Murder at the Mansions by Sara Rosett

Murder at the Mansions by Sara Rosett

by Carol5 Comments
It appears that there has been a murder in Olive's building and it seems highly likely that someone on her floor is dead. The trouble is that there is no body and no one seems to be missing. Olive's friend, Minerva, is not one to imagine things though. She's practical and intelligent and she saw a foot sticking out of the end of a wrapped rug, so Olive takes the case and together they are determined to get to the truth. Murder at the Mansions is a fun little mystery. Olive is smart and clever as always. I liked that it was set in her building which has a nice variety of people and their pets living in it. We get to meet some new characters, but Jasper is still around and I like their relationship. He helps her out, but she is definitely the one solving the case and the romance doesn't take over the book. I really like this series....
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Last Call at the Nightingale by Katharine Schellman

Last Call at the Nightingale by Katharine Schellman

by CarolNo Comments
For Vivian, dancing at the Nightingale, and the occasional free drink, is a way to escape the dullness and monotony of her life. She and her sister, Florence, barely make enough to live on as seamstresses. They live in a crowded tenement building and life is tough. This is not a glitzy, sparkling 1920s setting. The bobbed hair, bootleg liquor, and dance halls are there, but so are the poverty, racial oppression, and police raids. We see Vivian's squalid building, but also the opulent homes of the rich. Vivian and her best friend, Bea, a waitress at the club, find a dead man in the alley outside the back door. Vivian becomes our amateur sleuth, with a gentle nudge from Honor Huxley, the club's owner. Honor knows how important, and deadly, information can be. The mystery has several twists and turns and the ending surprised me. I liked the diversity in the characters and that the Nightingale was a place that allowed...
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Peril at the Exposition by Nev March

Peril at the Exposition by Nev March

by CarolNo Comments
One of the strengths of Murder in Old Bombay, the first in the series, was the setting, 1890s India. In Peril at the Exposition, Chicago and the World's Fair are richly drawn and vividly described, but didn't have quite the same draw for me. It made sense for Diana and Jim to emigrate to America, but it lost some of the charm of the first. This book, told mostly from Diana's point of view, does give us her memories of places and people in India, but at times they feel forced. Jim, now working as a private investigator, is missing in Chicago. Diana heads off to find him. Diana is determined and strong in her own way, but definitely in over her head. She can be melodramatic and puts herself and others in dangerous situations. As Diana digs deeper into the case Jim was working on, she realizes there's a plot involving anarchists, labor union disputes, and maybe a bomb. There...
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A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark

A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark

by CarolNo Comments
There are several short stories set in the same world as A Master of Djinn and I do wish I had read them first. A Master of Djinn does a fabulous showing us this Cairo and introducing the character, but the events from at least two of the stories are mentioned and I think reading them would have given me a better background. I may actually go back and read them now - I did love the world. A Master of Djinn is more or less a murder mystery set in a steampunk alternate 1912 Cairo where djinn live and work among mortals. Our investigator is Fatma from the Egyptian Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments, and Supernatural Entities. The dead men and woman are members of an Al-Jahiz Secret Brotherhood, all found murdered, their bodies, but not their clothes, burned to a crisp. Turns out an imposter claimant to be Al-Jahiz returned is running around town causing all kinds of havoc. Clark...
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A Distant Voice by Matthew Costello and Neil Richards

A Distant Voice by Matthew Costello and Neil Richards

by CarolNo Comments
I've listened to all of the Mydworth mysteries and thoroughly enjoyed A Distant Voice. It is well-written and fast-paced. I like Kat and Harry. They make a good pair and are both more than competent. We know Bellamy Smythe is a fraud. Alice Wetherby is his target, but the question is why. She clearly has no money. Kat and Harry have been asked by a friend to make sure Smythe isn't out to defraud Alice. Of course, he is but proving it is another matter. They don’t just want Bellamy, either, they want to know how he is getting his information about the townspeople. How, why, and who all need answers. It's an entertaining book. It takes a bit of research, some questioning, and a minor breaking and entering, for Harry and Kat to find the answers. There's a bit of danger involved, as always, but nothing our couple can't handle. ...
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A Beautiful Place to Die by Malla Nunn

A Beautiful Place to Die by Malla Nunn

by Carol4 Comments
A Beautiful Place To Die is a mystery/thriller set in South Africa in 1952 right after the Boer government came to power and instituted laws that restricted relationships between racial groups. Emmanuel Cooper, an English detective, is sent to Jacob's Nest, a small town near the border of Mozambique where the chief of police, Captain Pretorius, has murdered. Cooper is tasked with investigating the crime but runs up against roadblocks galore. First, Pretorius was not just the police chief, he dominated the town. He was a prominent landowner, he and his family owned or controlled most of the businesses, he felt free to do what he wanted. He was also a model Afrikaaner. Then, the Security Branch arrives, determined to find the killer but to be sure that it's a killer that suits their needs, effectively pushing Cooper out of the official investigation. Of course, like any good detective, Cooper continues his search. The mystery itself is well done, with a...
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