{"id":1186,"date":"2013-10-31T21:27:25","date_gmt":"2013-11-01T03:27:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=1186"},"modified":"2013-10-31T21:27:25","modified_gmt":"2013-11-01T03:27:25","slug":"tasha-alexander-behind-the-shattered-glass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/tasha-alexander-behind-the-shattered-glass\/","title":{"rendered":"Tasha Alexander: Behind the Shattered Glass"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I can\u2019t think of a more delicious way to allocate your book buying budget than to buy a Tasha Alexander novel.\u00a0 Alexander, who began this Victorian series with her central character of Lady Emily falling in love with her recently dead husband after the fact, has only continued to spice up her characters.\u00a0 Lady Emily\u2019s love of all things Greek and the scholarly attributes that come with her passion make her a believable investigative partner for her husband, Colin Hargreaves, who works undercover for the crown.<\/p>\n

\"Behind-the-Shattered-Glass\"<\/a>I can say there aren\u2019t too many nicer marriages contained within the pages of mystery novels than the one portrayed here between Emily and Colin, who are now parents of twin boys.\u00a0 Somehow their loving relationship is never cloying \u2013 but it is sweet.\u00a0 It\u2019s one of the very enjoyable things about these novels.<\/p>\n

Alexander\u2019s storytelling skills have continued to ramp up as well.\u00a0 In Death in the Floating City, <\/i>her narrative bounced between the Renaissance and the (Victorian) present day, to excellent effect.\u00a0 In this novel she\u2019s gone the Upstairs Downstairs route in Emily and Colin\u2019s home of Anglemore.\u00a0 I enjoyed reading about Emily and Colin at home, and I liked the added fillip that the change between the point of view of the masters and the servants brought to the story.\u00a0 As the book opens a dead Marquess literally falls into the library of Anglemore, putting Emily and Colin right in the thick of things.<\/p>\n

Alexander\u2019s storytelling sophistication is on display as she peels away the layers of the dead Marquess\u2019 personality while also vividly portraying Lady Emily\u2019s neighbors, from the Marquess\u2019 sister to the vicar\u2019s daughter.\u00a0 As always, Lady Emily\u2019s mother brings a touch of comic relief and a scene between her and the vicar\u2019s daughter is both hilarious and advances the story at the same time.<\/p>\n

I really, really enjoyed the portrayal of the below stairs intrigue, especially the character of the parlor maid, Lily, who has caught the eye of Lord Flyte, a close friend of the Hargreaves who is staying with them.\u00a0 I also loved the portrayal of the heir to the Marquess\u2019 estate who shows up from exploring the Americas, \u201cRed Indian\u201d valet in tow. These things could all be shallow caricatures, and in the hand of a lesser writer, they might have been.\u00a0 In Alexander\u2019s hands, the deft narrative and wonderful characters spring to life on the page.\u00a0 I could not put this installment down \u2013 it\u2019s one of my favorites in a wildly enjoyable series.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I can\u2019t think of a more delicious way to allocate your book buying budget than to buy a Tasha Alexander novel.\u00a0 Alexander, who began this Victorian series with her central character of Lady Emily falling in love with her recently dead husband after the fact, has only continued to spice up her characters.\u00a0 Lady Emily\u2019s … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[10],"class_list":["post-1186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-historical"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1186"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1186\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1188,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1186\/revisions\/1188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}