Murder By Moonrise
Dr. Julia Lewis Mystery Book 3
Patrice McDonough
Kensington Pub
Feb, 2026
Murder By Moonrise by Patrice McDonough takes place in 1867 delving into the Irish uprising.
“I wrote this series as a one-off book, but my agent wanted to sell it as a three-book deal. Dr. Julia Lewis had the setting of 1866 in the first book. This is the dawn of women in medicine. I wanted to look at the challenges and problems of a professional woman in that world. She forms a partnership with a Scotland Yard detective, Richard Tennant. The first book has the history of disease and its ramifications. In that novel the mystery hinges on the ramifications on the recent end of the cholera epidemic. She is called to some death sites as a doctor instead of being an amateurish detective. The aftermath becomes the center of the mysterious story. While the second book has the theme of the exploitation and trafficking of women where Julia treats the urban poor.”
The plot has Dr. Julia Lewis asked to perform an autopsy on Lizzie Dowling, Queen Victoria’s Irish-born parlor maid, who is found drowned near the Quarr Abbey ruins on the Isle of Wight. Since Julia is vacationing there with her grandfather, she agrees to examine the body. Everyone wants Julia to declare the death an accident, but she is skeptical after finding Lizzie pregnant.
“Julia is an odd person for her time. She does not think most understand her. She feels she has to be a doctor like she must breathe. Being a doctor is her passion and vocation in life. What drives her is bringing medical help to those who cannot afford it. She is an extroverted person. Because her parents died when she was young, she was raised by her grandparents in a loving household.”
As Julia digs deeper, a second tragedy points to murder and perhaps a political scandal. There are rumors of smugglers funneling weapons to Ireland–and assassins who would target the Queen herself. She is joined by Detective Richard Tennant who is now chasing gun smugglers rumored to be Irish immigrants trying to overthrow British rule in Ireland. It seems they have a romance will-they-won’t-they type of relationship.
“Richard is a closed off person, very reserved. He did not have a happy upbringing. He came from an upper-class background. He is the fictional godson of the Scotland Yard commissioner. His fellow coppers see him as being put in his position by the old boy’s network.”
It is interesting to see how Dr. Julia Lewis succeeds in what is a man’s world, as a medical examiner and in her desire to do detecting and investigative work.
