Historical Mystery

A Flaw in the Blood by Stephanie Barron My rating: 1 of 5 stars I was completely disappointed in this mess of a book from the author of another of my favorite series (Jane Austin mysteries). Yes, I allowed for a change of plot, setting, theme, and tone. I felt like I came into this […]

The Snow Empress by Laura Joh Rowland My rating: 2 of 5 stars The 12th in the Sano Ichiro series, this was a slight departure from the series in that it takes place in far northern Japan, where Sano and Reiko’s son has been kidnapped, apparently to lure him away from the capital. The lord

Death and the Chapman by Kate Sedley My rating: 3 of 5 stars The first of a series of historical mysteries set in fifteenth-century England and introducing Roger, a young man who quits the monastery to be a traveling salesman and discovers his talent for solving mysteries. Told in flashbacks by Roger as an old

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley My rating: 5 of 5 stars This was a fun, quirky story of a dysfunctional English family and the 11-year-old, precocious heroine who likes to snoop and specializes in poison. The post-WWII setting was appealing and the characters were certainly entertaining. I could tell

Aztec 3. City of Spies by Simon Levack My rating: 4 of 5 stars One of my favorite series, simply because it is so different. Yaotl is a down-on-his-luck Aztec slave who is good at logistical problems and has an disfunctional, extended family. His cohorts are interesting and entertaining, in most cases, and the life-and-death

Jane and the Madness of Lord Byron by Stephanie Barron My rating: 3 of 5 stars A truly sad beginning mars this otherwise typical Jane Austin mystery, as a major character from the series dies. But there is no dearth of other acquaintances (and suspects) to fill the story with soap-opera angst and over-the-top aristocratic

A Beautiful Blue Death by Charles Finch My rating: 4 of 5 stars A very good Victorian mystery, flawed by patches of mundane domesticity. The protagonist is simply not very interesting, although he is certainly a good man, and has a fine supporting cast. What kept me going were the intricacies of the mystery itself,