The Last Protector is the fourth book in Andrew Taylor’s series of historical mysteries featuring James Marwood and Cat Lovett. The majority of the historical mysteries I read (and that are published) are set in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, so I really like the fact that this series is set in a period that…
Bestselling historical romance author Callie Hutton makes a memorable cozy mystery debut with A Study in Murder (book one in the Victorian Book Club Mysteries). Hutton succeeds in crafting a compelling murder mystery featuring a captivating, fabulous woman detective that hooks readers with clever humor and a palpable undercurrent of romance. Lady Amy Lovell is…
I’ve read many historical mysteries this past year. Many have been awesome, some not so great. The Body in the Garden rates somewhere in between – a well-written mystery with clever twists but a little too slow-paced for my taste, and featuring a heroine I never warmed to. Lily Adler, a widow of three years,…
Anna Lee Huber continues to deliver intriguing whodunits in A Stroke of Malice, the eighth book in the A Lady Darby Mystery series. I will go further and suggest that this may be the best book of the series so far! Lady Darby (Kiera Gage) and her husband and inquiry agent Sebastian Gage are enjoying…
Who Speaks for the Damned is book fifteen in C.S. Harris’ series of historical mysteries featuring aristocratic sleuth, Sebastian St. Cyr, and could, at a pinch, be read as a standalone. While earlier books in the series featured a long-running plotline concerning Sebastian’s his search for the truth about his origins, that doesn’t really feature…
Take Veronica and Stoker’s steamy attraction, add an engrossing mystery, and you’ve got another hit in the Veronica Speedwell series. A Murderous Relation starts off where A Dangerous Collaboration ends – right after Stoker has uttered the words “Veronica Speedwell, I meant it then and I mean it now and I shall mean it with…
A weak mystery and problematic history made Above the Bay of Angels my most difficult read of 2020 (so far). While I’ve loved previous novels by Rhys Bowen, this book was an absolute struggle to get through. Bella (Isabella) Waverly’s childhood is idyllic. Her father is an aristocrat estranged from his family, but he’s landed…
I’ve been meaning to pick up one of M.J. Rose’s novels for the past couple of years, but I always seemed to get distracted by other books. But when I learned her latest novel, Cartier’s Hope, was set in early 1900’s New York, I moved it to the top of my TBR list, and I’m…
In this third installment in her Counterfeit Lady series, Victoria Thompson continues the story of con-woman-turned-society-lady Elizabeth Miles, a self-reliant young woman determined to right some of the wrongs society has done to others of her sex. This is not my favorite book in the series, but it’s still an enjoyable read, especially if you’ve…
Note: This title is part of an ongoing series featuring the same characters, so there will be spoilers for the previous books in this review. This third book in Anna Lee Huber’s series of mysteries featuring the intrepid Verity Kent sees our eponymous heroine and her recently returned husband Sidney investigating not one but two…