Barbara’s rating: 4 of 5 stars

Series: John Pickett Novella (Book 10.5 maybe)
Publication Date: 10/1/20
Number of Pages: 126

This take-off on It’s A Wonderful Life (or maybe Alice in Wonderland) was a delightful read. John Pickett is having a bit of a crisis – not a mid-life crisis because he isn’t old enough for that, but he’s feeling pretty useless. He has a rich, aristocratic wife, but he feels he is contributing absolutely nothing to the marriage – especially since he resigned as a Bow Street Runner to start his own inquiry agency. After a month with no clients – not one – he’s taken to roaming the streets in order to make Julia think he’s investigating something. He wonders, not for the first time, if it might have been better if he had never been born.

Well, hang on to your hats because he soon gets the answer to what might have been had he never been born – and it isn’t pretty in most cases. After being struck by a wagon and knocked unconscious, he ‘awakens’ to discover that nobody knows him – not his former coworkers, not his former mentor, nobody. He can’t find Julia because she doesn’t reside at what has been their home. People who had died are still alive, people who had been convicted of crimes are walking the streets, people who had happy endings – haven’t. John has well and truly traveled down the rabbit hole. There are lots of surprises in store for him as he attempts to navigate this hostile new world.

During a conversation with someone from his past, John learns some very important lessons about life.

No one lives on this earth, no matter how brief their stay, without leaving some trace of themselves behind.

Every life touches other lives, and if that touch is removed, then those lives are changed, sometimes in rather unexpected ways.

You can’t go wrong with this delightful novella. I’ve always admired John and Julia’s absolute love and trust for each other – and now we learn that same love and trust could hold true in more than one reality.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an Advanced Reader Copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Barbara’s rating: 5 of 5 stars

Series: John Pickett #10
Publication Date: 6/12/20

OMGoodness! This series just keeps getting better and better with each new book! This is absolutely the best John Pickett yet – and we meet a great new character in John’s young half-brother, Kit. The story is compelling on so many levels – the crime was suspenseful, the budding relationship between John and Kit was poignant and sweet, and John’s uncertainty about his future was a hand-wringer.

Robert Maxwell is a fairly new, very good, and very determined member of the Bow Street team. As a former military man, he tends to see things in black-and-white, and when he witnesses a crime that includes a murder he is determined to find the perpetrator. Strange that the boy who was with them looked just like John Pickett. Too bad if he’s related to Pickett because he will swing right along with the men who were with him. All Maxwell has to do is find him.

As soon as John arrives at work, Magistrate Colquhoun calls him into his office. He warns John about the boy Maxwell is looking for – and quietly hints that John might want to find and extract the boy before Maxwell finds and arrests him.

The search is on and the excitement doesn’t let up from the first page to the last. Can you imagine sweet, good, decent, John robbing the Bank of England? Well – get prepared. We see sides of both John and Julia that we always suspected were there, but perhaps we hadn’t actually seen. The love between John and Julia is palpable and it expands to encompass all who are near and dear to them.

I loved meeting Kit and learning his story, and I absolutely cannot wait to see what happens with him in the future. Also, I can hardly wait for the birth of John and Julia’s baby – and to see where their future takes them.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an Advanced Reader Copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.