What: Series Challenge – 2nd Season
When: 1 June – 30 November 2008
Who: Kathrin (Crazy Cozy Murders)
Well, I did better than I thought I would. Kathrin is hosting Season 3, starting on 1 December. It will be a year long challenge this time, ending 30 November 2009. I will do a separate post with a new list of books. It will include the series I did not get to this time.
I completed one series by P. B. Ryan and I’m caught up with Ms. Raybourn’s Lady Julia Grey mystery series. The third book, Silent on the Moor, is due in March 2009.
Thanks, Kathrin, for hosting this challenge!
Books in RED are on more than one list/alternate list:
Gilded Age Mystery (P. B. Ryan)
- Murder on Black Friday (4th) {7 Jun 08} (REVIEW)
- Murder in the North End (5th) {7 Jun 08} (REVIEW)
- A Bucket of Ashes (6th & Final) {9 Jun 08} (REVIEW)
Lady Julia Grey (Deanna Raybourn)
- Silent in the Sanctuary (2nd) {11 Nov 08} (REVIEW)
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Silent in the Sanctuary
Author: Deanna Raybourn
Copyright: 2008 (MIRA); pgs. 552
Series: 2nd Lady Julia Grey mystery
Sensuality: Kisses
Julia and her brothers Lysander and Eglamour – Plum – are summoned home from Italy by their father, the Earl March. They arrive in time to spend Christmas at Bellmont Abbey, the family seat. However, before the festivities can begin, there is a murder. As with the previous volume, the book introduces other members of the eccentric March family, this time on home turf. And course Nicholas Brisbane is back, and he is engaged to be married.
Julia quickly realizes that Brisbane and her father are up to something. What, she doesn’t know. But before she can learn anything, a guest is murdered — supposedly by one of the March cousins — and the earl informs Brisbane that Julia will assist in the investigation. Though the March family is used to being the subject of gossip and scandal, the earl wants the matter wrapped up — while they are snowed in — as quickly and as discretely as possible. Brisbane isn’t happy with these arrangements, but he can’t contradict a nobleman in his own home.
I don’t want to give anything away, so I won’t elaborate on the plot. Julia does learn something of Brisbane’s past, however. I wish there had been more interaction between them. It seemed as if Brisbane was barely in the book. As for the March family, I really enjoy meeting them and hearing about their eccentricities. Above all, they are a very close and loving family.
I enjoyed this book and I’m looking forward to Silent on the Moor, due out in March 2009.
Favorite Quote:
Now I was more certain than ever of my decision. I could never love a man who did not love Jane Austen.
– Julia’s thoughts
Started: 1 November 2008
Finished: 11 November 2008
Rating:
Liked A Lot
A Bucket of Ashes
Author: P. B. Ryan
Copyright: 2007 (Berkley); 278 pgs.
Series: 6th, and Final, in the Gilded Age Mystery series
Sensuality: N/A
Where & When: Cape Code, 1870
Who: Nell Sweeney, governess, and Dr. William Hewitt
Summary: Nell has proven herself a model governess in the years she’s worked for the Hewitts. But now a terrible secret from her past — and the lurking suspicion that she might be carrying Will Hewitt’s child — threaten to rob her of everything for which she has worked so hard.
Comments: Nell has a lot on her plate. Her only surviving sibling, Jamie, is dead. He was a fugitive, wanted for the murder of Susannah Cunningham. Also occupying her mind is that fact that she’s pregnant with Will’s baby and Will is in France. In the previous book, the American ambassador asked President Grant for an experienced battle surgeon, and Will was offered the job. Nell even begins to question whether Will — rootless vagabond, cardsharp, and recovering addict — can ever truly settle down. He didn’t take the teaching job, which he loved. Nell knows he went to France for her sake. However, with a child’s future in question, Nell can’t help but wonder. Regardless of what she thinks of Will, the fact she needs a divorce first, and soon, remains.
With so much uncertainty in her future, it is a small relief to know that her mentor and former lover, Dr. Greaves is offering her so much support. He knows that Nell is pregnant and that her heart belongs to Will, even as she questions his reliability. Dr. Greaves is just the type person Nell needs in her life at the moment, especially when word reaches the Hewitts that the American ambassador has “lost” his battle surgeon. Ms. Ryan — thankfully — chose not to heap another heartache on Nell (and her readers) by permanently separating the couple. Will does return from France alive, if a bit worse for wear.
Other reviewers have stated that they were disappointed on how easily Nell’s problems were solved. I admit that the book felt rushed, but I thought that the resolution wasn’t as easily wrapped up as it could have been. What I mean by that is the author didn’t take an easy way out — killing off Duncan in a prison fight/riot, for instance — off-screen and no fretting about what the Hewitts will do if and when they find out about Nell’s past. That would have been too pat. Instead, the author makes Nell deal with having to explain herself to Viola Hewitt, and find a way to get a quiet, and quick, divorce.
Favorite Quotes:
“The only reason you feel unworthy of that award is that you’re mired in your old notion of yourself as flawed and undeserving. Frankly, I’m beginning to find that refrain fairly tedious.”
“I’ve never known you to be quiet the pitiless shrew. I find it captivating.”
– Nell, Will
Started: 7 June 2008
Finished: 9 June 2008
LOVED IT !!
Rating:
Murder in the North End
Author: P. B. Ryan
Copyright: 2006 (Berkley); 230 pgs.
Series: 5th in the Gilded Age Mystery series
Sensuality: N/A
Where & When: Boston, July 1870
Who: Nell Sweeney, governess, and Dr. William Hewitt
Summary: Colin Cook was the only officer in the city’s Detective Bureau not to be found guilty of corruption and to escape being demoted or fired. But now he is a fugitive, wanted for killing a petty criminal in Boston’s North End, and the police believe Nell knows where the Irish cop is hiding. Nell doesn’t know where Colin is, nor does she believe her friend is capable of murder. To prove his innocence, she descends into the seedy and dangerous slums of the North End to look into the matter. Nell isn’t afraid of her fellow immigrants in the neighborhood, but Dr. Will Hewitt has his doubts — and he won’t let her conduct the investigation alone.
Comments: The Hewitts have gone to the Cape for their annual summer retreat, but Nell has remained in Boston to clear Detective Cook’s name. The odious, and disgraced, ex-detective Charles Skinner is sure that Nell is conspiring to keep him hidden, and he has threatened Nell. This doesn’t weaken her resolve to help her friend, but it puts her in danger. Before she gets far in the investigation, Will shows up and offers to help her — and protect her from Skinner.
Will has returned from Shanghai, having realized that it’s too easy to give in to temptation. Will rather not loose his hard-won battle against opium addiction, or loose Nell’s regard, by returning to old habits. But nothing has changed for him in Boston, so Will is still in the same predicament he was before — in love with a woman he can’t have. He has two job offers to contemplate while helping Nell clear Cook’s name: take the five year teaching contract at Harvard, or go to France at President Grant’s request. Something has changed, though. Nell has begun to question her devotion to the Catholic Church. Will’s words to her at Gracie’s birthday party,the previous year, have affected her more than he knows — that it would be the Church, not God, turning its back on her if she was excommunicated. For the first time, Nell is willing to pursue a divorce.
The ending is even more heart breaking than the previous book.
Favorite Quote:
“You befriended me when I needed a friend, you saved me when I needed a savior. Your presence in my life has shone a light upon my soul that will never be extinguished. For that precious gift, I shall be forever in your debt.”
– Will’s note to Nell
Started: 7 June 2008
Finished: 7 June 2008
LOVED IT !!
Rating:
Murder on Black Friday
Author: P. B. Ryan
Copyright: 2005 (Berkley); 230 pgs.
Series: 4th in the Gilded Age Mystery series
Sensuality: N/A
Where & When: Boston, September 1869; January 1870
Who: Nell Sweeney, governess, and Dr. William Hewitt
Summary: When two acquaintances of the Hewitts, Nell’s wealthy employers, are found dead on Wall Street’s first “Black Friday”, most people assume they committed suicide after being financially ruined. Yet upon closer examination, Nell’s trusted friend, Dr. Will Hewitt suspects that one of the men was actually murdered. With little more than her Irish wit and indomitable will to guide her, Nell sets out to help Will find the culprit. But as the investigation progresses, the pair discovers that the two men were linked by something more valuable — and far more treacherous — than gold.
Comments: Will is currently teaching medical jurisprudence at Harvard Medical School, with the condition that he be allowed to conduct postmortems on any of the interesting corpses in Massachusetts General’s morgue. By interesting, he means those individuals who’s death were violent or unexplained. That’s how he ended up performing autopsies on Noah Bassett and Philip Munro.
The two men’s deaths were as different as their lives. Noah was a member of the Brahmin elite — old money and lineage — but whose financial situation was in dire straits even before the Gold Market plummet. He left behind two, unmarried adult daughters — Miriam and Rebecca. Philip, only thirty-nine and unmarried, was a financial genius and a self-made man. Wealthy, and without lineage, he was still an outsider to the Boston elite. Men like Noah Bassett went to Philip for investment advice. None of them would have wanted to see him married to one of their daughters. Will is certain that Noah Bassett took his own life due to being financially ruined, and he’s just as certain that Philip did not throw himself out a fourth floor window, based on forensic evidence. Will in convinced that one of Philip’s clients — Noah Bassett, for instance — may have killed him and made it look like suicide.
Nell is on friendly terms with Miriam Bassett and she agrees to help Will question the Bassett sisters. Unexpected help with the investigation comes in the form of Harry Hewitt, who idolized Philip Munro and who is deeply affected by his death. Harry is willing to cooperate with Will, wanting to see Philip’s murderer brought to justice.
On the personal side of things, Nell and Will are maintaining their sham engagement, which continues to be a double edge sword for Will. It allows him to see Nell and get to know his daughter, but it’s doing nothing for his resolve to maintain a respectable relationship with Nell. He informs Nell that he will be heading to Shanghai at the end of the school term — news that distresses Nell and prompts Will to tell her he can be persuaded to stay with a single kiss. Bad idea, Will. He realizes that he’s being selfish and tells her to forget about the request (as if she could!). True to his word, Will leaves Boston. The scene at the rail station is tender and bittersweet. As always, Nell and Will’s predicament tugs at my heart.
Started: 3 June 2008
Finished: 7 June 2008
LOVED IT !!
Rating:
