Bloodstains with Bronte

Bloodstains with Brontë is the second book in the Crime with the Classics series by author Katherine Bolger Hyde. Released 12th Dec, 2017 from St. Martin's Press (Macmillan) it's currently available in ebook, hardcover, and audio versions.

At almost 300 pages, it's a substantial size for a cozy mystery, but the author has a deft hand at plotting and it goes quickly.  This was my commute read to and from work, and I devoured it in a couple days.  The chapter headings are quotes from Bronte novels and I was impressed with the way they coordinated and preshadowed each chapter.

The characters are well written and mostly fleshed out.  I had some trouble with some of the dialogue, but in general there wasn't much clumsiness or being yanked out of the story by anything egregious.  It's basically a bed and breakfast cozy with a literature professor as the amateur sleuth. It's comfortable and clean (totally SafeForWork), very little mild cursing (a handful of hells, damns, and shits).  You know the deal going in, and it doesn't disappoint.  The clues are presented in the story and while most experienced readers will have worked out 'whodunnit' before the end of the book, there are a few unexpected twists along the way.

The book is written in third person omniscient PoV, but there are journal entries written by Katie (a young woman who works with, and is like a daughter to, the main character Emily).  The journal entries (in 1st person PoV) are italicized, but are placed without any segue, so they seem occasionally disjointed from the rest of the narrative.

There is a strong element of Christian faith and sensibility running through the novel, but nothing most readers would find very objectionable.  Emily is written as a person of faith and that affects the choices she makes and her reasoning processes in the book.  She has a different worldview than do I and as long as I remembered that, it wasn't a problem. She is a good person and tries very hard to live her life in accordance with her faith.  

Much of the plot hinges on date rape and non-consent, so if that's a trigger, it's probably best to skip this one.   The author does a pretty good job of writing the necessary awful bits without being too graphic or glossing over the trauma entirely.

I read this second book as a standalone and it worked perfectly well.

Three and a half stars.

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

Chained

Chained is the third entry in the Kate Turner, DVM mystery series by Eileen Brady.  The protagonist is a practicing vet in a rural area of New York state.  She's a temporary replacement for the clinic's owner, Doc Anderson. When one of her dog patients discovers a human arm bone, she gets involved in solving the cold case disappearance of the arm bone's original owner.

I enjoyed reading this book.  Though I read it as a standalone, the necessary backstory is included in the story and it doesn't suffer for being read out of order.  I really liked Kate.  She's no-nonsense and unpretentious and not superwoman.  I also liked the interaction and small town feeling between the characters in the book and the good relationship she has with her coworkers. There's a lot of humor in the book and it's a fun and diverting read.  (The scene with the hamster in the bottle made me giggle).

The plot resolution does depend on a deus ex machina, but it wasn't completely over the top.  It's a cozy mystery and the book adheres to the 'rules' in every other way.  The author is an experienced vet herself and it shows in the narrative.  They say 'write what you know', and I've no doubt that some of the dialogue and situations in the book have their origins in the author's experiences.

It's a diverting read and at 269 pages, a good length for a cozy.  It's well written and plotted and doesn't drag.

Released 5th Dec, 2017 by Poisoned Pen Press, it's available in hardcover, paperback and ebook formats.

Four stars, enjoyable, escapist, cozy fun.

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

The Linking Rings

The Linking Rings is the 4th Eli Marks mystery by John Gaspard.  I read it as a standalone and it worked very well.  I intend to chase down the first three books in the series.

The 'hook' for the series is that the main characters are, and the action happens around, magicians and their performances.  The main character, Eli, is a performer and co-owns a magic store with his famous uncle Harry, also a magician.  Harry and Eli are off to London for a special set of performances at a famous magic venue, The Magic Circle.  The performance schedule is upended when one of Uncle Harry's former cronies, Oskar, is literally stabbed in the back by a chair prop on their first night.

This is a traditional whodunnit.  The characters are maybe a bit standard (the bumbler, the femme fatale, the lush, the womanizer, etc), but they're pretty well written and the book is a fun read. The dialogue is well written and the foreshadowing and clues are presented creatively and relatively subtly. One thing I really enjoyed a lot about this book was the humor.  The main characters definitely don't take themselves too seriously and the dialogue is often sparkling and witty. I really liked the repartee and patter between Roy and his wife, Roxanne; they seemed to genuinely like one another (at least under the surface).

This is a clean mystery and the murders (though one of them is fairly horrific) are all written tamely and without graphic descriptions.  The dialogue is also clean and except for an occasional 'hell' or 'damn' has nothing which will dismay readers.

I enjoyed it very much and recommend it to lovers of classic amateur sleuth fiction.  One small caveat, the author writes at a couple of different points in the book that Eli's uncle Harry is being held because murder is 'a capital crime' in the UK.  I thought at first that the book itself was set pre-1965 (the point at which capital punishment was abolished in Great Britain), but then the author talks about clearly modern landmarks like the London Eye. It's not a huge discrepancy and it doesn't have any overall effect on the plot, so it isn't going to be any sort of issue for the vast majority of readers.

I intend to find the first three books in the series, high praise from me.

Four stars, well written and entertaining.

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

A Treacherous Curse

This is the third book in the Veronica Speedwell mysteries by Deanna Raybourn, due out January 16th, 2018 from Penguin/Random House - Berkley imprint.

This is a Victorian cozy mystery with modern characters, language and, mostly, sensibilities.  It goes quite well on a shelf with Amelia Peabody, Kathryn Ardleigh, Charlotte Pitt, and others in that vein.  I love that genre (Victorian cozy mysteries with plucky modern heroines?).  I don't think many would argue that a big pot of Earl Grey tea, a wet and wintry afternoon and a fully charged kindle loaded with modern Victorian mysteries is a guaranteed recipe for bliss.

Other reviewers have done a stellar job of summarizing the plot.  I'll just add that the pacing is well done and though the book is relatively long, at 352 pages, it doesn't drag.  The story is cleverly written and even though the dialogue is fairly snarky in places, I didn't feel tempted to roll my eyes much at all.

I like that Veronica is a lepidopterist and naturalist.  I also enjoyed the romantic tension between her and her colleague Stoker. Even though it seems inevitable that they will wind up together, I hope Ms. Raybourn delays the inevitable as long as possible.  The book is well written and the scene descriptions are wrought with care and technical expertise.

The cover art for this series is beautiful and intricate.  

Four stars

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