Tag: Historical-mystery

Now, this one was much more interesting for me.  Kiera and Gage are back in Edinburgh awaiting the birth of their first born.  And Bonnie Brock Kincaid is back too, which always ratchets up my enjoyment factor; I like a dark horse, especially when the author makes a place for him without creating any triangles.

There’s been a tell-all book written about gang-leader Bonnie Brock and his Robin-Hood-esque adventures under the nose of the Scottish authorities, and Keira and Gage are in it too.  This causes a lot of tension between all the characters, as nobody is all that keen to be in the pubic eye, so the race is on to find the man behind the poison pen.

The book also allows a massive tension to ignite between Kiera and her sister, one that started in the previous book but really blows up in this one.  So does the issue of paternity that was also introduced previously.  In the former, I think the author could have created a better dynamic behind Alana’s motivation, but as the story is being told from Kiera’s POV, I suppose I understand the logic.  The latter was handled better, I think.  There was a blow up when the truth was discovered, but it wasn’t drawn out and beaten into the ground, and resolution was quick but reasonable.

In general, a story I enjoyed quite a bit more than I did the previous book, but that’s likely down to personal tastes.  As Kiera has had the blessed child, I’m looking forward to their next adventure, hopefully after they’ve hired a nursemaid.

A solid, dependable series, which makes it sound like a beloved pair of sneakers, but I can’t think of one of the books in the series that’s really let me down, although some are better than others.

A Stroke of Malice takes place during a weekend at a Duke’s castle in Scotland, celebrating Twelfth Night, with Keira 6 months pregnant.  Call me unnatural, but this might be part of the reason it’s not my favorite of the series; there was much rubbing of the belly and cradling of said belly with heaps of overly sentimental musings about the sanctity of life and blah blah blah.  Just not my jam, but the mystery was extremely diverting and for almost all of it, I had no clue, though I should have.  Which makes the writing even better, in my opinion, since the answer was right there but she managed to keep me from seeing it.  A secret paternity is revealed too, which kept things interesting.

So generally, a good one but not the best, and likely other readers with even an ounce of maternal feelings won’t be as critical as I’ve been.

Not every book in a series can be the best, not even in a series as fabulous as this one.  There’s always one that just doesn’t quite meet expectations.  This is that book in the Veronica Speedwell series, for me.

In previous books, Veronica has always been larger than life and proactive, doing what must be done, and damn the consequences.  She’s strong, independent, confident in who she is, and makes no apologies.

She’s none of that in An Unexpected Peril.  She’s still running full steam ahead, but this time it’s a reactive sort of running, going against the grain of her own personality by charging into an investigation that does not involve her as a means of running away from her own anxieties.  A woman who willingly discussed anything in the previous 5 books, now avoids discussing anything of import.  And given her character and Stoker’s, it’s a bit of a letdown in its predictability, something neither character had been thus far.

Still, putting that aside, the rest of the story is fun and kept my attention.  Veronica gets to pretend she’s a princess, giving her the opportunity to see what she’s missed all these years, and the killer was a mystery until the end when it all came together beautifully.  It would have been a far better story overall without the angst and repression, but I suppose it had to happen at some point.

I’m still eager for the next one and hope that in book 7 the true Veronica will return in all her bossy, outrageous glory.

Meh.  A generally solid cozyish historical series, this one fell flat for me.  It wasn’t bad, but it felt too busy and a tad too contrived.  Some characters veered into tropes, which is something previous books avoided.  That a woman (a nursery maid) so beautiful could come on the scene and suddenly make historically staid and responsible male characters start following her around (3 of them, at least), forgoing their responsibilities and breaking out in fisticuffs over who gets to walk with her is just too far beyond reasonable for me.

Further adding to the mediocrity of the story, the man who turns out to be the murderer was obvious from the start, because the author’s red herrings were just too, too red.

I have the next one and still have hopes it will be enjoyable.  Though this historical series is cozy in its atmosphere, the author doesn’t shy away from bringing real issues to her characters: women who struggle through miscarriages, women who don’t want children at all (a challenging thought in the 1700’s), a bit of PTSD for the main male character, making the characters more interesting, rather than more romantic.

Aside from my subjective issues with the path Huber chose for these characters, I like this series; you could say I enjoy them in spite of myself.  But while this book was a 4 star read on the strength of its plot, it might have been a 4.5/5 star read if not for the weakness of the editing.

The narrative is much longer than it needed to be because Huber, with admirable motivation, spends a lot of time ruminating on the devastation wrought on both the soldiers who fought in WWI, and those left behind to cope in fear and anxiety.  She does bring light to many aspects of the horror that is war, especially the first world war, but she spends too much time doing it, and this is a murder mystery, after all.  I’m confident a lot of it could have been cut without losing the more important message, and the overall story would have been a lot better for it.

Still, the plot is a strong one, with aspects of scavenger and treasure hunting spicing up what would otherwise be an ordinary nemesis plot running parallel to a murder mystery.  I’m still kid enough to enjoy rhyming clues and secret codes, as well as the touch of cloak and dagger when used judiciously, and it is here.

As I opened the post with, I still don’t like what Huber is doing with the characters; while there are no love triangles or quadrangles, she has two other men in love with Verity who are dedicated to uncovering the series’ plot; there seems to be no plan for this to change and it’s tiresome.  Luckily, the murder mysteries have so far made up for it.  Can’t see that lasting much longer though.

Historical mysteries seem to be all the rage at the moment, and fortunately, publishers have yet to monetise and ruin the trend to such a degree that you can’t find a selection of well written series to enjoy.  While the quality of cozy mysteries has been abysmal the last several years, Historical Mysteries have filled in the gap nicely for me.

A Lady’s Guide to Mischief and Murder is the 3rd in a series I discovered at my first (and so far only) Bouchercon convention.  It’s a good series, and this book is a strong 3rd book, moving the characters’ arcs along quickly, while presenting an interesting stand-alone plot, with clues easily missed and writing that skilfully misdirected the reader down several false avenues.  As the story moved along, some of the misdirection became obvious, but some of it didn’t, rendering a delightful mystery well done.

My only groan over the book was the introduction of Countess Harleigh’s mother who was caricatured for most of her page time, only to do the whole mama-lion thing and achieving what to me was an insincere redemption in the final pages.  Fortunately she’s not around much in this book and it wasn’t enough to really weight the book down.

A fan from the start of the series, I always thought the mc being based on a real historical figure gave the books that little extra something, but when I finished this one, as much as I enjoyed it, I thought ‘the author certainly took some creative liberties in this one’.

Which shows how much I know about history; every part I found fantastical turned out to be based on true events.  So all I can say now is, poor Prince Albert Victor; even if some of the more spurious speculations about him took place long after his death, his memory seems unfairly tarnished.

Veronica and Stoker’s story was a good time though.  The plot was well crafted, though not a mystery, really.  This was much more about foiling a two-pronged conspiracy, and while murder was done, there was no mystery as to who did it.  Raybourn also used the storyline’s backdrop of Whitechapel and the Jack the Ripper murders to spotlight the social inequities of the Victorian age.

And finally, after 5 books, there is finally some advancement between Veronica and Stoker, which, while the romance isn’t the thing for me, is a relief, because I find tension of any kind, too long strung out, to be tedious in the extreme.

It took me too long to get this book because of the pandemic, but the upside is the next one has already been announced, so I know I’ll have another to look forward to soon.

I enjoy this series for the setting, the time, the history and the characters, but The Paper Bark Tree Mystery was a poor entry structure wise.  The plot was good, but marred by the fragmented delivery; characters would transition from point A to point S without the reader knowing anything about B-R, making for a disjointed and often confusing read.  Ultimately, this is the fault of whomever edited it, but it’s a shame because the story and the series has so much going for it and a lot of potential ahead.  I’ll read the next one if there is a next one, but I hope for a much smoother narrative.