Vicki Kondelik

Andrea Penrose: Murder on Threadneedle Street

by

Wrexford & Sloane #10

Murder on Threadneedle Street is book 10 in Andrea Penrose’s wonderful Wrexford and Sloane Regency mystery series.  The protagonists are the Earl of Wrexford, a chemist with a special expertise in metallurgy, and his wife Charlotte, formerly Sloane, an artist and political cartoonist who uses the pseudonym A.J. Quill.  It is an attraction of opposites between the two.  He solves crimes by using logic and the scientific method, while she uses intuition and an artist’s eye for details.  Over the course of the series, they have each come to respect, and occasionally use, the other’s method. read more

Dianne Freeman: A Christmas Guide to Family and Murder

by

Countess of Harleigh #9

A Christmas Guide to Family and Murder is the ninth book in Dianne Freeman’s delightful series set at the turn of the 20th century, about Frances, the American-born Countess of Harleigh, and her second husband, George Hazelton, a younger son of an earl and a secret agent for the British government.  The two of them solve crimes together, usually among the upper classes in London, even though the two books before this one have taken them to Paris.  This novel introduces a new setting: a country estate in Norfolk.  Frances is looking forward to spending Christmas of 1900 in London when she and George receive an invitation from Fiona, George’s sister and Frances’ best friend, to join her and her husband, Robert, at their estate, Hadley Grange.  Rose, Frances’ nine-year-old daughter by her first husband, is excited about spending Christmas in Norfolk, as are the two most recent additions to the family: Lissette, George’s fifteen-year-old cousin and ward, and her half-sister Christine, a young woman in her early twenties.  Frances’ aunt Hetty joins them as well, after indicating that things are not going smoothly between her and her suitor Gilliam, a theater manager. read more

Tasha Alexander: Murder on the Sacred River

by

Lady Emily #20

Murder on the Sacred River is the twentieth novel in Tasha Alexander’s series about Lady Emily Hargreaves, an unconventional English noblewoman in the late 19th-early 20th century, and her handsome husband Colin, a secret agent for the British government.  Long-time readers of the series will know that Emily and Colin have traveled all over the world, and that each book—at least, the ones that don’t take place in England—has a different setting.  This one takes place in India in 1908.  The beginning of the book finds Emily and Colin staying with a group of British tourists at the Ahilya Fort in Maheshwar.  This fort was built in the 18th century by the maharani Ahilya (full name: Ahilyabai Holkar), a ruling queen who was, and still is, revered for improving the lot of the common people of her kingdom, especially women.  As usual with Alexander, Emily’s adventures are intertwined with a plot set in the more distant past, and in this book it’s the story of Ahilya, and how she came to rule her kingdom. read more

Kathleen Marple Kalb: A Fatal Flourish

by

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

Darcie Wilde: The Abduction of Rosalind Thorne

by

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

Emily Sullivan: A Murder in Marylebone

by

Minnie Harper #2

A Murder in Marylebone is the second book in a delightful new mystery series by Emily Sullivan, featuring Minnie Harper, a widow in her thirties with two children, in the late 1890s.  The first book took place on Corfu, where Minnie had lived with her husband, Oliver, until his sudden death.  She had promised him that she would stay on Corfu and raise their children there, but in the previous book her daughter, fourteen-year-old Cleo, decided to go to school in England with the hope of attending Girton College, Cambridge (one of the first colleges for women), just like Minnie did.  And so, Minnie and her son, eight-year-old Tommy, who is a budding natural scientist, return to London to be closer to her. read more

Colleen Cambridge: In the Spirit of French Murder

by

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

by

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

Best of 2025: Reviewer’s Choice

by

Our reviewers, Margaret Agnew, Cathy Akers-Jordan, Vicki Kondelik and Carla Schantz, are all extremely discerning readers and all have shared their favorites for the year.  I so appreciate the yearly efforts of these wonderful reviewers, and their top 10 lists should help you find a good read.  Some have comments, some (like Margaret) have merely listed their selections in order.  All the choices have been given lots of thought.  Needless to say, their reviews appear on the website, and you can read more about them on the “Our Reviewers” tab here. read more

Clara McKenna: Murder at Cottonwood Creek

by

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