Thursday, September 29, 2022

The Mystery of the Sorrowful Maiden


The Mystery of the Sorrowful Maiden is an appealing and very well written mystery and the third of the Laetitia Rodd mysteries by Kate Saunders. Released 7th Dec 2021 by Bloomsbury, it's 336 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately. 

This is an extremely well written period mystery featuring the middle-aged widow of a cleric as the protagonist, an *extremely* discreet private enquiry agent. She's sensible, intelligent, and (luckily) quite aware of the world and its foibles. She assists the official police (to an unusual/anachronistic degree). She's eminently respectable and can talk to people who are otherwise inaccessible to the official police forces. 

All of the mysteries in the series are self contained and work perfectly well as standalone reads. There are three books extant at this point which might make them suitable for a mini-binge read. I found some of the plot twists felt unreasonable and challenged my suspension of disbelief, but overall I have really enjoyed the series and look forward to future installments. 

This book revolves around the death of a thespian, so many of the characters are from that sphere and the interconnections and personal drama are sometimes a bit over the top.

Four stars. Quite well written and diverting.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

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