Of Hoaxes and Homicide is the second historical cozy featuring agony aunt Miss Hermione written by Anastasia Hastings. Released 30th Jan 2024 by Macmillan on their St. Martin's Press imprint, it's 304 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.
This is a diverting, pleasantly written, eminently readable cozy set in Victorian era England. Half sisters Violet and Sephora, along with their redoubtable housekeeper Bunty are once again drawn into danger investigating a religious cult into which their friend has been drawn. A poisoning ups the stakes and puts them in direct danger.
The author, who is quite versatile (she also writes series in half a dozen genres under 10 pseudonyms), sends up the Victorian era in this series. It's very well put together, but it never takes itself too seriously and the characters are rendered deftly and with humor.
The mystery and denouement are self-contained in this volume, so it works well as a standalone. There are small spoilers for the debut book in the series if read out of order, however.
The unabridged audiobook has a run time of 9 hours 57 minute and is capably read by Mia Hutchinson-Shaw.
She has a very young sounding voice which complements the vibe
of the book. She does a good job delineating the various characters and
keeps them distinct. Sound and production quality are high throughout
the read.
Four stars. A fun romp. It would be a good choice for public library acquisition, home reading, or a short binge/buddy read as a series.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
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