BOOK REVIEW: Miss Morton and the Missing Heir by Catherine Lloyd

I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence this review.

I’m a big fan of Catherine Lloyd’s historical mysteries. The Kurland St. Mary Mysteries are not to be missed, and neither is her current series, the Miss Morton Mysteries.

Miss Morton and the Missing Heir is book 4. Miss Caroline Morton is the daughter of an earl. However, her father gambled away everything that wasn’t entailed, including the dowries of Caroline and her sister. When he died with no known male heir, the two young girls were thrown onto the mercy of relatives, who did not treat them well. The backstory comes out in books 1-3, so I recommend reading the series in order.

Caroline struck out on her own, taking employment as a companion to Mrs. Frogerton, a wealthy businesswoman, who was pleased to have an aristocratic lady to help her launch her daughter into society. With that accomplished, and with the possibility of an inheritance coming to her through other means, Caroline is faced with the possibility of leaving Mrs. Frogerton’s employ. But not yet.

A Mr. Scutton appears, along with his mother and sister. Mr. Scutton says he is the next living male relative in the Morton line, and he has come to claim the earldom. His claim is fairly credible. Caroline doesn’t want to have anything to do with the earldom, and is content to let him have the title and ancestral home. While the old house is being fixed up (it was in quite a state of disrepair), Mrs. Frogerton invites the Scuttons to stay with her and Caroline.

Lloyd does a great job of presenting Mr. Scutton as a character to love to hate. He is arrogant, snooty, and he feels entitled to tell Caroline how to live. Of course, she must give up her employment and behave as a lady. And she definitely must give up her friendships with Inspector Ross (a detective who has helped Caroline and Mrs. Frogerton solve mysteries in the past) and Dr. Harris (a gruff, talented physician who has also been there in the past for Caroline.) Both men have fallen for Caroline, but she isn’t ready to commit to either. The reader will be as indignant as Caroline over Scutton’s presumption.

While they are waiting for Scutton’s claim to be approved by the powers that be, two murders occur. Caroline and Mrs. Frogerton investigate, alongside Inspector Ross. Scutton and his mother fume at the slow pace of the investigation.

Caroline’s calm is impressive as she deals with the insufferable Scuttons while trying to solve the murders. The novel is fast-paced and well-plotted. And the developing relationships keep me coming back for more.

BOOK REVIEW: Vengeance in Venice by Mary Lancaster

I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence this review.

Vengeance in Venice by Mary Lancaster is the 6th book in the Silver and Grey mystery series. Throughout the series so far, Constance Silver, a beautiful brothel owner and Solomon Grey, a handsome, very wealthy businessman, have fallen in love while solving murders, have married, and are now on their honeymoon in Venice.

They are charmed by the magic of the city, but unfortunately, they are not able to enjoy the peace for long. Witnessing a man being beaten by a group of thugs, Solomon goes to the rescue, and while he is busy, Constance is kidnaped. Although she is quickly released, it’s clear they have stumbled into the middle of a dangerous rivalry. This event is a segue into a murder. And even though they are supposed to be enjoying their wedding trip, the pair dive into the investigation.

The motive for the murder is unclear. Is it jealousy? Greed? Political rivalry? A combination of all three? It seems everyone they meet is a possible suspect. But every time they think they’ve solved the puzzle, they are proven wrong. When the actual culprit worries they are getting too close to the truth, they may be the next victims.

This is a roller-coaster ride of a whodunit that kept me guessing the whole time. The pace gets faster and faster as the story barrels along to its conclusion. The novel could stand alone, but the nuances of the relationship would be lost. If you’re a fan of historical mystery/romance, start with book one. The series does not disappoint!

BOOK REVIEW: What We Can Know by Ian McEwan

I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence this review.

What We Can Know is a new novel by Ian McEwan, author of Atonement. In it, he examines the pitfalls of trying to recreate the past by looking at fragments. What is missing may be the most important part.

The premise is clever: a gentler vision of the future we leave to posterity, but a disturbing one nonetheless. In the year 2119, after a nuclear apocalypse and climate catastrophe, England is largely submerged, leaving it an archipelago. People live in small island communities and have to take boats from one island to the other. Infrastructure is limited, but there are remnants, including higher education and libraries up on the higher ground, where scholars can suss out the lessons of the past. Thomas Metcalfe teaches literature from 1990 to 2030 to sullen college students who have no interest in the topic. He co-teaches with historian Rose Church. She is his collaborator, critic, girlfriend, and life partner.

Thomas’ area of study, his research project, is a lost poem from 2014. Composed by famed poet Francis Blundy, the poem “A Corona for Vivien,” was a birthday gift for his wife. He recited it at her birthday dinner party in front of a small number of guests. Because he wanted it to be special, he destroyed all early drafts and made only the one copy. The poem was never published. It disappeared. But the fact that it had once existed was well-documented, and speculation about it was rampant, until interest faded.

Thomas visits the archives and reads all the letters, texts, emails, and journals of Bundy, Vivien, and the guests at the dinner party to construct a story of what happened, in hopes it will lead him to the poem. In the process, McEwan builds a mesmerizing view of a future world, and a complicated look at the time we are living in.

None of the characters are very likeable, but their flaws make them seem very real. Beautifully written. Highly recommended.

BOOK REVIEW: Jane Austen: The Original Romance Novelist by Janet Lewis Saidi

I received this book for free from Netgalley. That didn’t influence this review.

I don’t read many biographies except for research for my own writing. But I do enjoy biographies of my favorite writers. Jane Austen: The Original Romance Novelist by Janet Lewis Saidi (Pocket Portraits) is a compact life story of the brilliant Regency era writer. This short book walks the reader through Jane’s life, correlating events with excerpts from her novels and letters to her family members. It mentions the speculation about possible love affairs of Jane’s, but does not speculate. It concludes with the timelessness of Austen’s work by pointing out her influence on contemporary movies, fan fiction, and Bridgerton.

Fans of Jane Austen, particularly budding fans who want to know more about her, will find this a great introduction.

BOOK REVIEW: The Hanging of Ruben Ashford by Lauren Small

The Hanging of Ruben Ashford by Lauren Small is a thoughtful historical mystery set in Baltimore in 1917-18, a place and time that can be seen as defined by Jim Crow laws. The novel fully embraces the historical setting, my favorite kind of historical novel.

Josie Berenson is fascinated by human behavior. Why do people make the choices they make? Although she has a good position in a psychology lab in Boston, running rats through mazes, a chance encounter with Dr. Nell Winters changes both their lives. Nell is physician in Baltimore, and Josie joins her there. They fall in love, and their devotion grows stronger as they face challenges together.

Nell has not joined in the white flight from her Baltimore neighborhood. She is a firm believer in racial equality and will treat both Black and White patients. However, she believes change must come slowly. Josie is more of a crusader. She wants change now.

Josie joins the clinical practice of Dr. Adolf Meyer (a real person) at the Phipps Psychiatric Clinic at Johns Hopkins. He is also interested in human behavior, and often consults in unusual psychiatric cases. Josie’s job is to dig deeper, not only interviewing patients, but their loved ones, neighbors, servants, etc.

While some of her methods are not exactly ethical (like bullying a servant into betraying details she is not supposed to reveal, without considering that the lack of discretion might get the poor girl fired) Josie is effective.

The mystery is set in motion when a young White teacher at a home for “feeble-minded children” is found murdered in a stable. Her head has been bashed in. A Black employee of the school, Ruben Ashford, is found holding a bloody hammer, standing over the body, blood on his clothes. According to the lawyer who has presented the case to Dr. Meyer, there are two witnesses to the murder and Ruben has confessed. Yet the lawyer doesn’t quite believe in his client’s guilt because there is no motive. Dr. Meyer assigns Josie the task of investigating the murder, not to find the culprit, that’s pretty clear, but to find out why he did it.

As Josie begins her investigation, she is confronted with the reality of the racial divide in Baltimore, which seems much greater than what she was accustomed to in Boston. As Josie struggles to understand Ruben Ashford, Nell fights the Spanish Flu epidemic that is decimating the inhabitants of the city. 

The novel puts on display the injustices of the day, the horrors of the epidemic, and the challenges two women face loving one another. 

BOOK REVIEW: The Man in the Stone Cottage by Stephanie Cowell

The Brontë sisters (Charlotte, Emily, and Anne) are renowned nineteenth-century authors whose writings are admired to this day. Their romantic, atmospheric masterworks (Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Agnes Grey, and others), have always inspired curiosity about the authors themselves. As the daughters of a country curate, they lived fairly circumscribed lives, and yet they certainly evoke far-ranging passions in their novels.

The Man in the Stone Cottage: A Novel of the Brontë sisters by Stephanie Cowell explores the lives and loves of these women through the eyes of Charlotte and Emily. Charlotte, who craves love, has attempted to leave home, to earn money as a teacher and, perhaps, expand her horizons; she returns, disappointed, to the security of home. Emily never wants to leave. Wandering the surrounding countryside is escape enough. She does not seek romantic love, but nevertheless, love—in the shape of a mysterious man who has come to occupy a hidden stone cottage on the moors—may find her.

In this beautifully written novel, Cowell breathes life into these two extraordinary women as well as the more peripheral characters: their sister Anne, their loving but overbearing father, and their derelict but beloved brother Branwell. Within their experiences are hints of the inspiration for events in their novels, but these are so subtly woven in, readers will not mistake the Brontës’ fiction for being autobiographical.

The tone of The Man in the Stone Cottage is bittersweet. The love and support of the sisters for one another is keenly felt, but they are not blind to each other’s foibles. Their devoted care of their father and brother is not without a tinge of resentment. (Or maybe this reader is resenting them on behalf of the sisters.) Their lives are not as limited as a cursory look at their biographies might imply. While this is a work of fiction, not biography, there is nothing in the story that rings false. Cowell’s novel provides a window into the hearts and minds of the brilliant writers and then expands upon what is known with an imaginative look at what could have been.

Thank you to the author and Regal House for a review copy!

BOOK REVIEW: Crooked Cross by Sally Carson

There is a bookstore in the UK that I’m determined to go to one of these days. Persephone Books specializes in reprints of neglected/forgotten female writers. I’ve discovered a few great novels from the bookstore’s instagram posts, but one in particular caught my eye recently. Crooked Cross by Sally Carson, originally published in 1934, is set in the early days of Hitler’s rise to power. At first, the re-released edition was not available in the U.S., then I could only find the audiobook. Now, finally, there is a kindle version, that I quickly downloaded. Right about the same time, it was featured in a NY Times book review. (Here’s the link but there may be a paywall.)

The novel begins on Christmas Eve, 1932, with a celebration in the home of the Krugers, an “ordinary” German family. Both parents are alive and loving. And there are three adult children, two boys, Hemly and Erich, and one girl, Lexa. The boys have been largely unemployed for years due to the post-WWI economic depression in Germany. Both are restless, looking for something to do. Lexa is the main protagonist, a woman who loves her family, loves her community, and serves as something of a focal point in both. She’s young and naive, but strong and knows her own mind. She is also in love with Moritz Weissmann, a talented physician at the local hospital, to whom she is engaged to be married. Moritz is a Catholic, as was his mother. But his father is Jewish. Moritz is beloved by pretty much everyone and is good friends with Hemly.

The slow spread of fascism and Hitler-worship insidiously envelops them all. Her brothers embrace the Nazi party because they finally have jobs. Hemly, who is not a strong or particularly intelligent man, also loves it for the feeling of belonging and purpose that it gives him. Erich, handsome, athletic, charming, and with a cruel streak a mile wide, loves it because of the power he can siphon off from it and the license it gives him to enjoy his sadistic tendencies. Lexa tries to ignore what is happening, but she lives in a constant state of unease. Of disconnection. The book does a wonderful job of showing how the whole town is on edge, waiting for the other shoe to drop. Tempers flare. People get crotchety and mean. Old friendships fracture. Scapegoating grows rampant. And Moritz is first quietly shunned, and then openly persecuted for being Jewish. 

The one sure, unalterable fact is that Lexa and Moritz remain true to one another.

The novel is written in an old-fashioned style. It isn’t at all subtle. It’s not a heroic, hiding-Jews-in-the-attic story of WWII Germany. The main characters are mostly Nazis. Not reluctant Nazis, but men and women who whole-heartedly embrace what Hitler is selling. Written essentially contemporaneously with the events of the novel (fictional, but not so fictional), the end of the story was not known by the writer. And it is particularly chilling because we readers, while recognizing parallels, know how this story will ultimately end, but not how ours will.

BOOK REVIEW: The Briar Club by Kate Quinn

Kate Quinn’s The Briar Club is another winner. I read The Rose Code for one book club, and now The Briar Club for another. It’s a fast-paced, can’t-put-it-down read.

The plot focuses around two murdered corpses found in a women’s boarding house in Washington D.C. in 1954. Initially, the discovery is narrated by the house. It’s gimmicky, but it works. The police are there investigating, and the house lets us know that the murderer is still in the building.

Each chapter then focuses on a different character, all boarders in the house. It goes back 4 years and works its way to the time of the murder. The central protagonist is a mysterious woman named Grace March. Before her arrival, the residents had been strangers, each with their own problems, dreams, and secrets. With her gracious and kind friendliness, Grace becomes a confidante and supporter of each. The women become a found family. But while Grace gets to know them, and brings them together, nobody really knows her.

The blossoming relationships grabbed me, and the murder mystery pulled me along. And of course, the historical tidbits kept it fascinating.

BOOK REVIEW: A Lady's Guide to Scandal by Sophie Irwin

A Lady’s Guide to Scandal by Sophie Irwin is a funny, closed-door Regency Romance that kept me delightedly turning pages.

Eliza Balfour, now Lady Somerset, is a 27-year-old widow who will be extremely wealthy as long as she obeys the morality clause in her deceased husband’s will. The late Lord Somerset was a miserly, much older curmudgeon, who wants to continue to control her from the grave. Eliza doesn’t expect this to be a problem. She has never misbehaved in her life. However, her cousin Margaret tempts her to live a little. What could go wrong if they spend a few quiet months in Bath?

Eliza is willing, mainly because she needs to get away from the new Lord Somerset, her husband’s nephew. Eliza and this handsome young man were in love, long ago, before she was coerced by her parents to marry for title and wealth. She’s still in love with him, but he accused her of dooming them both to unhappiness because of her lack of spirit and she’s sure he still despises her.

In Bath, she is thrown into the company of Lord Melville, a Byronesque figure who dazzles her with his charm, wit, and kindness. Unfortunately, he has a reputation as a rake, and by spending time with him, her reputation is likely to suffer. If it does, she risks losing her inheritance. Even worse, the new Lord Somerset gets to be the judge of her behavior, and he comes to Bath on a weak excuse to see her. It seems he isn’t over her, either.

Suddenly, Eliza finds herself the object of two men’s attentions. Who is the right man for her? Readers will form their own opinions pretty quickly, but Eliza has good reasons for her bafflement. Can she be in love with them both?

This novel is sweet, well-paced, and well-plotted, but even if it wasn’t, I’d recommend it for Melville’s witty conversation alone.

BOOK REVIEW: To Chase the Glowing Hours by Katherine Kirkpatrick

 I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence this review.

To Chase the Glowing Hours by Katherine Kirkpatrick transports the reader to the 1920s and the heady days of the archeological discovery of King Tut’s tomb.

Lord Carnarvon is an English earl, fascinated by the ancient Egyptians. He spends a great deal of the family wealth supporting the efforts of Howard Carter, a brilliant but difficult (and possibly mentally disturbed) archeologist in a quest for an undisturbed royal Egyptian burial chamber. In 1922, Carter finds King Tut’s tomb.

The novel tells the story from the point of view of Carnarvon’s daughter, Lady Eve. Eve is devoted to her father and shares his love of Egyptology. When Carter’s telegram arrives telling Carnavon he’s found the burial chamber but will await the earl’s arrival before entering it, Eve tags along. A 22-year-old socialite, Eve is far more interested in archeological discoveries than in London balls and parties. And she is far more interested in Howard Carter than in any London beau.

Kirkpatrick does a splendid job of including the reader in the excitement of the find. Lady Eve, Lord Carnavon, Howard Carter, and Carter’s assistant are the first people to step inside the chamber in over 3000 years. Although there is some evidence that grave robbers may have tapped into the chamber, the astounding array of artifacts and absence of disarray indicate that whoever was there didn’t take much, if anything. Lady Eve’s awe brings the setting to life.

The novel is meticulously researched. The artifacts are lovingly described. The political situation in Egypt is both peripheral and central to the story. And the ethical questions are explored. Who really has the right to possess these artifacts? Who has the right to tell the story of the dig? Is a little bit of grave robbing OK, compensation for all the effort?

An enjoyable read. Highly recommended.

BOOK REVIEW: John and Julie and Robert by Michael Strelow

 Coming soon! (can be pre-ordered here.)

John and Julie and Robert by Michael Strelow is a beautiful literary exploration of the ills of the modern world, softened by the cushion of an indestructible friendship. John, Julie, and Robert have grown from a trio of small-town children, bonded by intelligence and imagination, into three thirty-somethings who rely on that bond for unconditional love and support as they deal with the broken world they have inherited. While Julie wanders the continents to tackle head-on everything all at once, and Robert, at home, chooses the very tangible tool of the law, John takes on environmental devastation as represented by the leaf-blower. John’s cause unites them at a moment in time for one remarkable battle. Strelow’s erudite novel delves deep into the psyches of three gifted crusaders and will lead readers to cheer them on.

My thanks to the author and Regal House Publishing for an advance review copy!

BOOK REVIEW: Purely Academic by Stringfellow Barr

If you enjoy satirical novels about the world of academia, you won’t go wrong with Purely Academic by Stringfellow Barr. (How’s that for an author name?) Although first published in 1958, it feels surprisingly contemporary. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

The novel largely focuses on Dr. Schneider, chairman of the history department, but other characters also share their views: the pompous but effective university president who’s seeking a bigger, better job; the chairman of the economics department, a schmoozer who vacuums up all the funding for his own department and who wants to succeed the president; the schmoozer’s very young, beautiful, charming wife who is bored with their marriage; the president’s Machiavellian secretary, the power behind the throne; a high-living member of a large philanthropic board, who may be the most clear-sighted of all, and others.

Although the jockeying for power, the politicking, the complaints about low salaries and unteachable students are timeless, the novel is written in an older style. It starts fairly slow as Barr maneuvers all the characters into place for the finale. He also head-hops, making the prose a bit clunky. But once you settle into the read, the style becomes less noticeable. What stands out is the irony. This novel is clever.

The characters are all unpleasant in their own way. Even Schneider, who you can’t help but root for, has some fairly large character flaws. And yet, I was entranced. Once the stage is set, the president gets the call to move up to a large state school. Then things start happening fast. 

Stringfellow Barr was a history teacher himself, who moved on to administration as a college president, and then to president of a research foundation. So it seems this book is written from the voice of experience. 

This is another old novel found in the library, but it’s available on kindle or used copies can also be found. If you’d like to see the academic world lampooned, give it a try. 

BOOK REVIEW: Seeds of the Pomegranate by Suzanne Uttaro Samuels

 I received this e-galley for free from Edelweiss. That did not influence this review.

Seeds of the Pomegranate by Suzanne Uttaro Samuels (releasing on September 2) is a propulsive historical novel set in early 20th century Sicily and New York. (I could not put this one down!)

Mimi Inglese is an extraordinarily talented young artist whose rise is cut short by tuberculosis infection. At least, that is what she believes and what her family wants to believe. Her father is struggling and failing to keep the estate he inherited profitable. He decides, with the “help” of a wealthy friend, Vito Cascioferro, to move his family to New York and start over by opening a store. What he doesn’t admit, to himself or to Mimi, is that Vito has little interest in the store. Or in him. Vito has been following Mimi’s artistic education and plans to make use of her skills as an engraver in his counterfeiting business.

Readers will sympathize with Mimi’s plight as she is dragged deeper and deeper into the mob’s increasingly competitive and violent dealings in New York. Although presented with opportunities to escape, family obligations keep holding her back. 

The beautiful prose and complex family dynamics combine with an omnipresent sense of menace that kept me turning pages, anxious to see what would come next. Highly recommended!

BOOK REVIEW: Word of the Wicked by Mary Lancaster

 I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence this review.

I love Mary Lancaster’s latest mystery series, Silver and Grey, so I’m trying not to fall behind. The latest (book 5) is Word of the Wicked.

Solomon Grey and Constance Silver are now engaged to be married, but they are prioritizing the private investigator business that brought them together. The business has grown so successful that the two have taken to divvying up the jobs, which is professionally satisfying but personally miserable. They miss each other, but are left wondering if the missing is mutual.

Fortunately, a case comes along that they both jump into in order to work together again. A physician from a small country town hires them to look into an anonymous letter sent to his wife. It is mildly insulting and lightly threatening. He can’t imagine who could have sent it or why. His wife is upset. And although he doesn’t truly think there is any danger, he wants to know who was behind it.

His wife is not the only one to have received a letter. In each case, it’s the same. A small chastisement followed by a vague threat.

Constance and Solomon go off to the countryside to investigate, but soon find themselves as baffled as the doctor. Questioning the townspeople, they uncover small-town secrets, but the identity of the letter writer continues to elude them.

At the same time, Solomon is caught up in the investigation of a murder at a London tavern that may or may not have been committed by his long-lost (and newly found) twin brother. 

The letter mystery is well-plotted and kept me guessing along with the detective pair. The relationships (Constance and Solomon; Solomon and his brother) continue to grow. I’ll have to wait for the next installment to see where they go next!

BOOK REVIEW: Asylum Piece by Anna Kavan

I’m on a mission to read more “forgotten” women authors of the 1920s through 50s. (Like Nancy Hale and Maude Hutchins.) I just finished a short story collection by Anna Kavan called Asylum Piece. 

Anna Kavan (a pen name) was a British writer whose works were “nouveau roman”, semi-autobiographical, and difficult to categorize. She suffered from a difficult family life, depression, and heroin addiction. After a number of hospitalizations and suicide attempts, she eventually died from a heroin overdose. It’s a tragic life for a woman of enormous talent.

Asylum Piece is a dark, surreal collection of stories written from a first person viewpoint, a voice tinged with paranoia, delusions, and a painful loneliness. The stories are captivating, beautiful, and terrifying. The viewpoint characters (who generally seem to be the same woman, progressing in her madness) all imbue their tales with a sense of impending doom that is all the more frightening for being vague. Some are set within the asylum, and the desperation of the woman (and in one case, a man) abandoned there is gut-wrenching. What makes the work so powerful is the realism of the surrealism. In the character’s head, the goings-on are very real. 

Originally published in 1940, the book was re-released in 1972 and in 2001, so used copies are not hard to find. (I found it in my public library.) It’s well worth reading!

BOOK REVIEW: Raising Hel by Cynthia J. Bogard

Raising Hel by Cynthia J. Bogard is the powerful story of a young woman coming of age in the tumultuous 1970s in Madison, Wisconsin. The site of the University of Wisconsin, Madison was a hotbed of student activism, with particular focus on anti-war demonstrations and the feminist movement.

Hel has escaped from her small farming town and her family’s expectations that a woman’s role is to settle into a life of wifehood and child-raising. But, confused, naive, and with no real vision for her own future, she becomes involved in the anti-war protests and enamored of an older man, a Vietnam veteran, who is addicted to heroin. In short order, they are married, and Hel finds herself just as trapped as she would have been had she stayed in her small town.

It is with the help of two women that she begins to break free. Thorpe is a smart, focused, botany student who seems to have it all together. Iris is a charismatic beauty with a gift for organization who wants to start a feminist magazine. With their friendship and example, Hel begins to find herself. When her husband abandons her, she is free to start over again. Working on the magazine brings her into contact with more strong-minded women eager to grab opportunities that are beginning to open up to them. Hel meets a man who is, in every way, the opposite of her absent husband, who makes her believe in love again. But her road to personal achievement and happiness is threatened when her husband returns.

This is an inspiring story of the hard-won achievements of the women’s movement that can serve as a reminder of how far we have come, and bolster our determination not to go backwards.

BOOK REVIEW: Bigger Than Us by Debbie Burns

Bigger Than Us by Debbie Burns is a heartwarming story of second chances. 

Maddie Trudeau has just lost her husband, Landon, to a motorcycling accident. Her first priority  is seeing her five-year-old twins through the tragedy. But Maddie’s heartbreak is not limited to widowhood. Before his death, Maddie had been on the verge of divorcing him for the chaos he made of their lives.

Unfortunately, the chaos does not end with his death. Maddie still has to deal with her controlling, narcissistic mother-in-law, her own mother’s flower-child behavior, and Noel, her husband’s best friend, a man with whom she’d once been in love, a man who knows all her husband’s secrets and is conflicted about spilling them.

And then, there is Jordan, a younger woman, fighting depression as a single mother with no support network and a baby whose resemblance to Landon is unmistakable.

This is a beautiful novel of grief, compassion, and abiding love.

BOOK REVIEW: A Diary of Love by Maude Hutchins

I’m continuing to read the works of Maude Hutchins, an early twentieth century artist and novelist. Her writings fit in the category of the “nouveau roman,” not my favorite genre, but hers are fascinating and odd. (She was supposedly admired by Anais Nin.)

A Diary of Love, published in 1950, is her second novel. It was almost banned for obscenity, but rescued by the American Civil Liberties Union. It’s tame compared to what we’re used to today, but it does focus on sex and skirts uncomfortable sexual taboos.

The fictional diary is kept by an adolescent girl named Noel. She is an orphan living with an aloof, sad grandfather and an unmarried aunt. The household is also regularly visited by two hypersexualized neighbors and their son, Dominick, who is roughly Noel’s age. A few other characters flit in and out: their strange maid, Frieda, who so desperately wants a child that she has a false pregnancy and then mothers a doll; a randy very young music student; and an omnipresent doctor.

Noel is coming of age, very interested in the mystery of sex, and left to puzzle it out by what she overhears and the glimpses she catches of what goes on around her. Her diary entries are dreamy and confused, and often end with her recording her temperature. In the second part of the book, she has been sent (for three years) to a tuberculosis sanatorium in Arizona. Her life takes on a different pattern as she makes a new family there, one that is immersed in sickness and in sexual desire. In part three, she is discharged home, cured of TB, three years older, and slightly less confused about both sex and love.

This novel, and Hutchins’ others, contain autobiographical tidbits, but it’s a challenge to decipher what they are.

BOOK REVIEW: There Will Be Bodies by Lindsey Davis

I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence this review.

I’ve been following Flavia Albia since she was a young girl in the Falco series by Lindsey Davis. She now has a series of her own. There Will be Bodies is book 13.

Albia has inherited a knack for investigating from her adoptive father, Falco. Her long-suffering husband, Tiberius Manlius, not only allows her this unconventional profession, but encourages her and sometimes helps her. He is a builder (and a magistrate) and has been assigned the task of looking over and cleaning up a property purchased by his wealthy uncle. The property is in the vicinity of Mount Vesuvius, and suffered in the famous volcano eruption 10 years earlier.

Sextus Curvidius, the man who inherited the property and sold it to Tiberius’ uncle, has asked them to see if they can locate his elder brother who lived there but disappeared during the time of the eruption. He is presumed dead, but Sextus would like to provide the proper funeral rites if his body can be located.

Tiberius and Albia are warned, and warn their crew, that there will be bodies, given that the estate is partly buried in volcanic ash.

Bodies are found. But, suspiciously, they don’t seem to be merely victims of the volcano. Foul play is Albia’s diagnosis. She just needs to prove it and found out who did it.

Using her trademark snark and brazenly marching into danger, Albia wracks up suspects, clues, and possible witnesses, but can’t quite choose which of the potential scenarios is the right one until she gathers all the suspects together to try out her theories. 

Although I love this series, this was one of my least favorites. Maybe Albia’s cynical/soft-hearted voice is growing stale for me. Or maybe I wish Tiberius was a more interesting partner. Or maybe the plot required a few too many coincidences. Still, the mystery is wrapped up in a satisfying conclusion. And I’m sure I’ll come back for book 14.

BOOK REVIEW: The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder

It was time to read another classic, so I picked the Pulitzer Prize winner, The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder, first published in 1927.

The blurb on my 2004 copy, taken from the foreword, calls it “As close to perfect a moral fable as we are ever likely to get in American literarure.”

So, what is it about? It’s about the 5 victims of a (fictional) bridge collapse in Peru in 1714. The rope bridge had been there for so long it was considered indestructible. So when it broke, there were those who considered it an Act of God. The collapse was witnessed by the local Franciscan, Brother Juniper, who decided it would be a perfect test for his theory that with careful study, one could interpret God’s plan. There is no such thing as an accident. There was a reason that these five people had been on the bridge that day. These five and no others.

Brother Juniper then spends six years compiling the information in the next few chapters, the life stories of the victims. The writing is beautiful. Their stories are moving and sad. Brother Juniper’s ultimate fate is surprising. And the conclusion seems to be the opposite of what he’d hoped to prove. In the end, it is the Abbess in the town who draws her own conclusion: the only thing that lasts, that has any meaning, is love.

It’s a short book, but not a quick read. Recommended for when you’re in the mood for something reflective.

BOOK REVIEW: The Trick of the Treasure by Mary Lancaster

I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence this review.

Constance Silver and Solomon Grey are at it again in The Trick of the Treasure, Book 4 of Mary Lancaster’s new Victorian mystery series. 

Constance is the owner of high-priced brothel and safe place for disadvantaged women. Solomon is a hugely successful self-made businessman. And they have fallen in love.

They are also the detectives running the Silver and Grey Agency. Their latest assignment is finding a treasure that has gone missing from the safe room of an adventurer, Barnabas Lloyd. Lloyd is addicted to treasure hunting, to the point that he has nearly bankrupted his family. This treasure, literally discovered on a deserted island with the help of an old map, is desperately needed to pay off creditors and keep the family afloat. The family consists of a grown son who accompanied Barnabas on this latest trip, a sixteen-year-old daughter who is discovering suitors,  a twelve-year-old daughter who is wiser than her older siblings, and a wife who finds life more enjoyable when her husband is away than when he is home. There is also Barnabas’ spinster sister, who is ignored at home but finds her joy in charitable endeavors.

The treasure was unloaded from the ship, inspected by customs officers, then carried to the Lloyds’ home, where it was locked in an interior room with no windows and only one door. The next morning, when Barnabas went to show the treasure to his youngest daughter, the treasure chest was empty.

Someone stole it. But who? And how?

Constance and Solomon dive into the mystery with their usual conscientious flair. Along the way, they begin to question whether the danger of investigative work is worth it. Although each is willing to risk their own life, it’s different watching a loved one do so.

This is another intriguing, well-plotted historical mystery. The romance between the two leads is progressing apace. I recommend this series highly – but strongly suggest you start with book 1.

BOOK REVIEW: Measure of Devotion by Nell Joslin

Measure of Devotion by Nell Joslin is a poignant story of a mother’s determined love set against the backdrop of the Civil War.

Susannah and Jacob Shelburne are South Carolina farmers with Union and abolitionist sympathies. However, their son, Francis, is a heart-and-soul Confederate, who joined the army as soon as he turned 18. There is a good deal of quiet family dysfunction in the Shelburne home, but when a telegram arrives reporting that Francis has been severely wounded in Tennessee, Susannah sets off to find him and tend to him.

The novel follows Susannah on her journey and also takes the reader back in time to see her past and the forces that shaped her. Her inner strength allows her to overcome the difficulties of travel and the hardships of caring for her wounded son in war-torn Tennessee. When the Confederates lose the Battle of Lookout Mountain and retreat, Francis becomes a prisoner of war. Susannah must use every resource she can to win him a parole he does not want.

This is a beautifully written, moving novel that does not shy away from the devastation of war.

BOOK REVIEW: Bring the House Down by Charlotte Runcie

 I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence this review.

Wow! Bring the House Down by Charlotte Runcie  is a page-turner.

Sophie is a junior culture writer for a big London newspaper. She is on assignment in Edinburgh for the Fringe Festival, along with the paper’s top theater critic, Alex Lyons. They are sharing a rental flat provided by the company. They are work friends, not much more, when the real story begins.

Alex went to a one-woman show, put on by a young actress, Hayley Sinclair, about climate change and the patriarchy. The show was awful. He wrote a biting review and gave it one star. He filed it with his editor, then went to a bar for a few drinks. There, he met Hayley, also alone, having a drink. They hooked up. He didn’t tell her who he was, or that he had just written a potentially career-ending review of her show. She discovered this the next morning, reading the review in front of Sophie in the flat.

But Hayley turns the tables by re-inventing her show as The Alex Lyons Experience. She tells the audience what happened, reading aloud from the review, and encouraging women to tell their own stories about horrible men, particularly if the horrible man was Alex.

Over the course of the Festival, as more and more women speak up at the new show and on social media,  readers (and Sophie) see just what a misogynistic player Alex is, and how shallow and unrepentant he is. Only Sophie can see hints of vulnerability, and she makes readers see them too. It doesn’t make him any more likeable, but it does make him understandable.

Even recognizing his faults, Sophie is drawn to him. The more he confides in her, the more she learns about the forces that have shaped him, the more guiltily sympathetic she feels. And Sophie examines her own life as well. She desperately misses her mother, who died too young. She has conflicted feelings about her husband. She misses her carefree younger self and her one-year-old son in roughly equal amounts. She wonders if she is cut out to be a critic when she wants everyone to like her.

Runcie does a superb job of taking the reader into the heart of the Fringe Festival while also doing deep dives on the psychology of Sophie, Alex, and Hayley. The tension in the story keeps ratcheting up as Alex digs himself into a hole he can’t possibly climb out of, and, as a reader, I’m not sure that I want him to.

A gripping novel. Highly recommended!

BOOK REVIEW: A Tarnished Canvas by Anna Lee Huber

 I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence this review.

I’ve been following Anna Lee Huber’s Lady Darby Mysteries since the beginning of the series. For fans of historical mystery, this is a series not to miss. A Tarnished Canvas is the thirteenth book, and there is also a novella tucked in there. While the latest novel can be read as a standalone, it would really be better to have read at least some of the earlier books to get the gist of the relationships. The mystery can stand alone, but you’ll lose out on a lot of the heart of the story.

Kiera Gage (Lady Darby) is an artist, a new mother, a skilled sleuth, and a devoted wife. That is a handful for anyone, but fortunately, she and her husband are wealthy enough to afford good help – a valet, lady’s maid, and nursemaid who also aid with the sleuthing. The valet and lady’s maid add a second element of troubled romance to the storyline.

Kiera is a sought-after portraitist amongst the members of high society, but she is currently working on material for an exhibition of the downtrodden populace. While she wants to make her peers see the subjects, she’s fearful of a negative response. (Her past has her very insecure about being attacked for her work.) As the book opens, Kiera receives an invitation and catalogue to an art auction. The effects of a deceased collector are being sold off. During the auction, calamity strikes. Part of the floor collapses, sending numerous attendees plummeting. Although at first it appears to be an accident, there are hints that it was intentional. Kiera and her inquiry agent husband, Sebastian Gage, are drawn into the investigation. They are aided, to Gage’s dismay, by the local crime lord Bonnie Brock (who is infatuated with Kiera.)

Once again, Huber crafts a well-plotted mystery that will keep you guessing until the end, and immerses it within ongoing complex family dynamics. This is an engaging series to follow!

BOOK REVIEW: Look Before You Leap by Virginia Heath

 I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence this review.

Look Before You Leap by Virginia Heath is a delightful (moderately steamy) Regency Rom-Com.

Lottie Travers is a farmgirl whose family farm is failing, despite the efforts of her father and brothers. Lottie has been granted a great opportunity, education in Miss Prentice’s School, where she is to learn how to behave amongst wealthy aristocrats so that she can work as a governess, maid, or companion. She’s grateful for the opportunity because it allows her to earn wages to send home. Unfortunately, she is obsessed with fast horses, to the point that she can’t help flirting with stablehands in order to borrow mounts to go riding. And ultimately, in roundabout ways, getting herself fired. Fortunately, she is given the opportunity to be a companion to a crotchety old woman who seems amused by her escapades. Unfortunately, the lady is the aunt of a young lord with whom Lottie had collided in a park. The encounter was memorable for the lord’s rudeness and for his great good looks.

The lord, Viscount Wennington (Guy) is as grumpy as they come. Years ago, he made a fool of himself by making a very public proposal and being very publicly refused. Ever since, he has avoided female company, avoided polite society, and spent his time on his estate, taking care of his tenants. However, his 30^th birthday is approaching, and his grandchild-obsessed mother is plotting (along with her sister, Lottie’s employer, Lady Frinton) to throw him a birthday party filled with eligible ladies as guests. The party has to be kept secret because they know he’ll hate it.

While accompanying Lady Frinton, Lottie is repeatedly thrown into company with Guy. Their personality conflicts lead to a great deal of bickering and miscommunication, but the physical attraction is strong, and they are both good people at heart, so apologies follow the arguments and the two grow ever more enamored with one another. (Especially when Lottie is compared to the aristocratic competition!)

For fans of grumpy/sunshine romances, this one is fun!

BOOK REVIEW: Eliza and the Duke by Harper St. George

I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence this review.

Eliza and the Duke is the latest Victorian Era Romance by Harper St. George, the second book in the series The Doves of New York.

Eliza Dove is an American heiress whose substantial dowry will only come to her if she marries a titled British gentleman. She has one waiting in the wings, but he’s a prosey bore with a nasty habit of frequenting prostitutes. All too aware of what it’s like to be poor, Eliza accepts that she will have to go through with the marriage, but first, she wants a bit of adventure. She finds it with Simon Cavell, a commoner, who currently works in a semi-respectable club. However, in the past, he survived as a prizefighter/brawler and as a “punisher” for a crime lord. (Duke is his prizefighting nickname.) Simon wants to break free of his old life, but the crime lord, Brody, has a hold on him. Brody knows about Simon’s very young niece, hidden away at a brothel. If Simon doesn’t keep paying up, something bad will happen to both Simon and the niece.

Enter Eliza. She first meets him in the aftermath of a prizefight when he is dopey from the fight. She meets him again when her brother-in-law hires him as a short-term protector for his wife’s sisters, Eliza and Jenny. Once Eliza sees him again, she knows what she wants: one night of adventure (not sex), with Simon for a guide. She wants to see London’s seamy side.

Of course, the more time they spend with one another, the more they both realize they want more than one adventuresome night. The novel gets steamy. And the protagonists have to figure out a way to be together.

It’s nice to read a romance where both characters are not aristocrats (though they operate on the fringes of the ton and have aristocratic friends.) And Simon is a character with depth. But this is not one of my favorite Harper St. George novels. Eliza came across as a bit too selfish, impulsive, and irresponsible. True, she needed to be headstrong to get out of a future that would have stultified her, but I came away with the impression that her infatuation with Simon was more instalust than instalove.

Nevertheless, the side characters are interesting and I suspect the other books in the series will appeal to me more.

BOOK REVIEW: Winter's End by Barbara Pronin

I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence this review.

We think of D-Day as the beginning of the end of WWII. But it wasn’t the end. Yet. Barbara Pronin’s new historical novel, Winter’s End, takes readers into the lives of Resistance fighters in the Netherlands in the waning days of the war. Nazis are ramping up their cruelty and destruction in a desperate attempt to stave off defeat. Over the devastating winter of 1944-45, peace was still too far off.

The novel follows three women in Haarlem, where the Nazi presence was strong. Evi, a sixteen-year-old patriot, wanting to do more for her country, accepts the assignment of luring lecherous, drunken German officers into the forest to be killed. Zoe, a young veterinarian, repeatedly finds ways to hide (and feed) several Jewish families, Jewish physicians, and a German enemy of the Reich. Mila, the beautiful daughter of a collaborator, uses her position in the father’s home to learn information from high-ranking German officers to pass on to critical members of the Resistance, and, when necessary, perform dangerous missions herself. Along the way, all three women find love in unexpected places.

This is a gripping, inspiring novel of bravery and endurance in the face of fascism.

BLOG TOUR: Nothing Proved by Janet Wertman

Blurb:

 Danger lined her path, but destiny led her to glory…

Elizabeth Tudor learned resilience young. Declared illegitimate after the execution of her mother Anne Boleyn, she bore her precarious position with unshakable grace. But upon the death of her father, King Henry VIII, the vulnerable fourteen-year-old must learn to navigate a world of shifting loyalties, power plays, and betrayal.

 After narrowly escaping entanglement in Thomas Seymour’s treason, Elizabeth rebuilds her reputation as the perfect Protestant princess – which puts her in mortal danger when her half-sister Mary becomes Queen and imposes Catholicism on a reluctant land. Elizabeth escapes execution, clawing her way from a Tower cell to exoneration. But even a semblance of favor comes with attempts to exclude her from the throne or steal her rights to it through a forced marriage. 

Elizabeth must outwit her enemies time and again to prove herself worthy of power. The making of one of history’s most iconic monarchs is a gripping tale of survival, fortune, and triumph.

Review: 

I received an e-galley of this book from the Coffee Pot Book Club in exchange for an honest review.

I=m a sucker for biographical historical fiction, so I was pleased to receive a review copy of Janet Wertman=s novel, Nothing Proved: Book One of the Regina Series. The novel follows the life of Queen Elizabeth I from childhood to her ascension to the throne at age twenty-five. It was a youth fraught with peril. Although somewhat protected by her royal birth, the fact that she was in line for the succession also made her a target. Given the instability of the kingdom after the death of her father, King Henry VIII, it was never entirely clear that she would live to take the throne.

The political machinations during the rein of her young half-brother left her sometimes central to and sometimes on the fringes of the court. Her older half-sister, Mary, was seen as a danger (to Protestant nobility and to England itself) because of her unwavering loyalty to the Catholic Church and her attachment to Spain, yet she was legally next in line. Elizabeth was burdened by the fact that her mother was Anne Boleyn, and her legitimacy was often questioned, which meant she could be booted from the line of succession if Parliament turned against her. There was no love lost between Mary and Elizabeth, but both knew when to feign sisterly care for one another as a political expedient.

Wertman=s novel is meticulously researched, and she does a wonderful job of presenting the tense atmosphere of the times. Elizabeth learned how to keep a low profile and how to bend rather than break when political winds blew against her. She was able to discern who was truly loyal and who were the opportunists, and how to make use of both.

 It=s not a spoiler to say Elizabeth eventually does inherit the throne. The truly impressive feat of this novel is how it kept me in suspense the whole time. With all the jockeying for power, all the self-serving courtiers, all the ongoing bloody religious strife, I found myself frightened for this future monarch. It was fascinating to watch this young princess navigate her path to the throne.

Highly recommended!

Buy Link:  https://books2read.com/u/bM8Vrk

BOOK REVIEW: The Fire Concerto by Sarah Landenwich

 I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence this review.

The Fire Concerto by Sarah Landenwich is a stunning debut. It is a beautifully written novel of Clara Bishop, a piano virtuosa, descended from a (fictional) master composer of the 19th century and taught by a strict and violent pianist who was a musical descendant of that same composer. (Meaning she was taught by someone who was taught by the composer.) Clara’s career was derailed by injuries sustained in a fire, and by the psychological trauma of having been a child prodigy with all the associated baggage.

The novel is infused with music, but so deftly written that you needn’t be a classical musician or even a lover of classical music to understand the passion these characters feel. It explores the themes of exploitation vs supportive pressure when dealing with child prodigies. And, as its protagonist is a woman as was her teacher, it also brings to the fore the historical sexism in the musical world.

But this page-turner is also a carefully plotted mystery. In fact, it is several interwoven mysteries. Avoiding spoilers, Clara’s teacher bequeaths her an antique metronome and a cryptic notice that she should know why. Clara has no idea why. But as it becomes clear that the metronome is sought after, perhaps dangerous to possess, and has a history of its own, she is caught up in solving the puzzle.

There are so many layers to this novel, but I’m going to have to leave my review at this, because for full appreciation, you won’t want any of the plot twists revealed beforehand. It’s a contemporary novel, but with enough forays into the past that I can consider it a little bit of a historical novel, too. Read it and enjoy! 

BOOK REVIEW: Endling by Maria Reva

I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence this review.

Endling by Maria Reva is a startling novel that examines extinction (of a species, of a life, of one’s hopes and dreams) and left me stricken with awe (at the author’s creativity and skill) and sadness (because it grew darker and more hopeless as it progressed.)

It begins as a quirky, literary, contemporary novel, set in Ukraine, that twines together three lives.

Yeva is a conservation scientist obsessed with snails and the rapidity of the rate of extinction of various species. She is a one-woman crusader, determined to save as many Ukrainian snail species as she can. Yeva owns a trailer fitted up as a mobile lab.The information provided about snails is honestly fascinating and surprisingly poignant.

Nastia and Sol are sisters. Nastia is very young and very beautiful. Sol is two years older and plain. They never knew their father and were abandoned by their mother who was a performative activist against the marriage business (matchmaking services that bring foreign bride-seeking men into Ukraine to find beautiful, young, docile mates.) It sounds a lot like legal human trafficking. Angered and despondent over their mother’s disappearance, the sisters have joined a marriage-brokering business in rebellion and to earn a living. Nastia poses as one of the “brides” and Sol follows as her translator.

Nastia has a plan to get their mother’s attention. She wants to abduct a group of the bride-seeking bachelors and briefly hold them hostage as a publicity stunt. If they make the bridal business appear dangerous, it might shut the practice down. Sol follows along. Nastia manages to persuade Yeva to join them so that they can use her trailer to contain the bachelors.

There are pitfalls aplenty, and yet, the plan seems to be working. They kidnap thirteen bachelors and set off. However, here the story screeches to a halt. The Russian invasion of Ukraine begins.

In a meta-twist, the author (a Ukrainian expat, living in Canada) now intrudes on the story. How can she continue writing this quirky tale given what is going on back in Ukraine? 

When the author returns to the storyline, it incorporates this new reality. Events grow darker and quirky turns to surreal. The book barrels along to its ambiguous conclusion.

It’s a fascinating, heart-wrenching book, full of surprises, somewhat reminiscent of If an Egyptian Cannot Speak English, which I also loved.

BOOK REVIEW: Nine Pints: A Journey Through the Money, Medicine, and Mysteries of Blood by Rose George

For a new book club, I just finished Nine Pints: A Journey Through the Money, Medicine, and Mysteries of Blood by Rose George. Using a journalistic approach, the author examines blood from various angles to help the reader appreciate this miraculous fluid.

George starts with an overview: what comprises blood and how has our understanding of it changed over time. Then she zeros in on aspects of blood, including blood-letting, blood transfusions, menstruation and its taboos at home and in developing nations, hemophilia, AIDS, and even vampirism. While it’s a bit rambling, going off on tangents and then circling back to her theme, it’s a surprisingly interesting book. You’ll come away with mixed feelings about blood transfusion. Although life-saving, it is also a big business with all the corruption and danger that comes from mixing capitalism with medicine. You’ll be horrified at the abuse, exploitation, and undereducation of young women in India and Africa, excused on the grounds that they bleed. You’ll shudder at the thought of leeches!

The author traveled widely to explore the areas she discusses. There are extensive end notes for readers who want to investigate her sources and learn more. I’m looking forward to the discussion at the book club to see what others thought.

BOOK REVIEW: This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Many years ago, I bought a set of four F. Scott Fitzgerald novels, and they sat for a long time on my bookshelf. I eventually re-read The Great Gatsby, which I’d first read in school. In 2016, I decided to read Tender is the Night, which I enjoyed more than Gatsby. But it took me nine more years to pull This Side of Paradise from the shelf.

This is Fitzgerald’s first novel and definitely not his best. There is beautiful language, of course. And he plays around with structure, dividing the protagonist’s life into parts, subdivided into chapters, and then into scenes reading like anecdotes. One of these scenes is even written like a movie script. It’s interesting, but makes the read choppy.

It’s said to be semi-autobiographical. The protagonist is Amory Blaine, an upper middle-class boy growing up in pre-WWI America. He attends private school in the east and adapts to its demands. He’s intelligent, but not as intelligent as he thinks he is. He decides he wants to go to Princeton, and he does.

At Princeton, he looks around at who are the most socially successful of his classmates and imitates them. After a rocky start, his popularity rises, until he fails a math exam and has to resign from the Princetonian, a position that had given him credibility. Then he starts moving with a different crowd, and forms a couple of friendships that more or less last through the rest of the book. His best friend is a poet, and Amory also has a literary side. The book is sprinkled with poetry written by various characters.

There is a very brief interlude where he goes off to war. 

He has a series of love affairs, none of which last, for various reasons. His parents die. A priest that he was very friendly with and considered something of a mentor died. He doesn’t work– he lives off the income from his parents’ investments. And then they fail and he goes broke.

Throughout, he’s egotistical and unlikeable. I read the book with as much emotional investment as the summary I’ve given. I’m glad I read it, since it’s been gathering dust on my shelf. But at the end of the novel, I was left feeling who cares?

It reminded me a little of Catcher in the Rye and a little of Maurice. If you want to read an angsty male coming-of-age story, I’d recommend Maurice. If you want to read a Fitzgerald novel besides Gatsby, I recommend Tender is the Night.

BOOK REVIEW: Ghost in the Garden by Mary Lancaster

I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence this review.

Ghost in the Garden, book three in Mary Lancaster’s Victorian Mystery series, Silver and Grey, is now available! I am hooked on this series.

Constance Silver, a notorious brothel owner and Solomon Grey, a wealthy, upright businessman from Jamaica have both learned enough about aristocrats to circulate along the fringes of the ton, but they both have complicated pasts that would prevent them from ever belonging in that crowd. Thrown together in the past while pursuing their own interests, Constance and Solomon have teamed up to solve murders before. Discovering themselves skilled at this, and adept as partners, they decide to open an inquiry agency as a sideline to their regular work.

It isn’t only an interest in solving mysteries that inspired the agency. They also wanted a way to keep and grow the connection between them. Although a romance is impossible—Constance doesn’t want to leave the brothel, 1) because she has created it as a lifeline for women who have no other place to go, and 2) neither Constance nor Solomon want that kind of relationship. Constance doesn’t sell her own body. And she doesn’t force the down-and-out women who come to her to enter the prostitution business unless they want to. The others, she works to place in respectable jobs.

But, impossible though it may be, there’s a spark between the two that grows hotter with each book.

The first official case the agency takes on is to investigate a ghost-like figure that has been seen in the foggy garden of a wealthy slum lord. The person hiring them is the man’s formidable wife. In order to get into the house, to investigate the ghost, Constance takes a pretend position as the wife’s lady’s maid. The pervasive sense of danger is justified when they find a dead body in the wine cellar. Now, it’s another murder investigation, not just a ghost hunt.

Constance and Solomon hunt for clues while the reader follows along. The identity of the murderer may not come as a surprise to the reader, but the maze of clues and urgency of solving the case makes a compelling story. And the deepening of the relationship between the two protagonists adds to the suspense.

I can’t wait for book four!

BOOK REVIEW: Rules for Ruin by Mimi Matthews

I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence this review.

I’m a huge fan of Mimi Matthews, and I’m excited that she now has a new Victorian Romance series, The Crinoline Academy Novels. Book 1 is Rules for Ruin.

Effie (Euphemia Flite) is a graduate of Miss Corvu’s Benevolent Academy for the Betterment of Young Ladies, better known in the area as The Crinoline Academy. Effie doesn’t believe in the school’s benevolence. She’d been scooped up by the proprietress, Artemisia Corvu, when she was a very young street urchin, and had been denied any opportunity to learn about her past. She’d been educated, somewhat against her will, to the extent that she can now pass among the upper classes as one of them. But she’d also learned the means to take care of herself. When she was 18, after yet another infraction of the school’s rules, she’d been “cast out,” sent to Paris to be a lady’s companion. Now, five years later, she is called back to the school. Miss Corvu has a job for her. If she completes it to her benefactor’s satisfaction, her debt to the woman will be repaid with a bonus, enough for her to live independently, which is all that she thinks she wants.

Miss Corvu wants Effie to play the part of a debutante. She is to ingratiate herself with a man named Lord Compton, an influential politician, a man of (supposedly) spotless reputation. Then she is to find information that can ruin him. Lord Compton not only stands against an upcoming women’s property bill being brought before Parliament, but, years ago, he ruined a young lady and stole her fortune. It’s time to take him down.

Effie accepts the terms. Unfortunately for the plan, as she meets Lord Compton at a social event, she also meets Gabriel Royce. 

Gabriel was also born to the underclass, but he built a fortune for himself (in shady businesses) and adopted aristocratic manners in order to better go where the money is. He rules the Rookery, a slum, by way of a significant financial investment in a gaming house. He wants to reform the slum for the betterment of its inhabitants. In this, he is being thwarted by aristocrats who would rather take over the Rookery and push out the poor. Gabriel needs politicians on his side. So he leans on Lord Compton for introductions to persuadable men. Gabriel is able to influence Compton because he has damning evidence against him. Evidence that could destroy him.

Gabriel’s strength lies in keeping control of that evidence. Effie’s goal is to locate that evidence, though at first, she doesn’t know what it is or where it is. Gabriel and Effie are quickly attracted to one another, but soon find out they are working at cross-purposes. Effie wants to destroy Compton. Gabriel needs him to stay in power so that his own operation will be protected. So what happens when Effie learns that the evidence she needs is in Gabriel’s possession?

Mimi Matthews is a master of the closed-door romance, and Rules for Ruin is a thrilling story of intrigue, corruption, and a battle of wills. It’s a great start to a new series!

BOOK REVIEW: The Ladies Road Guide to Utter Ruin by Alison Goodman

I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence this review.

The Ladies Road Guide to Utter Ruin by Alison Goodman will be released in 4 days. I’ve been waiting for this impatiently since reading book 1 in the series, The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies. 

Book 2 continues the Regency-Era adventures of Lady Augusta (Gus) Colebrook and her sister, Julia. They are 42-year-old twins of genteel birth and modest fortune. But they are spinsters, which puts them in an odd place in Society. They have some independence, but are not expected to use it.

They have already caused a stir by their rescuing of Lady Hester Belford from an insane asylum, where she had been imprisoned by her brother. Now they are hiding the lady so that her brother, Lord Deele, can’t try again to have her locked away elsewhere. (For the record, Hester is not insane.) The only reason Deele (a second son) has control over his sister is that their eldest brother, Lord Evan Belford, is supposed to be in exile for a murder he did not (he didn’t think) commit. Evan has sneaked back from exile to try to clear his name. In book 1, he and Gus met and fell in love. Unfortunately, he’s on the run from the law and they can’t be together. Awkwardly, the law includes Mr. Kent, a Bow-Street Runner, who is pursuing Evan, and who is enamored with Julia—the feeling is mutual.

Gus and Julia have to protect Lady Hester, Evan, and their own reputations while also dealing with their brother, Lord Duffield, who is mortified by their behavior and determined to make them behave so they’ll stop bringing shame upon the family name.

Along the way, they encounter a “thief-taker,” who is determined to catch Lord Evan and kill him. Someone, they don’t know who, wants Evan dead. They uncover a secret club devoted to sexual violence and depravity. And they become involved with government plots. All the while, they have to accept that their own sisterly relationship is changing.

This book is a worthy successor to book one. While entertaining in its own right, you should really read book one first to help keep all the players straight. If you enjoy historical adventure with a strong dose of romance, this series is not to be missed.