Fans of the Victorian lady detective will enjoy her resurrection.
Murder on the high seas adds a twist to a bigger game of international intrigue in the new Lady Sherlock novel.
Still in hiding after having faked her own death in Cornwall, secret sleuth Charlotte Holmes is on the RMS Provence, working a shipboard mission whose successful completion will let her return to her life. Lord Ingram Ashburton, her friend and now lover, is onboard, too, as are some other allies and family members. Thomas also adds a new group of characters to the chessboard, any of whom may be in the criminal syndicate run by Holmes’ nemesis, Moriarty, or have ties to a homicide that occurs on the ship on a stormy night. Told from a third-person perspective that largely stays by Lord Ingram’s side as he is drafted into the investigation while trying to keep Charlotte from being discovered, the novel occasionally switches to Charlotte's sister Livia’s anxious point of view. Charlotte herself is more of a cipher in this installment, with the reader as ignorant of her thoughts or actions as most of the people onboard. While her personality and behavior remain consistent with the earlier books—though she's more expressive about her feelings for Lord Ingram—the nonlinear plot and the numerous scenes without her keep the reader at a distance. We do not always know what Charlotte has done and learned in the process of looking for clues until the final reveal. Reminiscent of forced-proximity stories like Christie’s Death on the Nile or the game and miniseries Clue, the novel is an entertaining read for its wheels-within-wheels structure and the drips of knowledge we are given.
Fans of the Victorian lady detective will enjoy her resurrection.Pub Date: March 14, 2023
ISBN: 9780593200605
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Dec. 23, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
The lavish food descriptions and appended recipes are the best parts of this anemic mystery.
Christmas is coming, but so is trouble for South Lick, Indiana.
Robbie Jordan, owner and chief cook at Pans ’N Pancakes, returns from solving a murder in California just in time for the holiday rush, which is complicated more than most Christmastimes by a number of surprises that disrupt her circle of friends. First, her assistant, Danna Beedle, gets a visit from Marcus Vandemere, a young biracial man claiming to be her half brother, an assertion that thrills Danna despite the doubts of some friends and relatives. Next comes a fire that nearly destroys the home of anesthesiologist Dr. William Geller, a racist whose wife, Tina, reportedly left him years ago. When a skeleton turns up in the attic, the not-so-esteemed doctor has some explaining to do. Robbie’s nemesis, Detective Octavia Slade, who recently married Robbie’s former boyfriend, is more willing than usual to accept help from Robbie, who has a knack for finding things out. The next to die is Tina’s twin, Toni, who knew Marcus from karate classes. Toni’s husband is the prime suspect, but Robbie’s convinced the fatalities are connected. With help from her boyfriend and her network of friends, she attempts to clear things up before the killer spoils her holiday by adding her to his list.
The lavish food descriptions and appended recipes are the best parts of this anemic mystery.Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4967-2317-8
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Kensington
Review Posted Online: June 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
The pre–World War II ambiance provides an apt setting for some ingenious murders in a case worthy of the clever sleuth.
An aristocratic young mother proves a dab hand at solving murders in 1937.
Lady Georgiana O’Mara is a cousin to both the new King George VI and the Duke of Windsor, who abdicated to marry the rapacious Mrs. Simpson. She’s married to the Honorable Darcy O’Mara, heir to an Irish title, but they don’t have much money even though Darcy works for the government in a hush-hush position. Luckily, she’s the heir to her well-off godfather, who’s letting Georgie, Darcy, and their son, James, live in his home. Everything is going well until Georgie’s bossy sister-in-law, Fig, Duchess of Rannoch, sends a much-too-proper nanny to take care of James, and announces that she intends to visit herself to make sure things run as she insists they should. Thoroughly intimidated, Georgie unhappily puts up with her unwanted visitors. Darcy encourages Georgie to go to London to visit her friend Zou Zou, a Polish princess who might help her find a nanny more to her liking. When Georgie arrives at her friend’s house, Zou Zou is rushing off to a funeral for a young man who died in a tragic accident, but Georgie soon runs into another friend, Belinda, who’s just returned from Paris. Another young man has just died in an apparent accident, but there’s something that doesn’t sit well with Georgie about the deaths. The death of a third young man sets the alarm bells ringing, and a fourth death sends sirens blaring, urging Georgie to look for connections among the deceased. They were all Darcy’s age and all set to inherit estates. Why were they targeted for death?
The pre–World War II ambiance provides an apt setting for some ingenious murders in a case worthy of the clever sleuth.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9780593641392
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
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