decent historical mystery
349833
Engaging style, good characters, neglected historical period. Reminds me of the Brother Cadfael series. I plan to read more of these.
2970627
I guess this would be classified as a Christian cozy--it is clean, faith is a part of the people's lives and part of the theme.

The mystery was interesting. There were a couple of choices for the bad guy. The characters were plentiful and fairly well drawn. I wouldn't mind revisiting some of them in another story. It was nice to see a group of residents coming together to form an actual community.

While it was repetitive in a few places, the main issue I had was the notion that women shouldn't be handling guns or be practicing their aim without putting others in harm's way. I would think that in a western town, during that period, many of the women would be at least somewhat proficient with weapons.

This was a gift from my mother-in-law. I'm sure she would enjoy it more than I did.
1273387
Well-written cozy with interesting historical detail and an unusual paranormal conceit. It was a pleasant read, despite the slight annoyance of slowing down to sort out who was speaking to whom when the MC was engaged in multiple simultaneous conversations. BUT the resolution of the mystery, by jumping into the past to explain everything in a kind of info-dump, was the equivalent of a deus ex machina device. It would definitely have taken a good deal more effort -- and higher word count -- to work that exposition into the existing present-day story. I was enjoying the story enough to stay with it and would have enjoyed it more without the sense that the end was rushed.
3098792
The mystery plot for this latest in the Maisie Dobbs series is somewhat typical, in that Maisie is primarily working on behalf of a victim who is not from the privileged social classes, in this case an Indian immigrant. Maybe in a later book in the series, she'll have to defend or work on behalf of her nemesis, Otterburn. As usual, there is an excess of soul searching on Maisie's part, but at least she does reach some resolution and does not come off like an ungrateful whiner, which is how the last book in the series sounded. The descriptions of London in the inter-war period are vivid and seem historically accurate.
140682
*I received this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.*

There were a few things that bothered me a bit (an abundance of statement sentences ended in question marks, slightly repetitious love scenes, and not a huge amount of historical depth, as a previous reviewer mentioned), but overall, I enjoyed it.

If you're looking for an easy, quick, and light historical romance with a nice sprinkling of mystery and intrigue, The Seduction of Madalyn is for you!
2263316
"City of the Dead" is a Christian historical suspense novel with a romance. This is the second book in the Seven Wonders series, but it's a stand alone novel. The only connection between the novels in this series are that they take place near one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world.

The characters were likable or interesting, complex, and acted in realistic ways. The historical and setting detail helped to bring the world alive in my imagination, but there weren't as many details as in some of this author's books. This may be because there are conflicting views about the pyramids and not as much information available about this time and place compared to some of her other stories. Also, I had a hard time getting immersed into this story because I found the rather casual way almost everyone seemed to treat each other as doubtful.

The mystery was very suspenseful due to physical danger to various characters, and I remained unsure of whodunit until the end. The romance was believable, but the focus wasn't on the two spending time together and falling in love. I appreciated that both characters were likable and also liked and respected each other from the start.

There was a Christian element to the story. The love interest character was a part of a group of Egyptians who still remembered the One True God (from teachings passed down after the confusion of languages at Babel) and that He promised to send a Redeemer to take away their sins. Hemiunu knew that he wouldn't get into the afterlife when judged by Egyptians gods, and he's interested in their beliefs when he encounters the sect.

There was a very minor amount of "he cursed" style of bad language. There was no sex. Overall, I'd recommend this exciting and well-written novel.
4706125
The author successfully handled the attitudes and conventions of the period without getting into the suffragist movement prominent at that time.  I suspect the back story might have been clearer if I had read the author's previous series about the inspector's daughter's father, but the book is definitely "stand alone" in terms of its plot and characterization.  The mystery was handled well, with enough clues that the identity of the murder is not a surprise, but although the murderer's identity is obvious a bit before the main character figures it out, there is sufficient mis-direction that the real murder remains one of a couple possibilities through most of the book.
The settings are particularly well established.
2987769
I wasn't sure about this book in the beginning, but I love historical mysteries, so I tried it out.  The narrator, Nicholas Barber, is a former priest who walked away from his place and joined a group of travelling players--remarkable for a time when you were born to a social station and stayed there all your life.  That is, in fact, a recurring theme--being trapped in a role, escaping from it, choosing the part you play in your own life.

The mystery, which centers around the murder of a young boy, is interesting--true mystery lovers will probably figure out the ending long before the narrator does.  But the surrounding story of Nicholas's development as a person and of the accused goat girl was interesting enough to keep me reading.  Overall, it was a satisfying book.
4290211
I really enjoyed this Historical Mystery.  Detective Inspector Tom Harper has three mysteries to solve and is also supporting his wife as she becomes more involved with the Suffragists.  The first mystery is to find the mother of a stillborn baby that was posted in the mail. In the rubble of the burned railway station the body of woman who was stabbed is found.  A few days later a young woman is raped at the station.  Are the mysteries related?  The author does a very good job with the setting, the back streets of Leeds at the turn of the century.  The story is also well researched with a nice blend of fiction and history.  I really liked the characters.  The mysteries were good and the solutions made sense.  Enjoy this exciting historical mystery.
3297578
This is the third book in the Victorian Mystery series. Kate, an American who has inherited her aunt's estate and  Sir Charles Sheridan have been invited to the Earl and Countess of Warwick's estate for a country retreat. The esteemed guest of the party is the Prince of Wales, who has the Countess (Daisy) as his mistress. The book opens with the death of a stable boy, initially thought of as an accident.  There is another death as the book progresses. We get to see a fascinating take on how the upper-upper crust lived at the time and what they could get away with that would be scandalous elsewhere.  While there is much bedroom intrigue and multiple suspects, we get to see that Daisy is more than just a silly woman and is passionate in her causes to help the poor which endears her to Kate.  Intermixed with the murder mystery is the relationship between Kate and Charles, who both realize that they love each other, but each has reasons to believe that a marriage is impossible.  This was a good mystery, and had nice development of the main characters. The historical characters and elements were well reseached and excellently portrayed.
3607565
I love historical mysteries and Victoria Thompson did a great job writing about the time period. However, I solved the mystery less than halfway through the book and it became frustrating for me to get through the rest of the book as Detective Malloy and Sarah seemed to miss some very obvious clues. I'm usually not good at solving mysteries and part of my enjoyment is being surprised by the ending. All in all, for me, the book was enjoyable as a period study but disappointing as a mystery.
4199924
Michael Pearce's Mamur Zapt (an Ottoman title for the chief of secret police) mysteries are light and entertaining, both as historical fiction and as period mysteries.  While its unfortunate a reader (and apparently her book club) didn't care for the character and the series, I can't help but wonder if this wasn't in part, a function of jumping into the middle of a series.  Set in 1909 Cairo, the British chief of secret police (Gareth Owen - the Mamur Zapt) is simultaneously involved in three cases, that as luck would have it, are intertwined.

In his official capacity, Owen is occupied tracking down arms being smuggled into Cairo - a hotbed of dissent and turmoil inthe waning days of the Ottoman empire, resentment also building against the European occupation.  While attempting to find the weapons (and the smugglers), the Mamur Zapt is pulled into a murder and missing person's case: the body of a western-dressed Egyptian woman has washed up on the banks of the Nile (hence the title), only to mysteriously disappear.  A third element in this already complex story is the role of the Khedive's son may have played in the murder and disappearance of the young lady, and who may also be involved in the smuggling of arms.

These are a lot of balls to keep juggling, but Pearce is up to the task, and he manages to do so well.  The story moves at a brisk pace, jumping from one case to the next as they gradually begin to merge and overlay into a single, cohesive case.  The final reveal of the smuggling, murder and disappearance of the body is well put together, although the character pulling the strings was vague - for which I deducted a star.  The mystery aside, Pearce's Egypt is alive with the rhythms of Arabic life and the cultural cues and mis-cues between East and West, and with a critical eye towards not only political relationships, but also gender roles.  This is primarily the reason I keep coming back to his storytelling.

For fans of turn-of-the-last century fiction and those enjoy a breezy mystery, I recommend the series (beginning with&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/The-Mamur-Zapt-the-Return-of-the-Carpet-A-Mamur-Zapt-Mystery-Mamur-Zapt-Mysteries/dp/1890208779/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">The Mamur Zapt & the Return of the Carpet: A Mamur Zapt Mystery (Mamur Zapt Mysteries)</a>.  These books make for great summer reading.
2955904
This is a readable book. I would not hesitate to recommend it to someone who enjoys mysteries. However, it is not as tightly plotted and written as the earlier mysteries in this series. It seems at times as though Todd was reaching for a certain length of book, and that the book could have been finished much sooner.

The book begins not with one mystery for Rutledge to seemingly solve, but two. One in London, and another involving a soldier who had served under him, who had managed to get himself involved in a missing person case. The mystery in London is pushed to the side, and is solved by others with no help by Rutledge. It seems to serve no purpose in the story at all.

As usual, Todd does a good job writing concerning the time period after WWI and the ongoing impact that war had on both soldiers and the people left at home. The impact on women was intense...women who had waited for soldiers to return often saw them come home in caskets, or expected this occurence and so married someone else who was older and not involved in the war. They also had to take on different jobs, and that changed women so the men who did return and expected women to remain in their usual positions in society, found that they could not handle those changes.

The plot meanders in the middle of the book, and often Todd reiterates the same thing over again unnecessarily. Several possible culprits for both the disappearance of a man and 2 murders in the town are presented. The ending returned to Todd's usual tight writing, leaving the reader not only with a surprise, but also leaving Rutledge with a bad taste in his mouth...

Karen Sadler
1727262
Good read with a moderate pace.  Nothing really exciting,  but a good storyline with historical setting.
2130452
Entertaining, involving, worthy mystery yet a bit contrived.
3857489
I enjoyed this story, but would have liked more.  There were 3 different plot lines that were interconnected, and while they tied together by the end I really felt like there could have been more depth to the stories.

The descriptions of the area and the historical places were well done, to the point where it added to my anticipation of an upcoming trip to France.  The people in the story did not seem as fleshed out to me which made it hard to get into the meat of the story.  I understand that some of the mystery surrounding characters and their motives was needed to keep the reader guessing as to the ending, but as the ending was not that huge of a shock it seems more could have been done to develop the characters.

The use of the diary kept me turning pages waiting for more from the young sister who had seen so much, but there was no really ending to her personal story to my disappointment.

The ending seemed to be a bit rushed to this reader.  The "confrontation" seemed too simple and the epilogue did nothing to really explain its aftermath beyond what we already knew.  If this is a set up to another France based history mystery for Dory to become involved in I enjoyed the author's style enough to give it a look.

There were some spacing errors between sections which were confusing, but those may be kindle formatting errors.  Otherwise there were no major editing issues that took away from the reading.
464595
This is the first book in Ruth Downie's historical mystery series set in Britain during the Roman occupation.  The protagonist, Gaius Petrus Russo, is a physician with the 20th Roman Legion who has taken the job after divorcing his first wife.  While trying to do his job, he becomes involved in investigating the disappearance of a local lady of the evening, who is then found murdered.  Gaius is an interesting character, and the setting in Roman Britain was very interesting to me after reading all of Bernard Cornwell's Saxon books where those characters marvel at what the Romans were able to build and left behind.  The plot is well done and I have continued on with the series.  If you like historical fiction, this is a good read.