Written convincingly in the first-person, male voice by a distinguished crime writer, herself a Life Peer in the British House of Lords, this sumptuous novel possesses impressive scientific and social credibility. Blood, bleeding, inheritance, allegiance, and family ties are gracefully interwoven. The vivid but myriad cast of characters--some real and some fictitious--is daunting, but an indispensable family tree is a consolation. Medical understanding of hemophilia is accurately explained for each period in the two centuries under consideration. The problems of historical life-writing are compellingly told, replete with their attendant paraphernalia of letters, newspapers, hostile interviews, and fragile clues; they will be familiar to any reader who has engaged in the process.

The depressing effect on Martin of his wife's obsessive pursuit of pregnancy is an important consequence of medical technology on the life of couples. His reticence both to reproduce and to reveal his hesitation to her resembles the grotesque aspects of inheritance writ large. The mysteries in this novel are manifold: the character of the doctor; a diagnosis; a death that may or may not be a murder; and the nature of historical research. It reminds us that on one level, every novel is a mystery; indeed, every history can be one too.

This excellent book is not a run-of-the-mill mystery. Strangely, many media reviewers gave it only middling praise. I imagine that the author's reputation as a crime writer caused editors to seek readers who specialize in crime; they may have been disappointed not to find a clear dilemma with bodies and gore on page one, perhaps even they were bored. But "we," most definitely, are not.