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 one windswept day on a beach in Cornwall. Seven years later he is dead and Gwen is on trial for his murder.
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.
"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
"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"
