Irina Shapiro – Carol's Notebook

Author: Irina Shapiro

Irina Shapiro is a cozy mystery and paranormal romance novelist from New York. Irina was born in Moscow which is where she spent much of her childhood before moving to the States as an eleven year old. Since she loved reading, she picked up English in a few months and throughout school, she was an honors student. After she graduated in 1992 from Bernard M. Baruch College with an International Business degree, she went on to work in advertising for several years before she pivoted to export and import. Before she left to take care of her autistic son in 2007, she had managed to work her way to become import manager at a large textile company. It was not until Irina spent a few months at home that she thought she should start writing. Her characters eventually started to take a life of their own and she started writing down the conversations they had in her head. She combined her love for travel and history to create detailed and rich backgrounds for her characters. Since then she has written more than thirty novels over several series. Irina currently lives with her husband and two children in New Jersey.

The Highgate Cemetery Murder opens with the discovery of the gruesome murder a young woman on the morning of All Saints’ Day, 1858, who is displayed on a cross in Highgate Cemetery with a pig’s heart around her neck. A journalist who may have witnessed the crime falls under the wheels of an omnibus and is killed. Gemma Tate, a nurse recently returned from the Crimea, is the sister of the journalist and doesn’t believe his death was an accident. Sebastian Bell is the police officer assigned to investigate the murder of the young woman victim in the cemetery. Soon the two begin working together against Bell's better judgement to solve the two suspicious deaths. This book is a little darker than what I usually read. The details around the murder really are horrific. And this is not a romanticized Victorian London; it's dirty, grim, and harsh for many that live there. The author shows us the prejudices, class distinctions, and...