books

Susanna Kearsley

Books: Mystery

Anthologies

The Deadly Hours (2020)

The Deadly Hours (2020) Susanna Kearsley, Anna Lee Huber, Christine Trent, C.S. Harris

The Deadly HoursTheses are four novellas, each connected by a cursed time piece.

“Weapon of Choice” by Susanna Kearsley

Set in Portofino, Italy in 1733

The anthology opens with Susanna Kearsley’s story with her characters Hugh and Mary, from her book A Desperate Fortune.

A storm and a purported curse forces their ship into port where they meet with a pirate and an assassin. The pirate has a gold watch, La Sirène, created from gold looted from the sacking of Cartagena, that is said (even by the pirate) to be cursed.

This was an interesting mystery (even if I saw the murder & mystery coming from a mile away) but I had some difficulty with the characters, since I had not read their book, an I felt like I was missing something at times.

Rating: 6.5/10

It was a very interesting idea, and for the most part I enjoyed seeing the way the stories wove bits and pieces into each other. I just wish the third story had been stronger, since it drug down the rest of the anthology.

Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press

Rating: 7/10