Review: Four Thousand Days by MJ Trow

Synopsis: Introducing turn-of-the-century archaeologist-sleuth Margaret Murray in the first of a brilliant new historical mystery series.

October, 1900. University College, London. When the spreadeagled body of one of her students is discovered in her rented room shortly after attending one of her lectures, Dr Margaret Murray is disinclined to accept the official verdict of suicide and determines to find out how and why the girl really died.

As an archaeologist, Dr Murray is used to examining ancient remains, but she’s never before had to investigate the circumstances surrounding a newly-dead corpse. However, of one thing Margaret is certain: if you want to know how and why a person died, you need to understand how they lived. And it soon becomes clear that the dead girl had been keeping a number of secrets. As Margaret uncovers evidence that Helen Richardson had knowledge of a truly extraordinary archaeological find, the body of a second young woman is discovered on a windswept Kent beach – and the case takes a disturbing new twist . . .

Again, MJ Trow has taken on a real-life character and posited them front and centre as an amateur detective. He did this successfully with the poet and raconteur Christopher Marlowe and again with the poet Chaucer, so it will be very interesting to see how this series featuring archaeologist Margaret Murray develops.

As mentioned, Dr Margaret Murray really did exist and was associated with University College in London where she began her studies in Egyptology under the guidance of William Flinders Petrie in 1894 - she was 30 years old. She began her teaching career two years later, which is where we find her in 1900 when our story begins.

Margaret is approached to investigate when the body of one of her "students" is discovered. Prevailing police attitudes towards this young girl are draconian by our modern sensibilities, where women of an independent disposition are considered whores. Even the fact that there are female students attending the College are frowned upon by the ranks of male misogyny among both teaching staff and students.

One has to remember than England in 1900 was still under the reign of Queen Victoria (d.1901), the Boer War was still ongoing (1899–1902), and the scare of the Ripper murders was still fresh in peoples' minds (1888).

London itself was experiencing an exponential population growth which coincided with the geographical expanse of the city - between 1851 and 1896 the city had nearly quadrupled in square mileage and then some.

London at this pint in time was the global political, financial, and trading capital of the nation. While the city grew wealthy as Britain's holdings expanded, 19th century London was also a city of poverty, where millions lived in overcrowded and unsanitary slums, through which disease ran rampant, whilst the wealthy and middle classes favoured the outer suburbs.

Large immigrant populations from Ireland, Italy, Africa, China and India began establishing their own communities, as did a growing Jewish population.  The Port of London was one of the largest with the bulk of international trade passing through - shipbuilding was a prime industry at the time.

The City of London Police was the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement within the City of London, and was officially formed in 1832; its formation was ratified in 1839.

The Metropolitan Police Service was founded in 1829 by Robert Peel under the Metropolitan Police Act 1829 and on 29 September of that year, the first constables of the service appeared on the streets of London. Ten years later, Metropolitan Police Act 1839 consolidated policing within London by expanding the Metropolitan Police District and either abolishing or amalgamating the various other law enforcement entities within London into the Metropolitan Police such as the Thames River Police, which had been formed in 1800, and the end of the Bow Street Runners and Horse Patrol.

Trow weaves a tale that traverses the halls of education to the slums of London and back again. The narrative is engaging and easy to follow whilst the character of Murray herself put me in mind of another formidable late-to-career Margaret, the actress Margaret Rutherford.

I am very interested to see how Trow develops Margaret's future narrative and where we will see her next.

Further reading:

- Wikipedia - Margaret Murray

- fembio - Margaret Murray

- folklore magazine - Margaret Murray