Curiosity Didn’t Kill the Cat by M K Wren

April 28, 2014 By Leave a Comment

CAT
Curiosity Didn’t Kill the Cat by M K Wren
Publisher: Untreed Reads
Genre: Action/Adventure, Contemporary, Historical, Suspense/Mystery
Length: Full Length (182 pgs)
Rating: 4 stars
Reviewed by Aloe

The police called it an accident. The dead man’s wife insisted it was murder. Either way it was maddeningly mysterious.

Captain Harold Jeffries, swaddled in his robe, had settled down for a cozy evening with Crime and Punishment when his wife left the house for a bridge party. An hour later he was dead. What could have induced him to dress and go out into the stormy night—much less to walk on the beach, which he hated and never went near?
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Conan Flagg, proprietor of the Holliday Beach Bookshop and Rental Library, is persuaded by Jeffries’ widow to investigate privately; and astonishingly, all the clues lead to Flagg’s own Dickensian establishment. With passing assistance from Meg, the bookstore cat, Flagg baits a trap to catch a rat—and finds himself dangerously involved in a crime with implications far beyond this lazy seaside village.

Conan has retired from one of those agencies with acronyms that use special forces and spies for the government. He now has a bookstore where he rents books to readers. He also does special orders for customers and is living a calm life by the sea. At least, it was. Now there’s been a “suicide” that feels like murder and he’s seen an old friend of his from the past. Are the two related? Why would the Major be hanging in his town?

I’ve read Ms. Wren’s work in the past and know her to be a concise, precise writer who doesn’t waste time with extra description or drama to tell her story. That’s true in this story, too.

Conan Flagg, her main character, left the service because he almost died from an injury. He’s very aware of his surroundings, he’s almost on hyper alert at all times, and he’s willing to fight to protect those around him, his store and his town. He just has to figure out just what is going on. He finally does but he’s not happy with the results. They are using his bookstore to drop coded messages. Who would expect espionage in a small coastal town? It’s a good guess that those Russian trawlers sitting three miles out might.

I enjoyed watching Conan determine who in town might be a player. He has an even more personal interest in it when he finds the Major dead in his office. It’s just by chance he isn’t dead, too. With what he knows and what he guesses, he calls in help and then begins watching people to prove his theory.

The story is busy, entertaining, and I liked the way Ms. Wren showed off Conan’s manly strength and personality. He doesn’t run and he doesn’t give up. The ending is exciting, dangerous and interesting at the same time. You never know who your friends are until you need them.

Filed Under: Mystery/Suspense, Reviews Tagged With: , , , , , ,

The Untreed Detectives by J. Alan Hartman

April 7, 2014 By Leave a Comment

DETECTIVES
The Untreed Detectives by J. Alan Hartman
Publisher: Untreed Reads
Genre: Suspense/Mystery, Historical, Contemporary, Holiday, Paranormal, Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Length: Short Story (118 pages)
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Sleuth…private investigator…detective. Many names for the same job, but the role itself comes in all shapes and sizes.

Presenting a variety of detectives, culled from the various novels both published and distributed by Untreed Reads. Whether it’s a gritty clown or a children’s book author, a pig or an investigator of crimes in the nursery rhyme universe, you’ll discover a wide variety of short mysteries here from both best-selling authors and fresh voices.

This anthology contains the first new Amanda Pepper mystery in nearly a decade from award-winning mystery author Gillian Roberts, as well as original stories from Kara L. Barney, Amber Rochelle Gillet, Janet Majerus, Lesley A. Diehl, Neil Plakcy, Kaye George, Whit Howland, Albert Tucher, Herschel Cozine, Rodolfo Peña and Wade J. McMahan.

Not every mystery begins or ends with a murder. From playful to serious, this collection showcases the wide range of puzzles that a good sleuth can tackle.
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In the introduction J. Alan Hartman describes this anthology as a “tasty set of appetizers.” As someone who was only familiar with about half of these authors I was intrigued by his description and couldn’t wait to try the rest of them. The one-paragraph character introductions before each short story are incredibly helpful. They explain personality quirks and provide very basic background sketches without giving away spoilers. I would have been confused by a many tales without this type of aid, and I’m very glad that it was included.

I’d heard of the Amanda Pepper series before, but “Faint Heart” was my first introduction to this universe. Halloween is an easy time of year to conceal one’s identity, but when an elderly woman dies suddenly Amanda wishes that the prime suspect wasn’t dressed in a gorilla suit so he or she would be easier to identify. The concept tickled my funny bone from the very first scene, and I was surprised to be just as intrigued by the secondary characters as I was with the primary ones.

Certain tales were hard to settle into even with the character introductions. In “Breathing Under Water,” Jessica Schroeder meets an incredibly talented storyteller while temporarily taking over a friend’s writing workshop. The first few paragraphs of this piece are mesmerizing, but when Jessica discovers the writer’s dark secret I found myself wishing I knew more about both of them. I knew almost nothing about Jessica’s personality in particular and had a hard time gauging what she was thinking as she attempts to help her new student.

This pattern repeated itself several other times. As I was reading I briefly wondered if I would have enjoyed those adventures more had I already been familiar with the quirks of the protagonists ahead of time. There weren’t any pacing issues and the mysteries themselves were compelling, I simply had trouble getting to know the characters as individuals.

“Angus Wants a Peanut” was by far my favorite short story in this book. Paula and Mixeti’s newest client, Ryan, recently learned that his old, sick parrot has been sent to the Farm. He’d do anything to get his bird back and hopes that all of the allowance and birthday money he’s saved up will be enough to get someone to help. I was immediately intrigued by the dilemma Mixeti and Paula face as they decide whether to take this kid on as a client, and the ending was just as novel as the original concept.

It was a little difficult to pick the right labels this collection because so many of the authors dabble with other genres. Every one of them is a mystery of some sort, though, and when they do wander into other genres it is only for a short period of time.

The Untreed Detectives is an intriguing introduction to a dozen mystery writers. The variety of topics and writing styles gives this book something that will appeal to many different types of readers. It’s a good choice for anyone in the mood to discover a new favorite author.

Filed Under: Mystery/Suspense, Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

The Same Mistake Twice by Albert Tucher

January 24, 2014 By 2 Comments

TWICE
The Same Mistake Twice by Albert Tucher
Publisher: Untreed Reads
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery/Suspense
Length: Short Story (98 pages)
Heat Level: Spicy
Rating: 3 stars
Reviewed by Daisy

For ten years the dead man lurked in an unmarked grave with a bullet in his head and no one to miss him. Now he has resurfaced, and the only clue to his identity is Diana’s phone number freakishly preserved in his pocket. The police are demanding a list of her clients, and they threaten to stop looking the other way about her business. Diana must stall the cops and solve the case, and she’s running short of time. Her investigation will take her back to her earliest days as a prostitute. She will confront old mistakes and old enemies, and that’s the best-case scenario. The worst could be another secret grave—for her.

Diana is a ‘realist’, as the book describes, and her profession is a result of her wanting money and the knowledge that prostitution is an easy way of getting it. The intricate relationship between her and Detective Tillotson is what makes this book appealing. Usually prostitutes are glorified in pornographic detail or derided as dirty. Here they are seen as a natural part of life and Diana’s interactions with the Detective show a side to solving crimes which is rarely dramatized.
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These main characters feel lifelike, are blunt, and have their own life problems to deal with which often get in the way of the other’s needs, creating the main tension of the story. Diana likes her privacy and Tillotson needs to chip away at it to solve the murder.

The plot is surprisingly complicated for a shorter piece of fiction and I was left reeling with questions, often having to reread sections and stop to piece together the action in my mind. Some of this is great plotting but some of it needs to be tightened up. The issue is that with the amount of suspects and jump in and off characters, it is hard for a reader to keep every individual separate and therefore the book loses some of its impact as we struggle to pair names with people.

I was also surprised that a lot of the delving into Diana’s past is in her head, memories brought alive. This is not badly done, in fact it probably gets the point across much faster and more dramatically than meeting them again and thinking about past times, but it is a surprise and unusual for crime fiction in its passivity.

However, for those who love to see punch ups and meetings in dark corners with people you thought could be trusted, there’s plenty of that in here too so don’t be disappointed by occasional introversion.

In short, The Same Mistake Twice is a slice of reality. Diana is a realist who makes objective lists to please her customers – condoms, pleasant manner and knowing when to leave are essential bullet points. Good customer service is key for her. And there is a tone to this which some readers may not like – particularly as there are occasional visual references to sex where Diana is pleasuring her clients – but this seedy reality is not the main drive of the piece. The main message to be taken from Tucher’s work is that prostitutes are people, too, and often they have information in their large, compartmentalized brains, that can solve disappearances and murders. They should be tolerated and, sometimes, thanked. This is a new mine of crime inspiration to be explored and enjoyed.

Filed Under: Reviews, Romance Tagged With: , , , , ,

The Case of the Disappearing Corpse by June Whyte

January 22, 2014 By Leave a Comment

CORPSE
The Case of the Disappearing Corpse by June Whyte
Publisher: Untreed Reads
Genre: Young Adult, Suspense/Mystery, Contemporary
Length: Short Story (83 Pages)
Age Recommendation: 10+
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

The Case of the Disappearing Corpse is a prequel to a series of hilarious mysteries starring Chiana Ryan, an almost-13-year-old wannabe crime writer.

When a babysitter discovers a dead body in her garden, Cha decides to use all her super-sleuth talents to hunt down the murderer–and just maybe win the online crime-writing contest with her story. It’s not as if there’s any lack of clues.

First, there’s the suspicious pink handkerchief with the letter K embroidered in the corner. Then a bent old man in a grey cardigan and baggy trousers tells Cha all about the two aliens who landed their space-mobile on the church roof. And what about the disappearing body that turns up two days later in the garden shed?

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How do you solve a mystery when everyone else is trying to keep you away from the scene of the crime?

Chiana is at an age when she thinks she knows more than the adults in her life. Only time will tell if she is right. I’ve read one of her past adventures, and it was fun to catch up with a character that I’d met before. She’s lodged firmly between childhood and early adulthood. Ms. Whyte captures this sometimes turbulent stage in life with ease. The best scenes involve Chiana slowly learning to understand why adults say and do certain things as she slowly begins to grow up.

I hope to see Chiana mature as an individual in the future. There are glimmers of personal growth in her personality in this instalment of her adventures, but she has more or less remained the same girl I knew in her previous book. At times the repetitiveness of these old conflicts and story arches distracted me from an otherwise engaging plot.

There were also a few plot holes that were never really addressed. Chiana’s investigation includes conversations with people who seem very unlikely to share their findings with a civilian. While it was really interesting to see how she goes about gathering clues, certain scenes would have made more sense had this tale been set in a less privacy-conscious era.

It was difficult to determine the most appropriate age range for this story. The plot and dialogue are written for mid to late elementary students, but the inclusion of a few frightening and potentially disturbing scenes made me bump the age recommendation up to 10+ due to some violent content. None of the scenes are particularly graphic, but I do recommend parental discretion for sensitive and younger readers.

This book is part of a series, but it can be read easily as a standalone novel. It is a plot-based storyline, and as I mentioned earlier Chiana and her friends don’t seem to change a great deal from one adventure to the next. I have only read some of Chiana’s cases but I had no trouble filling in the pieces from the tales I haven’t started yet.

The Case of the Disappearing Corpse is a thrilling murder mystery for middle grade readers. Why not give it a try today?

Filed Under: Mystery/Suspense, Reviews, YA/Middle Grade/Children's Tagged With: , , , , , ,

The Kingmaker by Nancy Springer

January 20, 2014 By Leave a Comment

KING
The Kingmaker by Nancy Springer
Publisher: Untreed Reads
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Historical
Length: Short Story (11 Pages)
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

The daughter of the High King has a regal name, but she is small and plain, so everyone just calls her Wren. As a mere girl, she is not her father’s heir; her cousin Korbye is. But Wren’s infallible sooth-sense tells her that Korbyn would make no good king. Nor is sooth-sense her only fate. Wren is the Kingmaker. When an ancient and dangerous ring of power finds its way to her, how should she use it?

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Not every princess lives in the lap of luxury. What I liked the most about Wren was how attuned she was to the thoughts and feelings of her subjects. Regardless of the circumstances of anyone’s birth or upbringing, we are all ultimately responsible for how we respond to what happens to us. I may not have agreed with every decision she makes, but Wren is a good example of someone who takes responsibility for her own actions.

I had some trouble understanding the character development of a certain individual in this story. Who this person was in the beginning is not necessarily who they appear to be later on in the plot. While it was interesting to be introduced to new facets of their personality, the transformation would have been easier to accept had certain behaviours and mannerisms shown up earlier on in their journey.

The simple yet cinematic descriptions of Wren’s society rapidly drew me back into the plot. Ms. Springer is extremely good at capturing a snapshot of a surprisingly complicated society with the inclusion of a few well-placed phrases. As much as I wanted to learn more about Wren’s world, everything I truly needed to know unfolded within the span of a few short paragraphs.

The Kingmaker sent a shiver down my spine. This is a great choice for anyone who enjoys fantasy that is heavily influenced by fairy tale tropes.

Filed Under: Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , ,

Thin Ice by Marsha Qualey

January 20, 2014 By 1 Comment

ThinInce
Thin Ice by Marsha Qualey
Publisher: Untreed Reads
Genre: Suspense/Mystery, Contemporary, YA
Length: Full Length (161 Pages)
Age Recommendation: 12+
Rating: 5 Stars
Reviewed by Cyclamen

Voted BoM by LASR Readers 2013 copy

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Fighting for what you know in your heart to be true in spite of all the evidence to the contrary is incredibly difficult. And when you live in a small community and everyone else is convinced that you are wrong and just deluding yourself, it becomes even harder. But this is just what Arden does when her brother’s snowmobile crashes through the ice on a swift and dangerous river. Everyone believes Scott is dead, but Arden just knows that he isn’t. Or is that just a fantasy to help her avoid dealing with losing the last member of her family?

Arden is an extremely complex seventeen-year-old and her character is very well developed. I liked her and suffered along with her. She makes some poor choices, but then she also makes some very good and mature choices, just what is to be expected from someone who is nearly an adult. The supporting characters are also fully developed and individualized. Even though I believed Arden and supported her actions, I could also see how these actions looked to those around her who were trying to care for her.

The novel is a fast-paced action story and I couldn’t put it down until I finished it. The mystery was very well conceived and it was easy to believe that Scott was really dead on one page and that he must still be alive on another. The author had me hooked from the opening chapter and I didn’t figure it all out until the very end.

The setting is extremely well done. The winter scenes were so real that I had shivers. I really felt as if I were right in the middle of the action, trying to use snowshoes, avoiding the ice, and so forth.

Mystery lovers of all ages are in for a real treat and a most exciting adventure if they pick up Thin Ice. I guarantee that once started, you won’t stop until the end.

Filed Under: Mystery/Suspense, Reviews Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

All’s Well That Ends by Gillian Roberts

January 17, 2014 By Leave a Comment

All's Well That Ends by Gillian Roberts
All’s Well That Ends by Gillian Roberts
An Amanda Pepper Mystery
Publisher: Untreed Reads
Genre: Suspense/Mystery, Contemporary
Length: Full Length (161 Pages)
Rating: 5 Stars
Reviewed by Cyclamen

Barring the usual teenage pranks, all seems peaceful at Philly Prep, the private school in Philadelphia where Amanda Pepper teaches English. No doubt the money that appears to be missing from funds collected to aid victims of a catastrophic hurricane Down South will turn up. Probably the rumor that some of Amanda’s students have discovered the thrills of gambling is totally unfounded.

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Amanda isn’t persuaded but reluctantly agrees to help investigate the woman’s demise, though the evidence for foul play is slim. True, the middle-aged compulsive collector of knickknacks wasn’t universally loved. Phoebe’s own son hated her and she bored her friends to death with hints of her “royal” lineage. And with four marriages behind her, she was already preparing to announce her renewed availability on the Net. But when another woman is found dead in Phoebe’s house, it becomes clear that something is indeed murderously amiss, and much closer to home than Amanda or anyone else could have imagined.

What do you do when you just know something is wrong in spite of all the logic and evidence to the contrary. Well, if you have a good friend who is training to become a private investigator, you plead with her to fly in the face of everything and find out the truth. Amanda’s best friend Sasha just knows that her step-mother did not commit suicide so she convinces Amanda and Mackenzie,her husband and a former police detective, to investigate.

Amanda Pepper is a wonderful character, well-defined, with a lot of depth. She teaches high school English at Philly Prep, an exclusive private school for underachievers. To supplement the household budget, she also works for a private investigator’s firm. The supporting characters are rich and interesting, including not only Sasha and Mackenzie, but also a number of quirky and fun characters especially among Amanda’s students. One of the most unusual of the secondary characters is Opal, the new school secretary. She is determined to rescue long lost words and keep them from falling into oblivion, and so Amanda learns the meaning of words such as archididascalos (school principal). When Amanda says that she has never heard of that word, Opal says, “Few have, alas. And amazingly, it’s not in every dictionary, but it is a perfectly good word.”

The plot is fast moving with plenty of suspects for what may or may not be a crime. Amanda has other things to worry about as well. Mackenzie’s family has been hard hit by the hurricane in Louisiana and he tries to help remotely. Students are gambling just off of school property and funds from the relief money meant to help the victims in Louisiana are being stolen. Amanda has too many irons in the fire, but somehow, she manages to stay on top of it all. The ending is something I never saw coming, but at the same time, the clues were there and the author certainly plays fair with her readers.

This is the fourteenth novel in the Amanda Pepper series and it is every bit as enjoyable and as fresh as the others. Like the others in the series, it also stands alone as a totally independent story. Great characters involved in an intricate plot that keeps the reader guessing right to the end makes All’s Well That Ends a great cozy mystery. Mystery readers are sure to enjoy riding along with Amanda.

Filed Under: Mystery/Suspense, Reviews Tagged With: , , , ,

A Fistful of Dust by Sharon Bidwell

January 2, 2014 By Leave a Comment

DUST
A Fistful of Dust by Sharon Bidwell
Publisher: Untreed Reads
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Historical, Action/Adventure
Length: Short Story (102 pages)
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Phobos, fearful son of Mars. A moon often likened to a diseased potato…but is there more to the legends surrounding the satellite than mere rumour? Drawn to Mars as part of a covert mission, the team of the Esmeralda 2 are waylaid by Sir Henry Routledge, governor-general of Syrtis Major. Although at first reluctant to take on an additional mission — a search for a missing man — they change their minds upon hearing one Henry Barnsdale-Stevens has gone missing on Phobos, the mysterious moon of Mars that many say inspires fear.

The explorers set out for Phobos believing they may well find the minerals they’ve been looking for, and save a man’s life. Another myth calls to them — the strange monolith that rises from Phobos’ surface…but does it extend below? The team discovers this is not an ill-formed ‘bit of rock’, nor a remnant of the Stickney crater impact. It’s much more mysterious and marvelous, for there are words and drawings on the stone.

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It’s hard to rescue someone when you’re not even sure if he’s still alive.

The best scenes in this novella involve foreshadowing so subtle that their messages are extraordinarily easy to miss. Ms. Bidwell made me feel a deep sense of foreboding before I had any idea what her characters might be facing. What makes her work unique is that discovering what caused my dread only made me fear it more. There was no comfort to be found in knowing the answer to this question, and for that reason this tale will stick with me for a very long time.

The introduction of a large number of characters in the beginning slowed down the pacing of the first third of this book. Not all of the relationships between the characters are immediately clear, so I had trouble at first remembering who was who. Because the adventure begins as the characters are travelling to their destination, the combination of a relatively large group of people and the amount of time it took to set up who they were and why they were on this mission made the first third of the plot feel like it was moving much more slowly than this reader ordinarily expects from an adventure tale.

With that being said, once the pacing picks up about halfway through the narrative I couldn’t put this book down. Old rivalries and allegiances among various members of the main cast of characters are illuminated as they discover something they never would have imagined to exist.

I didn’t realize that A Fistful of Dust was part of a series until I was midway through the plot. Figuring this out helped me understand why the first few chapters contain so many references to the character’s backstories without the text including any flashbacks to what sound like very exciting scenes. While this book can be read as a standalone novel, I am looking forward to going back to the first book in the series to discover exactly what happened to these characters earlier on in their adventures.

A Fistful of Dust is a good choice for anyone who loves the atmosphere and plot tropes of nineteenth century science fiction.

Filed Under: Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , ,

Women Up to No Good by Pat Murphy

January 1, 2014 By Leave a Comment

WOMEN
Women Up to No Good by Pat Murphy
Publisher: Untreed Reads
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Contemporary, Historical, Action/Adventure
Length: Full Length (186 pages)
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

What do women want? Well, if Pat Murphy is to be trusted (and we’re not saying she is), women are looking for trouble. And in this collection of powerful stories, they find it — at an archaeological dig in the Southwest, in the urban alleys, in California suburbs, in the old West, in ironic fantasy settings.

Some women are the damsels in distress in other people’s adventures, but the characters in these stories would much rather take on the risks and rewards of being their own heroes.

What does it mean to be a hero? There are as many answers to that question as there are characters in this anthology. While not all of the protagonists are necessarily good role models, they do lead fascinating lives and take charge of their own destinies. Being male, after all, is no longer a prerequisite for saving yourself or someone else from something terrible.

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In “Games of Deception” a princess is being forced to marry someone she doesn’t love in order to promote political stability in both of their kingdoms. The concept and execution of the plot in this piece is quite creative, but the princess makes such terrible choices as a result of her unhappiness that I had a hard time commiserating with her.

“One Odd Shoe” reads like a modern-day fairy tale. Mark is an unrepentant cad, but this changes one day when he meets a woman who can’t be tossed aside after he’s grown tired of her. The narrative was so detailed that I felt as if I was standing right there next to him as he meets his fate. Despite Mark’s many flaws, Ms. Murphy still made me feel sorry for his predicament as the plot progresses.

I really wanted to like “On the Dark Side of the Station Where the Train Never Stops.” The idea that the world is secretly run by the very people we mortals assume are the least powerful among us is thrilling. While Lucy, the main character, is fascinating, this tale would have worked better had the reader been given more time to understand her occupation as a Fireborn. I spent more time trying to figure out where her people come from and what they do than I did piecing together the plot as it meandered to its conclusion.

This issue popped up several times in this collection. Every single tale had a good premise, but in some cases the logical conclusions of certain plot points are never fully developed. It didn’t happen every time, but it came to my attention often enough that I think those short stories would have benefitted from another round of editing before they were published.

Most of the entries in this collection seem to be set in present day, but at times it was difficult to determine this for certain. Blurring these lines like this works well for the science fiction genre, though, and and I was not particularly bothered by the times in which I had to make an educated guess. There are also a handful of fantasy tales that take place hundreds of years ago. In those cases it was much more important that the author make that clear, and I’m glad she did so.

Women Up to No Good is the most imaginative anthology I’ve read in 2013. I highly recommend it to anyone who loves science fiction and fantasy that bends the rules and sometimes even breaks them.

Filed Under: Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Lady Tara by Leonora Blythe

December 31, 2013 By Leave a Comment

TARA
Lady Tara by Leonora Blythe
Publisher: Untreed Reads
Genre: Historical
Length: Short Story (116 pgs)
Heat Level: Sweet
Rating: 4 stars
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The slender young highwayman who held up Lord Raven’s coach was shocked to discover he had made a terrible mistake. He turned and fled, but not before Lord Raven had put a bullet in his shoulder. It was then Raven’s turn to be shocked. For the wounded highwayman turned out to be a beautiful young woman, the kind of woman the rakish Raven had been seeking all his life–Lady Tara. It was some time before Lady Tara could tell Raven the truth about this frightening masquerade. But when she did, she plunged them both into a dangerous mission that was to change their lives….

The pace of Leonora Blythe’s romance “Lady Tara’ calls to mind some of my favorite historical novels of old. She takes the time to show us each character, from the one dashingly affecting a white cravat to the cloaked and vastly more menacing. Immediately, intrigue whirls around the two gentlemen – or gent and rogue, more correctly. In a twist, the two are setting about some underhanded night’s work… the results of which will shock them as much as us. All too often, spoilers parade around in reviews, and also too often… well figure this, but they ‘spoil’ things.

Blythe’s work is as delightful for its surprises as it is for its characters. This reader was intrigued at the outset of this work, and then utterly enthralled as true identities were revealed. Secondary characters, as well as some servants are also important and very well-developed in this relatively short novel. Historical touches (set in late nineteenth century Britain) seem accurate, and the backdrop is truly a tapestry of places, from the Leather Bottle Inn to the homes of the gentry. Its a straightforward – yet unpredictable – tale that I thoroughly enjoyed. Certainly wished it was longer!

Filed Under: Reviews, Romance, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , ,
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