wait for the reveal to find the reason. It comes together well.
The war is once again one of the prominent players in the plot. However, there are other themes like bullying, PPD, mental illness, old money vs. new money, and a few more.
The dynamics between the trio are shifting even though Dr. Spilsbury is determined to ignore the changes and be his useful self. The next book should be more interesting!
Though the pacing is a bit uneven (again), it doesn’t hamper our enjoyment. I did miss Annie but Charlie is proving himself to be a worthy addition to Scotland Yard (even if he can be annoying at times with his little rants).

To summarize, Dr. Spilsbury and the Cursed Bride sustains the momentum established in the previous book and provides good entertainment in the process. I’m quite surprised this series has such few reviews on Goodreads. It’s a solid historical mystery with the right amount of dark. It deserves more readers.
Thank you, NetGalley and Orion Publishing Group, for eARC. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

This is a very clever series and it's only book two!

I have always been fascinated with Dr Spilsbury and his work in forensics etc and so this series is perfect for me.
It's all done very well and its a great historical mystery series with a good plot and fascinating characters who really are memorable. It has gothic and Jack the Ripper overtones and it's all very exciting. Loved it!

Spilsbury and Violet are onto another case when on a consult in a village, they find a woman dead and supposedly pushed from her window on her wedding day. But things are not what they seem. The victim was disliked, there are family secrets, the house is said to have ghosts. The crime buster team has to filter through a lot of information, red herrings, twists and turns before the killer is revealed.
Well written, with post WWI as the setting and exploration of class differences as a theme.

#netgalley #DrSpilsburyAndTheCursedBride

On a consultation in York, Dr Bernard Spilsbury sees the body of a woman who has apparently died in an accident, however he realises she has been murdered and thus wants to investigate. The woman died on her wedding day and her intended was a local man with a name but little money. Theodora was bringing money to the family even though they felt she was beneath them. The family dynamic is complex and Spilsbury and his team need to unpick a lot of clues in order to solve the mystery.
This is the second book in which Douglas takes the eminent early 20th century pathologist Spilsbury and builds a rather satisfying period crime novel around him. I really liked the themes of class explored here, as well as the post-WWI setting. There is an awful lot of plot to unravel and not all of it is successful or adding much to the narrative but this is a really interesting read and I enjoyed it!

A bride dies on her wedding day, apparently falling out of a window by accident. Everyone thinks she has fallen from the window by accident, but Dr Spilsbury spots the body at the mortuary and realises she has been strangled. Violet and Spilsbury go along to the house to find out where and exactly why she died; the family have their own politics and motives, but who dislikes her so much they will kill? Or does the reason for her death lie in her own past history and the War which was over so recently?

Its an interesting read, if a little clunky in parts, but always fun to see the great pathologist at work, outsmarting everyone.

Thank you to NetGalley and Orion Publishing Group for allowing me access to the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The book is unputdownable, twisted and gripping. The vibe of the book is suspenseful and atmospheric. The secrets are deep and frightening. A young bride is found dead on her wedding day. While mystery, myths and superstitions are surrounding the Withington Hall. No one really knows what happened with her but it is shocking for everyone. The cause of her death has not been disclosed yet but it could be the old curse or someone wanted to harm her for their person reason or could be someone from village. The investigation brings out so many secrets and truth. Every character had a secret. The truth was twisted. The ending was just so unexpected. It kept me guessing till the end.

Thanks to Author and Publisher.

As good as the previous story, this author takes you back in time to a simpler age. Keep up the series please. Can't wait till the next one

Dr. Spilsbury, Violet Malone and PC Charlie Abbott return. Much to my delight. I so enjoyed the first book in this series and I was very much looking forward to more.

Theodora, a young bride-to-be is found dead on her wedding day. It looks as if someone shoved her out the window. Some are convinced there is a curse at Withington Hall, where every woman who marries into the family is doomed and struck down. If you've read the previous book, then you'll know Dr. Spilsbury doesn't go for that kind of thing at all. Cold, hard facts are all that matter and he suspects the reason and the culprit for Theodora's death are to be found much closer to home. This isn't really a case for Dr. Spilsbury, but he quickly deduces the investigating detective is utterly useless and too reluctant to rock the boat where the Withington family is concerned. And where there is a mystery to be solved, Dr. Spilsbury would very much like to know the answer.

The list of suspects is rather long, though. It doesn't seem Theodora was liked a whole lot. To be honest, it was easy to see why not. I found it hard to warm to her as well, and that was even before some of the things she did were revealed. It sure made the investigation that much more complicated. Who would want Theodora dead? Someone from her past, or someone from the present? Someone from the village, or someone from Withington? It took me a long time to see the forest for the trees, and even then I wasn't entirely convinced I had the right culprit. (I didn't. We've already established numerous times that I'd make an awful detective.)

As in the first book, D.L. Douglas does an excellent job in highlighting the differences between the lower and the higher classes. Not only with regard to Theodora, but also with some of my favourite characters in Violet and Charlie. Both are forces to be reckoned with, and both really came into their own in this investigation too. The dynamics in the relationships are changing quite subtly, even if Dr. Spilsbury is trying to fight it off. I don't think he quite realises yet what a tough and unrelenting cookie Violet is 😉.

Needless to say, the walls of Withington Hall hide a multitude of dirty secrets, lies and manipulation. It is a murky web indeed that Dr. Spilsbury needs to unravel. It very much sent the story into a direction I wasn't at all expecting. Some of it is heartbreaking, some of it is infuriating, and it had me thinking how different things would have turned out if people could have just been who they'd wanted to be. Cryptic, isn't it? You'll have to discover it all for yourself.

'Dr. Spilsbury and the Cursed Bride' is a fabulous addition to this series. It's a compelling puzzle that had me hooked from start to finish. Just like its predecessor, this instalment is hugely entertaining and twisty. I had a wonderful time hanging out with all these characters again, trying to solve this most intriguing mystery, and it has very much left me wanting more! Recommended for fans of historical crime fiction.

So disappointing.
I love Dr Spilsbury and the idea of him being a main character is brilliant but this book did not do him justice.

I found myself getting so bored I had to skip to the end just to find out who had committed the crime.
Not good.

I read the first in this twisty, inventive series last year and it was one of my books of the year, cleverly basing the historical crime series around the real life 1920s pathologist Dr Spilsbury who came to prominence and fame during the Crippen case.

A rain soaked wedding at a crumbling gothic pile in the Yorkshire moors comes to a tragic end when the body of the bride is discovered before the ceremony has taken place. A fall from a window thanks to a broken lock. Sad but clearly an accident. But is it? Spilsbury and his assistant Violet Malone are in York for another case when he catches sight of the body and instantly recognises that her death was no accident, that the bride was strangled before her body was pushed from the window. Intrigued Spilsbury and Violet accompany the bride's grieving father to Withington Hall where they find a family desperately concealing secrets, lies and ancient tragedies. They are soon joined by Detective Constable Charlie Abbott and the three set about finding just who wanted Theodora Crosby dead - and what her motives were for settling in such a remote spot in the first case.

Charlie, Violet and Spilsbury are a great detective trio, here solving a fiendishly complicated case full of red herrings set in a fabulously atmospheric, rain soaked Yorkshire village. I hope this is the second in what will be a long and very successful series. A brilliant, absorbing read. Highly recommended.