• The Anatomist's Wife

  • Lady Darby Mystery, Book 1
  • By: Anna Lee Huber
  • Narrated by: Heather Wilds
  • Length: 11 hrs and 44 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (1,116 ratings)

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The Anatomist's Wife  By  cover art

The Anatomist's Wife

By: Anna Lee Huber
Narrated by: Heather Wilds
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Publisher's summary

Following the death of her husband, Lady Darby has taken refuge at her sister's estate, finding solace in her passion for painting. But when one of the house guests is murdered, her brother-in-law asks her to aid the insufferable Sebastian Gage - a fellow guest with some experience as an inquiry agent. While Gage is clearly more competent than she first assumed, Kiera isn't about to let her guard down, as accusations and rumors swirl. When Kiera and Gage's search leads them to even more gruesome discoveries, a series of disturbing notes urges Lady Darby to give up the inquiry. But Kiera is determined to protect her family and prove her innocence, even as she risks becoming the next victim.

©2012 Anna Aycock (P)2014 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Huber's protagonist is complex and likable and the well-lotted mystery is filled with fascinating secondary characters. The setting is lavishly portrayed...you'll be engaged right to the end." ( RT Book Reviews)

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What listeners say about The Anatomist's Wife

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A good read.

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I put off reading this series because of some negative reviews. I finally broke down and got the first book and was pleasantly surprised. It is a good, solid and entertaining read. I immediate read the next two books and enjoyed them as well.

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57 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

A Victorian Puzzle...A very good read…

A weekend party at a highland castle and a gentle woman is murdered in the maze.
Lady Darby, a talented artist and the disgraced widow of a famous anatomist, spent the last 16 months hiding out at the castle with her sister and brother-in-law. Lady Darby and the insufferable Mr. Gage, a friend of her brother-in-law and guest at the house party, are tasked with uncovering of a murderer. What follows is the puzzle… Piece by piece.
I found the character development in the story very good and the story more than held my interest. Unlike some other reviewers, I enjoyed the narrator. I plan to read the rest of the books in this series.

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36 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

I loved it

I almost did not get this book because of one of the reviews. I know why someone would say it was juvenile because it was a old rationed agatha Christie type book. Not a lot of gore and no sex. There was also no bad language. It was a good mystery and a good plot. I will be getting her next book

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28 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Poor Narration

What disappointed you about The Anatomist's Wife?

Never got to the story because narrator read every sentence the same. Very annoying.

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27 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Good story, poor narration.

The story was great. a little repetitive in a few spots. but still great overall. The narrator was not good.....doesn't seem to know how to see ahead so doesn't do well with phrasing nor appropriate inflections....makes the story stilted far too often. Her one redeeming point is that she does try to put emotion into the dialogue between characters ...though often that, too, didn't seem appropriate to what I believe the author was trying to portray. I would love to hear this story narrated by someone who could better instill feeling into descriptive prose rather than sounding like an old time newscaster reading from a script picked up just seconds before going on air.

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24 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

story is well developed, narrator needs help

I loved his story and it is the only reason I stayed with it despite the very slow start, which I'm affording blame on the narrative that although essential to setting up the plot and theme and background, I barely made through the rhythmic drone of the narrator. I hope she improves with next book or it may be the last I get to hear in this series. I will give her one more bit of grace.

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19 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Probably would have enjoyed this when I was age 13

I believe this is for young adults/teens. The story had no depth. The summary sounded so good, I started to purchase two books featuring this couple at the same time, I'm so glad I did not.

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16 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Not a single redeeming character in sight

What disappointed you about The Anatomist's Wife?

The main character was an utter coward and had no arc, improvement, or personal growth of any kind. The man meant to be her love interest was an asshole, yet she softened to him despite him never changing, nor learning to respect her autonomy. She seemed to fall for him only because he was handsome. >:(Also, the back story—how everyone hated Kira because of her husband's work—seemed thin and kind of silly. Sure, I get that acquiring corpses for scientific research was a problem at the time (people were murdered, blah, blah, blah), but it was all played out like a soap opera. It was tiresome rather than interesting by the 3rd time it was mentioned.

What could Anna Lee Huber have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

She could have made the man Kira loved learn not to be a douche bag by the end of the book, or made the main character grow a spine... or a brain. Adding at least one like-able character would have been a nice.

Did Heather Wilds do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

Yeah, that was fine. It was overacted in some parts. For a story that was already over-dramatic in the dialogue, it really hurt to have the acting be over the top, too.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

Well, I guess the murder mystery part was ok. Not great; just ok.

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15 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Fun mystery, Odd narration

I enjoyed the mystery story enough to listen to the end (it was worth it!). I will admit to a bias for consistently strong, independent heroines, and the shifts to ditheriness were less than credible for the character already established. They seemed to be included only to induce doubts in the reader/ listener that the heroine would make choices that made sense.

The narrator has a lovely speaking voice, wonderful diction and pronunciation and the pacing was perfect. My 'however' : I found the narrator's style of frequently, "reading without looking ahead to where proper breaks and emphasis should go," TOO annoying to allow me to purchase any other Audio books by the author. These odd errors YANK you out of the story, reminding you that you are listening to an audio book... All the audio books I see in this series use the same narrator, sigh. I thought I'd found some fun summer 'enjoyable mystery, light romance" listening...

I'll admit, I may try one more in hopes that this odd narration disappears.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great Story

Would you consider the audio edition of The Anatomist's Wife to be better than the print version?

I have enjoyed many 'Victorian' Mysteries so I thought I would give this a try. Ms Huber throws a whole new twist in her Lady Darby series. Her characters are great and story line refreshingly different.

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8 people found this helpful