Murder in Westminster (Lady Worthing Mysteries, #1) by Vanessa Riley – Review

Tags

4 stars, abolition, Book Review, historical mystery, London, second sight, series, Vanessa Riley

Review of Murder in Westminster

I read this book expecting 2 things 1) great characters – this is based on my past experience of reading a previous work by this author and 2) a fascinating mystery. 

Don’t we all want our mysteries to be fascinating?  In Murder in Westminster, Lady Abigail Worthing is investigating not one but two murders.  I was disappointed in the mystery solving aspect.  Hard clues were outweighed by intuition.  Having said that, you should know that Abigail has the dubious gift of second sight, so it may be that intuition is her best tool.  Still, I kept wanting solid detective work.

On the other hand, I loved the characters!  Abigail is a strong, intelligent black woman who has had the fortune and drive to marry a man with a title.  Then her husband leaves her home alone to go travelling.  And so she does pretty much what she wants even though her friends tell her not to.  She wants to help with the abolitionist movement.  She wants to solve mysteries.  Both activities are likely to get her into trouble/dangers.  Abigail’s cousin and godfather are also great characters that bring their own quirks to the mystery solving table.

The neighbor, Stapleton Henderson, is prickly, opinionated, and about to divorce his wife.  But Mrs. Henderson is the first victim, so he is also a suspect.  He is good with dogs (that scores him points).  But he is not above resorting to blackmail (points deducted).  Henderson and Abigail start off arguing over a fence and end up working together to find a murderer. Ultimately, I think Henderson is good, but truly that is left a bit murky. 

The author has provided some great historical detail at the end of the book.  It may even be a good idea to read that part first.

So, in Murder in Westminster, we have two lonely neighbors who will likely be getting into more trouble in the future.  I see them honing their mystery solving abilities, while they become close friends. 

Through NetGalley, the publisher provided a copy of this book.  My review is my honest opinion.

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About Murder in Westminster by Vanessa Riley

Discovering a body on her property presents Lady Abigail Worthing with more than one pressing problem. The victim is Juliet, the wife of her neighbor, Stapleton Henderson. Although Abigail has little connection with the lady in question, she expects to be under suspicion. Abigail’s skin color and her mother’s notorious past have earned her a certain reputation among the ton, and no amount of wealth or status will eclipse it.

Abigail can’t divulge that she was attending a secret pro-abolition meeting at the time of the murder. To her surprise, Henderson offers her an alibi. Though he and Juliet were long estranged, and she had a string of lovers, he feels a certain loyalty to his late wife. Perhaps together, he and Abigail can learn the truth.

Abigail, whose marriage to Lord Worthing was not a love match, knows well how appearances can deceive. For all its surface elegance, London’s high society can be treacherous. Yet who in their circle would have killed Juliet, and why? Taking the reins of her life in a way she never has before, Abby intends to find out—but in the process she will uncover more danger than she ever imagined…

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Dance with the Devil (Mercenary Librarians, #3) by Kit Rocha – Review

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4 stars, Atlanta, Book Review, Kit Rocha, librarian, Post Apocalyptic, scifi, scifi romance, series

Review of Dance with the Devil

The Mercenary Librarians series has rarely been about lending books.  Oh, there is the occasional acquiring of books and subsequent lending of them.  But what is really going on is all about the need for people like the mercenary librarians. 

In a futuristic post-apocalyptic Atlanta, those in power are obscenely wealthy and viciously powerful.  They hoard technology and use unscrupulous methods to control the masses.  The heroines and heroes of this series amass a book collection while they protect their community and strive to fight the good fight as they reset the balance of power. 

While all that is going on, there are romances blossoming.  Before Dance with the Devil begins, Dani and Rafe have already begun to hopelessly fall for each other.  You know.  I know it.  Their friends know.  It just takes the pair a while to give in to the idea.  While they infiltrate Atlanta power circles, they do the dance (with each other and the devil).  While under cover, they happen upon Rafe’s sister Tessa, who is in her own world of trouble.  The addition of Rafe’s family, along with Rainbow (from the last book) top off the story with a lovely layer of heartwarming emotion.

This third book in the series brings back almost every character from the first two books.  I’m not a fan of a crowded cast of characters, but in this case, one might argue it was necessary.  The story appears to build to a possible series ending showdown, but the last few pages tease the reader with a conceivable future storyline. 

Fans of post-apocalyptic fiction who like a little romance in their scifi should consider this series.  Dance with the Devil is best read after reading the first two books.

Through NetGalley, the publisher provided a copy of this book. My review is my honest opinion. 

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About Dance with the Devil by Kit Rocha

Tobias Richter, the fearsome VP of Security of the TechCorps is dead. The puppetmaster is gone and the organization is scrambling to maintain control by ruthlessly limiting Atlanta’s access to resources, hoping to quell rebellion. Our band of mercenary librarians have decided that the time for revolution has come.

Maya uses her wealth of secrets to weaken the TechCorps from within. Dani strikes from the shadows, picking off the chain of command one ambush at a time. And Nina is organizing their community—not just to survive, but to fight back. When Maya needs to make contact with a sympathetic insider, Dani and Rafe are the only ones with the skill-set and experience to infiltrate the highest levels of the TechCorps. They’ll go deep undercover in the decadent, luxury-soaked penthouses on the Hill.

Bringing Dani face-to-face with the man who turned her into a killer. And forcing Rafe to decide how far he’ll go to protect both of his families—the one he was born to, and the one he made for himself.

Victory will break the back of Power. Failure will destroy Atlanta.

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The Fossil Hunter by Tea Cooper – Review

Tags

4 stars, Australia, Book Review, historical mystery, Tea Cooper, WWI

Review of The Fossil Hunter

After serving as an ambulance driver during the war to end all wars, P.J. Martindale arrives home with her fiancé.  But her two brothers did not make it home.  Determined to memorialize her brothers and repair the rift with her father, P.J. heads for the place that her brothers had hunted fossils.  It also happens to be the place Anthea Winstanley discovered fossils that ended up in a London museum.  P.J. finds bones in the very place that the fossils were found. That is just one of several mysteries to be worked out.  What are these bones?  What happened to Anthea Winstanley?  What happened to P.J.’s brothers before they joined the army?  And why is her father so angry with her? 

The Fossil Hunter is dual timeline story.  The 1847 timeline details some of the events Winstanley’s life along with the young girl she took in.  The girl, Mellie, is the most interesting viewpoint due to her troubled past, her young age and her eventual obsession with fossil hunting. 

The 1919 timeline is P.J.’s story.  At 72 years apart, the two sets of events appear to have little in common.  What ties them together is fascination with fossils.  

This is a lovely story about family, secrets and the decisions people make when calamity strikes.  While the ending was, in some part, predictable, I enjoyed the unfolding of the various mysteries.  The Fossil Hunter is for readers of historical fiction who like to help the characters solve a mystery.

Through NetGalley, the publisher provided a copy of this book. My review is my honest opinion. 

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About The Fossil Hunter by Tea Cooper

Buried secrets. An ancient fossil. And one woman’s determination to unravel a nineteenth century mystery.

Australia, 1847. The last thing Mellie Vale remembers before the fever takes her is sprinting through the bush, a monster at her heels–but no one believes her. In a bid to curb Mellie’s overactive imagination, her benefactors send her to visit a family friend, Anthea Winstanley. Anthea is an amateur paleontologist convinced she will one day find proof that great sea dragons swam in the vast inland sea that millions of years ago covered her property. Mellie is instantly swept up in the dream.

1919. When Penelope Jane Martindale arrives home from the battlefields of World War I with the intention of making peace with her father and commemorating the death of her two younger brothers in the trenches, her reception is disappointing. Desperate for a distraction, she finds a connection between a fossil at London’s Natural History Museum and her brothers’ favorite camping spot and the last place they were seen before falsifying their ages to join the army. But the gorge has a sinister reputation: seventy years ago, six women disappeared from there. So when P. J. uncovers some unexpected remains, it seems as if the past is reaching into the present. She’s determined to find answers about what happened all those years ago . . . and perhaps also some closure to the loss of her brothers.

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