Category: Historical Mystery

A Bride’s Guide to Marriage and Murder by Dianne Freeman

On By BarbaraIn Barb's Reviews, Historical Mystery, Part of a Series, Victorian Era (1837-1901)Leave a comment

A Bride’s Guide to Marriage and Murder (Countess of Harleigh Mystery, #5)Barbara’s rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Series: Countess of Harleigh Mystery
Publication Date: 6/28/22
Period: Victorian London
Number of Pages: Audiobook

Poor Frances (Countess Harleigh) has spent a miserable last four months. Her mother came over from America to plan her sister’s wedding – and then stayed on to plan Frances’s wedding to George. Frances’s mother is best taken in small doses – but so is all of her family. Ah! But tomorrow she and George will be wed, and while they are off in the south of France for their wedding trip, Frances’s family will head back to America.

Sigh – those best-laid plans . . . The wedding was wonderful with so much love and joy, then on to the wedding breakfast at her brother-in-law’s house. Frances and George were giddy with happiness – until . . . Yes, Frances’s brother Alonzo was arrested for murder. It seems that Alonza was murdering the neighbor next door while everyone else was celebrating Frances and George. Or was he?

So, there goes their lovely trip because they absolutely must stay and help Alonzo. They don’t believe, even for a second, that Alonzo murdered Mr. Cooper – even if he was found standing over the body with a knife in his hand. It seems Alonzo was very interested in courting Mr. Cooper’s daughter, but the nasty, scheming, Mr. Cooper wanted a title in the family. When another body is added to the count everybody is looking for motives, connections, and murderers.

This was an excellently written, well-plotted, and well-delivered mystery accompanied by a lovely romance between two bright, intelligent, witty people you just have to love. The only reason I didn’t rate this book a 5-star read is that one of the characters was heir to a title and he was threatened with being disinherited and having the title passed to one of his other brothers. You CANNOT do that and it annoys me when an author tries to use that ploy. Two minutes of research would tell you that the laws of primogeniture don’t work that way and it couldn’t be done. He could be disinherited and all of the non-entailed monies could go to his brothers, but the title, entailed properties, and entailed monies would go to the firstborn legitimate son. Anyway, it is a well-done story other than that and I do definitely recommend it.

I listened to the audiobook and really enjoyed the narrator, Sarah Zimmerman. Her voice was very pleasant, and you could hear the humor coming through. I could just picture my version of Frances with that exact voice. Her range of voices for the characters was well done and I loved how George’s frustration at not having any alone time with Frances came right through the voice.

I definitely recommend this book – and this audio version. I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I did.

Violet and the Bow Street Runner by Emily Larkin

On By BarbaraIn Barb's Reviews, Historical Mystery, Historical Paranormal/Fantasy, Part of a Series, Regency Era (1811-1820)Leave a comment

Violet and the Bow Street Runner (Garland Cousins #2)Barbara’s rating: 5 of 5 Stars
Series: Garland Cousins #2
Publication Date: 2/20/22
Period: Regency London
Number of Pages: 456

Whew! This was a truly entertaining read and it was just what I needed in this very stressful year. The characters are bright, funny, entertaining, smart, and serious, and they’ll make you laugh out loud, smile, chortle, guffaw, and shake your head. You could feel the chemistry between Perry and Violet coming right off the page, and when you add an excellent mystery on top of that – well – you just won’t be able to put the book down.

Lady Violet Garland, the spinster daughter of the Duke of Sevenash, shares a secret with all of the ladies in her family. At the age of twenty-one, she and each of her sisters were given a ‘gift’ by a mean-tempered fairy godmother, Baletongue. Violet chose the ability to fly as her gift and she has loved flying over London every night for the last few years. It is exciting and exhilarating, and the majesty of the city below leaves her breathless. She is in the air one night when she sees a person she knows leaving a ball – and he is being followed by someone. Hmmm – she wonders why that is and with unbridled curiosity sets about following the follower. That works fine, but he senses her – and he traps her! Nobody has ever had a clue she was above them before – how did he know? What is he going to do?

Periander (Perry) Wintersmith was raised within the ton as the nephew of a Viscount – until his father gambled away their fortune and killed himself. The Viscount was so scandalized and disgraced that he snatched Periander and his two brothers up and put them in the military where they were immediately sent to India. Perry was the only one of them to survive and he’s only back in England because he promised his mother he’d leave the military and stay where it was safe. His mother is now deceased, he’s barely making enough money to keep the most meager roof over his head, and he’s considering joining his old military unit again.

Sir Mortimer, Bow Street Magistrate, has pulled Perry from his regular clerical duties and made him a temporary Principal Officer to handle a case brought to them by Lord Abbishaw. It appears that Lord Abbishaw collects very naughty mechanical clocks – and somebody is stealing them. Oh! My! Perry has narrowed the suspect list down and will start with the top of the list and follow him until he determines guilt or innocence – and then move on to the next. As he is following his suspect, his scalp tingles – and he keeps getting impressions of some distortion reflected in the windows. What can it be? Well – he’ll just find out by trapping whatever it is. Oops – imagine his surprise when what he catches is a beautiful woman.

Violet and Perry begin to work together – and play together. They run across roofs and develop tools to make it easier and they follow suspects. Their time together brings them together emotionally as well – but, nothing can ever come of it – after all, he is a Bow Street Runner and she is a duke’s daughter.

I loved violet’s exuberance for life and her insatiable curiosity. I also loved watching Violet and Perry learning to love and trust each other. This was a delightful read; I hope you will love it as much as I did.

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