Vicki Kondelik

Celeste Connally: Revenge, Served Royal

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Lady Petra Inquires #3

Revenge, Served Royal is the delightful third entry in Celeste Connally’s series Lady Petra Investigates, featuring aristocratic sleuth Lady Petra Forsyth, the daughter of an earl, in Regency England.  Petra is an unconventional woman of her time.  She is fiercely independent and has sworn never to marry, after the death, in suspicious circumstances, of her fiancé.  That doesn’t keep her from having a sexual relationship with handsome intelligence officer Duncan Shawcross, and making no effort to hide the nature of their relationship.  She is also an excellent horsewoman and wears a special riding habit for riding astride.  Although she often defies the conventions, Petra is very much at home in high society, and has connections to the royal family. 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

Dianne Freeman: A Daughter’s Guide to Mothers and Murder

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Countess of Harleigh #8

A Daughter’s Guide to Mothers and Murder is the eighth book in Dianne Freeman’s series about the American-born Frances, Countess of Harleigh, and her second husband, George Hazelton, a secret investigator for the British government.  The series is set in the late 1890s/early 1900s, usually in London, but this book and the previous one take place in Paris during the 1900 Exposition (World’s Fair).  Frances and George have recently returned to Paris from their honeymoon, which was delayed at least twice because of murder, and are awaiting the arrival of Frances’ mother.  Frances and her mother have not had the best of relationships, to put it mildly.  She finds her mother overbearing, and her mother is always criticizing her and her sister.  Frances’ mother has spent much of her daughters’ adulthood trying to marry them off, much like Mrs. Bennet in Pride and Prejudice. read more

Kathleen Marple Kalb: A Fatal Waltz

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Ella Shane #5

A Fatal Waltz is the fifth book in Kathleen Marple Kalb’s wonderful series about opera singer Ella Shane, set in Gilded Age New York.  Ella, a mezzo-soprano who specializes in singing male roles, and is an expert swordswoman, grew up in a tenement.  She is the daughter of a Jewish mother and an Irish Catholic father, who both died when she was a child, and she practices both faiths, lighting Shabbat candles on Friday nights and going to Mass on Sundays.  After a famous opera singer took her under her wing, Ella went on to have a very successful career, and by now she has overcome the poverty of her childhood, but she has never forgotten it, or the people who were kind to her. 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

Erica Ruth Neubauer: Homicide in the Indian Hills

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Jane Wunderly #6

Homicide in the Indian Hills is the sixth full-length book in Erica Ruth Neubauer’s Jane Wunderly series set in various locations around the world in the 1920s.  Jane, an American war widow, has recently married the enigmatic Englishman Redvers, and this represents their first case as a married couple.  The couple met in Egypt, in the first book in the series, Murder at the Mena House, and so far their adventures have taken them to Istanbul, a Scottish island, a transatlantic voyage on the sister ship of the Titanic, and several other places.  Redvers carries out secret operations for the Crown, and usually these lead to a murder which Jane and Redvers solve. read more

Darcie Wilde: The Matter of the Secret Bride

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Rosalind Thorne #8

The Matter of the Secret Bride is Darcie Wilde’s eighth novel in her Regency series featuring Rosalind Thorne (but see below, on series numbering).  Rosalind is a gentlewoman whose family has fallen on hard times after her father’s abandonment and later, his death.  To make a living, she assists aristocratic women with their difficulties, helping them avoid scandal and, often, solving crimes.  At first she was able to do so discreetly, frequently going undercover, but now she has acquired a reputation, as well as several highly-placed patronesses.  She shares a house with her friend Alice Littlefield, a gossip columnist turned novelist, and Alice’s lover Amelia, Rosalind’s former maid, who now runs a school for impoverished girls.  Rosalind’s love interest is Adam Harkness, who used to be a Bow Street Runner, but has now left because his politically-minded boss considers him a radical.  Now he works for the coroner and helps Rosalind in her investigations. 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

Rosemary Simpson: Death Takes the Lead

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Gilded Age #9

Death Takes the Lead is the ninth book in Rosemary Simpson’s Gilded Age Mystery series set in New York City in the 1890s, with protagonists Prudence MacKenzie and Geoffrey Hunter.  Prudence comes from one of New York’s wealthiest families–one of Mrs. Astor’s Four Hundred.  Rebelling against the life of a society lady, she has passed the New York bar and become one of the first female lawyers in the state.  Geoffrey is an ex-Pinkerton agent and a Civil War veteran.  He is the son of a Southern plantation owner and, after seeing the horrors of slavery firsthand, has run away from his home and fought for the North.  Both characters are rebels against the society in which they were born, and the two are now partners in an investigative law firm.  A slow-burning romance has developed between them, and, I am pleased to say, without giving away too much, this book takes it to a new level. read more