Wards of the Roses (2019) Celia Lake (Mysterious Charm) Set in Wales & England in 1920 I still want these books to be edited. But the story and world building keep pulling me in. Kate Davies doesn’t want a return to war, but she would like the more interesting assignments she got while all the […]
Parker Pyne Investigates: A Short Story Collection (1934) Agatha Christie “The Case of the Middle-Aged Wife” was first published as “The Woman Concerned” in Woman’s Pictorial, 8 October 1932. “The Case of the Discontented Soldier” was first published in the USA as “The Soldier Who Wanted Danger” in Cosmopolitan, August 1932, then as “Adventure—By Request” […]
An Irregular Arrangement A. L. Lester (Border Magic) Set in England in 1920. This is a short story set in the Border Magic world. Tim and Flora are best friends who chose to get married to make things safer for Tim and his lover, Rupert. Val is finally twenty one and ready to leave their […]
Threshold (2013) Jordan L. Hawk (Whyborne & Griffin) Set in Boston and WV in the late 1800s. This wasn’t bad, but Lovecraftian monsters just aren’t my thing. So why did I keep reading? Because it was set in WV, and it featured mining and was actually accurate for those things! I mean, this: By the […]
Outcrossing (2018) Celia Lake (Mysterious Charm) Set in alternate England in 1922. Rufus returned from The Great War unscathed, to a village that doesn’t understand why he returned when their sons and brothers and fathers didn’t. (T)hey found him even more suspicious and – just wrong, one of the wives had called him. “Nothing natural […]
The Quid Pro Quo (2021) A.L. Lester (Bradfield Trilogy) Set in England in 1920 Walter met Sylvia when they were both working at the same hospital at Royaumont. They only got the worst cases here now… had done for a while, since the brass had worked out that the lady doctors had a better surgical […]
The Fog of War (2021) A.L. Lester (Bradfield Trilogy) Set in England in the summer of 1919. Dr Sylvia Marks returned to the village where her father had been the local doctor, after the end of the war and her time as a surgeon at Royaumont, where she was later joined by Walter, a nurse […]
Dead Dead Girls (2021) Nekesa Afia (Harlem Renaissance Mystery) Set in Harlem, NYC in 1926 Louise Lloyd became famous as a teenager, when she escaped a man who had kidnapped her and two other girls–girls who would have been ignored because they were Black and in Harlem. Ten years later, someone is killing young women, […]
Where There’s a Kilt, There’s a Way (2021) Ella Stainton (Kilty Pleasures) Set in Scotland and Sweden in 1930 Joachim Cockburn and Ainsley Graham have been looking for summer positions to broaden their fields; specifically Jochaim wants to change how patients in asylums are treated, and hopes that working at a prestigious university will give […]
Subtle Blood (2021) KJ Charles (The Will Darling Adventures) Set in London ~1924 Will Darling is finally somewhat comfortable in his relationship with Kim Secretan, even if they continue to have to hide they are more than just acquaintances. Will is also finally doing a decent job with the bookstore he inherited–due in part to […]
Spectred Isle (2017) KJ Charles (Green Men) Set in England in 1923 Saul’s professional instincts were shaped by his doctorate in archaeology from Oxford and two years working on excavations in Mesopotamia. Major Peabody believed that if the ravens left the Tower of London, the city would fall. He hadn’t given a damn about Saul’s […]
The Secret Casebook of Simon Feximal (2013) KJ Charles Set in England 1894 to 1914 He was covered in writing. It was scrawled in black and red ink, from wrist to shoulder of both muscular arms, across his broad, powerful shoulders and chest. None of it was in a language I recognised, or could read, […]
Wonderstruck (2021) Allie Therin (Magic in Manhattan) Set in New York and other locales in 1925 Arthur and Rory are searching for a way to destroy the magical artifact that could be used to enslave non-magical minds, not just because it is evil, but because an evil man is searching to control it himself. But […]
Why Shoot a Butler? (1933) Georgette Heyer This story was all over the place. Barrister Frank Amberley gets lost taking a shortcut to visit his aunt and uncle, and comes upon a car alongside the road, and a young woman beside it. A closer look find a man dead in the drivers seat, and the […]
The Unfinished Clue (1934) Georgette Heyer Sir Arthur Billingham-Smith and his wife Fay are throwing a house party. Except that the general didn’t want to have the party, doesn’t want to see his son and the woman he wants to marry, and is pretty much a complete bastard. He dislikes his son almost as much […]
Tales: Short Stories Featuring Ian Rutledge and Bess Crawford (2015) Charles Todd This collection is four short stories with Bess Crawford and Ian Rutledge. “The Kidnapping” “The Girl on the Beach” “Cold Comfort” “The Maharani’s Pearls” “The Kidnapping” – Ian Rutledge, London 1920 I actually have a copy of this short story, but it had […]
No Wind of Blame (1939) Georgette Heyer (Inspector Hemingway) Ermyntrude Carter married Wally Carter, but has come to regret doing so, as Wally isn’t a great human. Yet Ermyntrude and her daughter Vicki Fanshawe, and Wally and his ward (and cousin) Mary Cliffe lived together on the money Ermyntrude inherited from her fist husband. Although […]
Best Laid Plaids (2020) Ella Stainton (Kilty Pleasures) Set in Scotland in 1928. Well, I’ve now completely ruined my search history, trying to find when top and bottom were first used as gay slang. And the worst part is, I didn’t find the answer. Joachim Cockburn fought in WWI. He’s now trying to finish his […]
The Sugared Game (2020) K.J. Charles (The Will Darling Adventures) Set in London in 1924. Will Darling has settled in as proprietor of the bookstore he inherited from his uncle. He’s cleaned out the upstairs so he has room to sleep, and is slowly organizing the books. Unfortunately, all that is not keeping his mind […]
The Boy in the Red Dress (2020) Kristin Lambert Set in New Orleans in 1930. It’s New Year’s Eve and Millie Coleman is in charge of her aunt’s speakeasy for the evening. When a rich young woman comes looking for her aunt’s star performer, Marion Leslie, Millie does what she can to protect Marion. When […]
Starcrossed (2020) Allie Therin (Magic in Manhattan) Set in New York in 1925. This is set immediately after the events of the first book. Rory and Arthur are in Hyde Park where Rory is helping to authenticate some of Arthur’s brother’s supposedly antique compasses, and Arthur is visiting his family. “Speaking of children,” Arthur said […]
Spellbound (2019) Allie Therin (Magic in Manhattan) Set in New York in 1924. Rory Brodigan works for a woman he calls his aunt, helping assess the authenticity of antiques. But there is no science–only magic–behind his abilities. Arthur Kenzie needs someone who can read the history of objects, and he thinks Mrs Brodigan is the […]
Thirteen Problems (1932) Agatha Christie (Miss Marple) The Tuesday Night Club (1927) The Idol House of Astarte (1928) Ingots of Gold (1928) The Blood-Stained Pavement (1928) Motive versus Opportunity (1928) The Thumb Mark of St. Peter (1928) The Blue Geranium (1929) A Christmas Tragedy (1930) The Companion (1930) The Herb of Death (1930) The Four […]
The Murder at the Vicarage (1930) Agatha Christie (Miss Marple) This is the first Miss Marple novel. I’d somehow forgotten that it’s told from the point of view of the vicar, and Miss Marple is only a secondary character–even if she does solve the mystery. Miss Marple is a white-haired old lady with a gentle, […]
Slippery Creatures (2020) K.J. Charles (The Will Darling Adventures) Will Darling returned from the Great War at a bit of a loss. Will had gone to the War at eighteen, and come back five years later to find himself useless and unwanted. In Flanders he’d been a grizzled veteran, a fount of professional expertise who […]