{"id":7027,"date":"2026-04-29T02:50:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T09:50:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=7027"},"modified":"2026-04-29T06:44:56","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T13:44:56","slug":"emily-sullivan-a-murder-in-marylebone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/emily-sullivan-a-murder-in-marylebone\/","title":{"rendered":"Emily Sullivan: A Murder in Marylebone"},"content":{"rendered":"

Minnie Harper #2<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>A Murder in Marylebone<\/em> 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.\u00a0 The first book took place on Corfu, where Minnie had lived with her husband, Oliver, until his sudden death.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 And so, Minnie and her son, eight-year-old Tommy, who is a budding natural scientist, return to London to be closer to her.<\/p>\n

In the previous book, Minnie had worked as a typist for Stephen Dorian, a famous mystery author, who had temporarily taken up residence in a house near hers on Corfu.\u00a0 They got off to a bad start with each other.\u00a0 At their first meeting, Minnie overheard Stephen making a disparaging remark about her at a party, in a scene that\u2019s very reminiscent of Elizabeth\u2019s and Darcy\u2019s first meeting in Pride and Prejudice<\/em>.\u00a0 In fact, the relationship between Minnie and Stephen, which is the central one in the first book, A Death on Corfu<\/em>, often parallels that of Elizabeth and Darcy.\u00a0 In fact, as I was reading it, I kept imagining Colin Firth in the role of Stephen, even though I know he would be much too old for it now.\u00a0 But, unlike in Pride and Prejudice<\/em>, there is no happy ending for the couple, at least in the first book.\u00a0 In fact, they part on bad terms, as Stephen accuses Minnie\u2019s late husband of selling Greek antiquities on the black market, then leaves Corfu without saying goodbye.<\/p>\n

Now that Minnie is back in London, she is staying at the home of her Aunt Agatha (yes, really!) while her aunt is traveling on the continent.\u00a0 She is reacquainted with her family, with mixed feelings.\u00a0 Minnie is delighted that they will meet Tommy, and Tommy is just as delighted to meet his cousins, but Minnie has not seen her family since her marriage, fifteen years previously, and she and her parents were never close.\u00a0 Her mother is just as emotionally distant as ever, and she has never approved of Minnie\u2019s choice to get an education and to live on Corfu.\u00a0 Sadly, Minnie\u2019s father has had a bad fall, which no one bothered to tell her about, and he is slowly losing his memory.\u00a0 He does have some lucid moments, though, and he warns Minnie of danger, but she doesn\u2019t know if he is in his right mind or not when he issues his warning.<\/p>\n

Minnie\u2019s favorite sibling is her brother Samuel, who lives in India.\u00a0 Her oldest brother, Jack, is a Member of Parliament who is concerned mostly with his political career and wants to avoid any stains on the family\u2019s reputation that might ruin it.\u00a0 He and his wife, Dolly, seem to be two of a kind at first, but Dolly eventually proves to be a friend to Minnie.\u00a0 Minnie\u2019s sister, Delia, the youngest in the family, is a talented artist.\u00a0 She invites Minnie to a gallery opening where her painting will be exhibited.<\/p>\n

Although Minnie never cared for London\u2019s social whirl, she is glad to attend the opening, if only to get better acquainted with her sister, who was just a child when Minnie left England.\u00a0 She meets Delia\u2019s bohemian artist friends, as well as Charles Pearson, the young man with whom Delia is in love.\u00a0 Charles deals in antiques as a hobby, and he and Delia keep their relationship a secret from her upper-class parents, who wouldn\u2019t approve of Charles as a husband for their daughter.<\/p>\n

Minnie, Delia, and Charles go on from the gallery opening to a more raucous party at the home of a baron, Lord Linden, who is an enthusiast for Greek antiquities and who flirts with Minnie.\u00a0 And then, to Minnie\u2019s dismay, Stephen shows up at the party\u2014with a beautiful woman on his arm.\u00a0 Stephen has a scandalous reputation because of his divorce, the details of which we don\u2019t know for certain.\u00a0 Since he left Corfu, the newspapers have reported on his activities, always going to parties with different women, and Minnie admits she is hurt by what she hears.\u00a0 Of course, it is an awkward encounter.\u00a0 They are obviously still attracted to each other, but don\u2019t know how to get past what happened on Corfu.<\/p>\n

A fortune teller warns Minnie to beware of a man in her life, but Minnie doesn\u2019t know if she means Stephen or the baron.\u00a0 Then the fortune teller tells Delia that Charles is already married.\u00a0 She is devastated, and they decide to leave the party early.\u00a0 After Minnie goes to bed, Delia decides to confront Charles at his home, only to find him murdered.\u00a0 She goes back home to get Minnie, and Minnie calls the police, using a telephone, which she had never used before and has to figure out.<\/p>\n

The detective inspector assigned to the case is none other than Stephen\u2019s estranged brother.\u00a0 Delia, as the one who found the body, immediately becomes the prime suspect, especially after the police hear that she had wanted to marry Charles, but had just found out he was already married.\u00a0 Minnie, of course, does not believe her sister is guilty and decides to investigate on her own, especially after her experience on Corfu, when the police didn\u2019t care much about finding the murderer.\u00a0 Her family also want to clear Delia\u2019s name, but they are more concerned about their reputation than about justice.<\/p>\n

Minnie suspects that the murder is connected to Charles\u2019 trade in antiquities, and she also wonders if there is also a link to her late husband\u2019s activities.\u00a0 She hopes her investigation will clear her husband\u2019s name, but she\u2019s also afraid Stephen\u2019s accusations will be confirmed.\u00a0 Minnie realizes, though, that she needs to set aside her fears so she can find the murderer and save her sister.\u00a0 She and Stephen team up once again, as he doesn\u2019t trust his brother to find the killer.\u00a0 There are many occasions in which they come close to telling each other how they really feel, only to be interrupted.<\/p>\n

The investigation takes them into the world of the illegal antiquities trade, as they attend a private auction, hoping the killer will be there.\u00a0 Not to give too much away, but things do not go according to plan.\u00a0 I have to say, one thing that disappointed me a little in this novel was how the killer is discovered.\u00a0 It\u2019s basically a lucky guess by Minnie and not based on deductive reasoning or examination of clues.\u00a0 And I figured out relatively early who the murderer was, unlike the previous novel, where I didn\u2019t guess until close to the end.\u00a0 Part of the problem was that there was a limited number of suspects, once Delia was ruled out, and I never really suspected her in the first place.<\/p>\n

This does not detract from my enjoyment of the novel, though.\u00a0 At first, I missed the Greek setting, which was one of the things I loved most about the first book, but Sullivan writes well about late 19th century London, which is a changing world.\u00a0 The characters travel by carriage and hansom cab, but their world also includes new inventions like the telephone.\u00a0 The first book has been described as a romance with a mystery in it (not surprisingly, since the author wrote historical romances before beginning this series).\u00a0 This one is better described as a mystery with a slow-burning romance in it.<\/p>\n

Minnie is a wonderful character, and she prefers the freedom of life on Corfu to the stifling world of her upper-class family.\u00a0 She and Stephen make a great couple, even if their relationship doesn\u2019t develop as quickly in this book as I would like.\u00a0 There is a resolution to the plot thread about Minnie\u2019s late husband\u2019s activities, but I will not say if it is the one Minnie would have wanted or not.\u00a0 It will be interesting to see what happens in the next book, whether Minnie stays in London or goes back to Corfu.\u00a0 There is also a hint that the third book might have a different setting altogether.\u00a0 I wonder if this will be a series like Erica Ruth Neubauer\u2019s Jane Wunderly mysteries, with a new setting for each book.<\/p>\n

I would recommend this book to fans of Neubauer, even though her series takes place later, in the 1920s.\u00a0 There is something of a similar setup, with the main character as a young widow who finds a new love interest far from home.\u00a0 I also recommend Sullivan\u2019s books to fans of Tasha Alexander and Dianne Freeman.\u00a0 Minnie and Stephen are characters with whom I am looking forward to spending a long time, and I hope there will be many more books about their adventures.\u00a0 —\u00a0Vicki Kondelik<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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.\u00a0 The first book took place on Corfu, where Minnie had lived with her husband, Oliver, until his sudden death.\u00a0 She … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2480,2479,2069,162,273],"class_list":["post-7027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-1890s-london","tag-a-murder-in-marylebone","tag-emily-sullivan","tag-kensington-books","tag-vicki-kondelik"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7027","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\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7027"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7027\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7030,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7027\/revisions\/7030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}