Kensington Books

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

Mark Pryor: The Most Mysterious Bookshop in Paris

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Series Debut

The main character in Mark Pryor’s new series is Hugar Marson, the ex-head of security at the US embassy in Paris and FBI profiler. These are two excellent occupations to set Hugo up for his own sleuthing future, except he isn’t looking to be one.  Instead, he is opening his own antiquarian bookshop in Paris and looking forward to living the small business owner’s life – a dream much easier said than done, as it turns out,  because of his talent in the field as well as his own innate curiosity and need to solve a mystery once it has been presented to him. read more

Patrice McDonough: Murder by Moonrise

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Dr. Julia Lewis #3

In 1867 London, the Isle of Wight was a holiday destination, one even favored by the royal family.  Queen Victoria had a home there and was often in residence.  In our story, Dr. Julia Lewis is vacationing on the Isle of Wight with her grandparents and missing and wondering about Detective Richard Tennant, who has been abroad and on the hunt for a villain for months.  She hasn’t heard from him and alongside worrying that he’s OK, she’s also worried that she was too forward, and that he doesn’t feel about her as she does about him. read more

Patricia B. McConnell: Away to Me

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Debut

This is an excellent debut from animal behaviorist Patricia McConnell, whose main character, Maddie McGowan, is also an animal behaviorist who goes to sheepdog trials in her spare time.  She takes her beloved dog, Jack, to trials, and he is still learning the ropes a bit.  The book opens with a bang.  Maddie is at a trial with her mentor, George, who offers her encouragement before her “run” with Jack, and then the worst happens.  George is shot and dies, and everyone at the trial feels it must have been a hunting accident. read more

Rob Osler: The Case of the Murdered Muckraker

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Harriet Morrow # 2

It’s rare that I like the encore more than the first book in a series, but Rob Osler has pulled it off with the second in his series about Harriet Morrow, a fledgling private detective in turn of the century Chicago.  I liked the first book very much, but in this one, Osler delves even deeper and more expansively into Harriet’s character.  She’s an LGBTQ woman at a time when such things hardly had a name and she’s not sure what to do about it, though she enjoys wearing men’s clothes does seem to have a potential girlfriend in mind.  Unbelievably, in her era cross dressing was an offense that could bring a fine or jail time or both, so she mostly confines herself to wearing men’s more comfortable shoes and practical hats.  She vastly prefers trousers for bicycling around town (and who can blame her?) but is forced to make do. read more

Clara McKenna: Murder at Cottonwood Creek

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Stella & Lyndy #7

Murder At Cottonwood Creek Is the seventh book in Clara McKenna’s series set in the early 20th century, about Viscount “Lyndy” Lyndhurst, a British aristocrat, and Stella, his American-born wife, the daughter of a Kentucky horse farmer who was murdered in an earlier book.  It was an arranged marriage at first, but the couple grew to love each other.  A shared love of horses certainly helped.  This book takes place outside the series’ usual setting of the New Forest region of England, as Stella and Lyndy travel to a ranch in Montana, owned by her mother’s second husband, Ned Smith.  There, Lyndy’s father, Lord Atherly, pursues his passion for fossil-hunting, as he works with a paleontologist, Professor Gridley, to search for the fossils of prehistoric horses.  Lyndy, a fan of dime novels, is excited about seeing the “Wild West,” even though he is disappointed that the herds of buffalo have largely died out.  Stella is glad to finally meet her stepfather and twelve-year-old brother.  She has recently settled her father’s estate in Kentucky and brought thoroughbred horses to the ranch. read more

Valerie Wilson Wesley: The Mysterious Death of Junetta Plum

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Series Debut

Harriet Stone is named for Harriet Tubman – the legendary Tubman had saved her father from slavery (he referred to her as “the General”). Our Harriet is intrepid and courageous, though she herself may not quite be aware of it.  Set in 1926, she’s has lost most of her family as well as her fiancée to the Spanish flu, and she’s in charge of the orphaned Lovey, who is not quite young enough to be her daughter and not quite old enough to be her sister.  Their relationship teeters between the two designations. read more

Rosemary Simpson: In Deadly Fashion

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Gilded Age #10

Rosemary Simpson’s two protagonists in her Gilded Age series set in New York city are heiress and lawyer Prudence MacKenzie and ex-Pinkerton agent Geoffrey Hunter,  partners in an investigative law firm.  Prudence is a member of New York’s elite, known as the Four Hundred, but she has defied society’s conventions and become one of the first female lawyers in the city, even though she is frustrated that she has not yet been allowed to argue a case in court.  Geoffrey is a Southerner who grew up on a plantation, but he left for the North as a young man because of his antislavery views, and decided to build a life for himself in New York.  The two of them have had a slow-burning romance since the beginning of the series.  Geoffrey realized he loved Prudence before she realized she loved him, and once she acknowledged her feelings, she resisted marriage for a long time because she didn’t want to give up her independence.  But now they are finally engaged and, as this book begins, in the late summer of 1891, the wedding date is set for mid-September, just a few weeks away. read more

Andrea Penrose: Murder at Somerset House

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Wrexford & Sloane #9

Murder at Somerset House is the ninth book in Andrea Penrose’s Regency mystery series featuring the Earl of Wrexford, a chemist and amateur detective, and his wife Charlotte Sloane, who, under the pseudonym A.J. Quill, is England’s most famous political cartoonist.  It is an attraction of opposites: scientist and artist.  Wrexford uses logic and the scientific method to solve crimes, while Charlotte uses intuition and her artist’s eye.  Gradually, though, they learn the value of the other’s method and will occasionally adopt it when confronted with a crime.  One of the strengths of this series, besides the central couple’s developing relationship, is that each book deals with a different aspect of Regency science and technology, or inventions that were originally thought of during the Regency period, but not developed until later.  Recent books have covered such topics as steamships, locomotives, and suspension bridges.  In this book, the development of an electrical telegraph (not fully realized until 1838), is central to the plot. read more