The Specimen

The year is 1859. Edward Scales is a businessman, a butterfly collector, a respectable man. He is the man Gwen Carrick fell in love with. Gwen Carrick first meets Edward Scales on a windswept beach in Cornwall. The spark is instant and the couple begin to forge a future together. Seven years on, Gwen’s world has fallen apart and she finds herself in the docks at the Old Bailey, charged with Edward’s murder. Could Gwen Carrick really murder the man she loved? From country house drawing rooms to the rainforests of Brazil, The Specimen explores the price one independent young woman might pay for wanting an unorthodox life. Set in a Victorian world battling between the forces of spiritualism and Darwinism, polite society and the call of clandestine love, Gwen and Edward’s tale is a gripping melodrama, a romance and a murder mystery that will compel readers to its final thrilling page.

Reviews of The Specimen

* This genre-defying novel mixes romance with high drama, science, feminism and old-fashioned murder mystery and intrigues, and surprises right up to the last page — Kate Saunders The Times * Martha Lea uses language beautifully to evoke a sense of place as we move between Cornwall and Brazil, and there are many twists to keep the reader intrigued right to the very end — Sheila Wright We Love This Book * Lea's intricate plot takes full advantage of the tropes of Victorian melodrama: Askew sexuality, off-kilter music-hall characters, clandestine relationships, repression, madness, a criminal trial and, yes, a bearded lady Marie Claire * An impressive first novel in a burgeoning Vic Lit subgenre of crime fiction Literary Review 20130301 * Assured and accomplished … this is a rich, deep, rewarding read The Age