Historical

Emily Sullivan: A Death on Corfu

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Minnie Harper #1

This lovely, sparkling book is set on Corfu in 1898.  It’s the story of widowed Minnie, raising two kids on her own.  Minnie is British but her husband chose Corfu for them, and the family was very happy there together.  His dying request was for Minnie never to send the children back to England.  While Minnie’s son, Tommy, is young and more than entranced by the copious insect and amphibian population, her daughter Cleo is a teen who has reached the eye rolling stage.  I doubt that’s what it was called in 1898, but you know what I mean.  Cleo is longing to go away to school. read more

Will Thomas: Season of Death

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Barker & Llewelyn #16

Season of Death is the sixteenth book in Will Thomas’ series set in Victorian London, featuring private enquiry agents (they prefer this term, rather than “detectives”) Cyrus Barker and Thomas Llewelyn.  I had not read any of the previous books in the series before, and at first I wondered if I’d be lost, starting the series with the sixteenth book, but this novel was so engaging that I felt drawn in by the story and the characters right away, and now I want to go back and read the others.  Thomas gives the reader enough detail about the characters and their previous cases that you don’t feel lost, but not so much as to spoil the earlier books. read more

Chris Nickson: No Precious Truth

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Cathy Marsden #1

Often when I read a book set during WWII, I imagine myself as the heroine of an exciting yet dangerous espionage operation, looking Hollywood glamorous the whole time.  Nickson offers readers a different, more workaday take in the person of Cathy Marsden, seconded from the Leeds police department to serve in the SIB or Special Operations Bureau, part of the military police. As the book opens, Cathy’s unit is joined by her brother Dan, who at the moment is stationed in London in the XX Committee, a part of MI5 which attempted to turn German spies in England into counter agents who would feed selected disinformation back to their masters. read more

S.K. Golden: The Socialite’s Guide to Sleuthing and Secrets

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Pinnacle Hotel #3

This adorable series continues to be both adorable and thoughtful.  The heroine, hotel heiress and agoraphobe Evelyn Murphy, dresses almost completely in pink and dyes her hair blonde like her idol, Marilyn.  It’s 1958 and Elvis rules, as does Evelyn’s spoiled pom, Presley.  Evelyn’s almost boyfriend Mac has taken off for parts unknown, and so she’s entertaining ideas of other suitors throughout the book.

The main story, however, centers on the “Ladies Who Love to Sparkle”, women who sell costume jewellery, Tupperware party style.  As Evelyn enjoys tea in her hotel’s dining room, one of the sparkle ladies asks her to join them.  They share their catalogue, and all share a glass of champagne.  So far so good, but then the leader of the group collapses in Evelyn’s lap and later dies in the hospital. read more

Radha Vatsal: No. 10 Doyers Street

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Archana “Archie” Morley is a journalist working in 1907 New York City.  She’s a double outsider: she’s a woman, and she’s from India.  Her physician husband, who has defied his family to marry her, is quite tolerant of her choice to don pants and traverse dangerous parts of the city looking for stories.  And boy, does she find some.  While her editor has her latched on to the notorious murder of Stanford White by Harry Thaw, Archie gets distracted by a gang style shooting in Chinatown and the gangster who may or may not be behind it, Mock Duck. read more

E.L. Johnson: Winter’s Poison

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Winter Murders #1

There are not many mysteries set in the tumultuous court of King Stephen (1096-1154). A Winter’s Poison by E.L. Johnson is certainly the first I have personally read. It follows teenage Baker’s daughter Bronwyn, adept in the kitchen herself, as she is pulled into it making a fairly routine delivery. A nobleman named De Grecy orders fancy white rolls from her father’s shop on a whim, and Bronwyn discovers they are intended for the king and queen only when she arrives to drop them off. However, as she is departing, she sees a cloaked figure fiddling with the food and tries to report it to the head cook. It’s clear that someone has added mushrooms to the top of the rolls. read more

Jeanne M. Dams: Murder of a Recluse

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Oak Park Village #3

I read the first book in this series, Murder in the Park, when it came out in 2021.  It stuck in my head, and when I picked up the latest book four years later, the place and characters came back to me right away.  Set in a Chicago suburb in the 20’s, the books follow now new bride Elizabeth Wilkins.  She’s separated herself at last from a difficult and controlling mother and is finding life as a young bride very pleasant.  She and her husband are building a house and are making space for his Aunt Lucy in their new home. read more

S.J. Bennett: A Death in Diamonds

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Her Majesty the Queen Investigates #4

I love this series, and with this title its excellence continues.  It was originally published in the UK last year, but thanks to a change of publishers, readers in the US have had to wait until now to get their hands on it.  While the central premise of Queen Elizabeth having a private secretary who helps her with undercover investigations may sound a bit silly, Bennet pulls it off thanks to her way with smart plots, great characters and humor.  The Queen has access to all kinds of things, of course, but there are also topics that the people around her think a royal should not concern herself with.  As portrayed by Bennett, Elizabeth loves solving puzzles, and her private secretary becomes her eyes and ears out in the world. read more

Rob Osler: The Case of the Missing Maid

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Harriet Morrow Investigates #1

This fun historical mystery from Rob Osler features an unusual heroine: Harriet Morrow, an LGBTQ woman at the turn of the 20th century who has just secured a job as the first female operative at a detective agency in Chicago.  In 1898, law enforcement remained somewhat haphazard, so private detectives did lots of investigative work that today would be handled by regular law enforcement. Consequently, when Harriet tells someone she’s an investigator, they tend to pay serious attention and respond to her questions. read more

Clara McKenna: Murder at Glenloch Hill

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Stella & Lyndy #6

Murder at Glenloch Hill is the sixth book in Clara McKenna’s Stella and Lyndy series set in early 1900s England (or, in this case, Scotland).  The two protagonists are a recently married couple: Stella Kendrick, the daughter of a wealthy Kentucky horse farmer, and Edwin “Lyndy” Lyndhurst, a British aristocrat from an impoverished noble family.  The marriage was arranged by their fathers because Lyndy’s family needed Stella’s fortune to save their estate, and Stella’s father wanted the prestige of an aristocratic title in the family.  Luckily for the couple, they fell in love, with the help of a shared love of horses.  Stella’s father has died since then (murdered in a previous book), and Lyndy’s father is always away, indulging his passion for fossil-hunting.  Lyndy’s snobbish mother, Lady Atherly, disapproves of Stella because she’s American and because of her adventurous spirit, which means she doesn’t always follow society’s expectations of an aristocratic lady.  Lately, though, she and Stella have been getting along better, but, at the beginning of this novel, Lady Atherly is disappointed in Stella because she has yet to produce an heir. read more