Historical

Kathleen Marple Kalb: A Fatal Flourish

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Ella Shane #6

A Fatal Flourish is the sixth book in Kathleen Marple Kalb’s wonderful series about Ella Shane, a star of the Metropolitan Opera in Gilded Age New York.  Ella is a mezzo-soprano who is known for playing male roles, and she is an expert swordswoman, a skill which has proven useful while chasing criminals.  She grew up in a tenement on the Lower East Side, as the orphaned daughter of a Jewish mother and an Irish Catholic father.  A famous singer discovered what a great voice Ella had and mentored her.  Ella has since become a star and married Gil, a British duke, but she has never forgotten her past and is always generous to those less fortunate than she is. read more

Rhys Bowen: The Castle in the Glen

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Rhys Bowen knocks it out of the park again with this year’s standalone novel The Castle in the Glen. Set in 1960s London and early-1900s Isle of Skye, the parallel plot follows the adventure of young Australian author Emma Callander. Having published her first book, she is undecided about her future. Should she stay in rainy London to write her next book or give in to homesickness and return to sunny Australia? Her publisher solves her dilemma by introducing her to well-known mystery writer Iris Blackburn. Blackburn, dealing with age-related memory issues, wants to write one last book in her popular series but needs help finishing it and decides Emma should be her co-author/ghostwriter. read more

Carolyn Marie Wilkins: Let the Murderer Say Amen

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Psychics & Soul Food #2

This lively and compelling mystery is set in a small town in Illinois in the 20’s.  While author Wilkins names her fictional town Agate, if you’d like to orient yourself it’s fairly close to Joliet, outside of Chicago. The central character is the charming Nola Ann Jackson, who is working for a caterer and lives with her Aunt Sarah.  Both women are psychics though Aunt Sarah has far more experience, and is known as a conjure woman.  Both can see auras.  I loved this aspect of their characters – it made them both more specific and more interesting. read more

David Lewis: The Paris Chase

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The Secret Churchill Files #3

This enthralling mystery is set in 1942 and begins with our heroine, Welsh woman and secret agent Catrine Colline, pondering her future after her woman only spy division, 512, is absorbed into the larger SOE (Special Operations Executive).  Determined to qualify to be sent to France, she’s passed all the physical tests, but can’t manage to speak the language like a native, so is seconded to the dreaded office work. Churchill, however, senses Catrine has something special, and when an SS agent disappears in Paris, he decides she’s the one to find him and bring him to London.  The man, Dieter Silber, had discovered the plans for Hitler’s gruesome “Final Solution,” and can’t stomach it. read more

Darcie Wilde: The Abduction of Rosalind Thorne

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Rosalind Thorne/Useful Woman #9

The Abduction of Rosalind Thorne is the ninth volume in Darcie Wilde’s Rosalind Thorne/Useful Woman series of Regency mysteries, and I am very glad that the publisher finally recognizes that it’s all the same series.  For a while, they were calling the last few volumes the Useful Woman Mysteries and renumbering them, starting from Book 1.  Rosalind is a gentlewoman who has fallen on hard times after her father, who was deeply in debt, abandoned his family.  She discovers she has a talent for solving people’s problems, and she makes a living by offering her assistance to gentlewomen and aristocrats in difficulty.  Her cases often involve blackmail, scandal, and murder. read more

Anna Lee Huber: A Bitter Cut

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Lady Darby #14

Set in 1830s Warwickshire, this installment finds series heroine Keira, Lady Darby, settling into a new home on the grounds of her father in law’s estate, while getting ready to host a long run of large house parties which will culminate in a ball.  While she’s repaired her breach with stern father-in-law, Lord Gage (much thanks to her small daughter Emma), there’s new family trouble brewing in the form of her brother Trevor’s planned engagement to a wealthy young woman, Matilda, who has, it turns out, extremely abrasive parents. read more

Shaina Steinberg: Echoes of Infamy

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Bishop & Gallagher #3

I usually have no problem catching up with a series when I begin with a later instalment, but due to the complex backstories of the characters in this one, I found myself having to peruse a synopsis of the first two books to figure things out. It’s set in 1948 Los Angeles, and the main characters, Evelyn Bishop and Nick Gallagher, met during the war working as OSS agents.  In this novel, they’ve finally married and Evelyn has taken over the family aeronautics company, while Nick is working as a private eye. read more

Colleen Cambridge: In the Spirit of French Murder

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An American in Paris #4

In the Spirit of French Murder is the fourth book in Colleen Cambridge’s An American in Paris Mystery series set in post-World War II Paris, about Tabitha Knight, a former Rosie the Riveter and best friend of Julia Child.  At the time this novel takes place, in March of 1950, Tabitha, the daughter of an American policeman father and a French mother, has been in Paris for almost a year.  After growing up near Detroit, she has gone to live with her French grandfather and his life partner, Oncle Rafe.  Tabitha’s cooking skills are not up to making the French dinners her “messieurs” love, but, luckily for her, she has Julia Child as a neighbor.  At this time, Julia is a student at the prestigious Cordon Bleu chef school, and she is happy to cook meals for Tabitha and her messieurs or to direct Tabitha in making them. read more

Erica Ruth Neubauer: Vengeance in Venice

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Jane Wunderly #7

Vengeance in Venice is the seventh full-length novel in Erica Ruth Neubauer’s Jane Wunderly series, set in the 1920s in various locations around the world.  The adventurous Jane is an American war widow whose abusive first husband was killed in World War I.  Now she is much more happily married to the Englishman Redvers, who conducts secret missions for the British government.  Jane is a full partner in Redvers’ investigations, and their witty dialogue is one of the outstanding features of the series.  The couple met in Egypt in the first novel, Murder at the Mena House, and their adventures have taken them to, among other places, Istanbul, a Scottish island, and, most recently, India.  The series also includes a delightful Christmas novella, Murder Under the Mistletoe, which should not be missed.  Part of the fun of the series is trying to figure out where Jane’s and Redvers’ adventures will take them next. read more

Naomi Hirahara: Crown City

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Japantown #3

I’ve enjoyed all the books in this series, but in some ways I would say Naomi Hirahara is almost more of an historian than a mystery writer, evidenced by this latest installment of this extremely enjoyable series. There is in fact a mystery in Crown City, but the time period and setting are the real stars of the show. Another attraction is main character, Ryui Wada, an accomplished carpenter who emigrated to America from Yokohama in 1903 after the death of his father.  Although he has a job waiting for him, he’s just 18, speaks little English, and has a lot to learn, something that’s brought home when he discovers Pasadena, the “Crown City,” a place that astonishes, fascinates and horrifies. read more