The Infadel Stain

I selected The Infadel Stain for the Color Coded Reading Challenge as something that denotes a color. When I spill food on my clothes it definitely changes its color so I thought this would fit the category. The book is a part of a new series by Miranda Carter. In this installment of the series, Blake and Avery investigate a serial killer who is stalking the streets of London.

The publisher's summary:  

London, 1841. Returned from their adventures in India, Jeremiah Blake and William Avery have both had their difficulties adapting to life in Victorian England. Moreover, time and distance have weakened the close bond between them, forged in the jungles of India. Then a shocking series of murders in the world of London’s gutter press forces them back together.

The police seem mysteriously unwilling to investigate, then connections emerge between the murdered men and the growing and unpredictable movement demanding the right to vote for all. In the back streets of Drury Lane, among criminals, whores, pornographers, and missionaries, Blake and Avery must race against time to find the culprit before he kills again.

But what if the murderer is being protected by some of the highest powers in the land?

I preferred the India setting in the first book to the wet and gray London we have in this book. India is exotic but London is rather dull. The investigation into the whodunnit seemed less interesting because the India setting gave me more options for villains and red herrings.  Moving the characters out of India was a mistake in my mind.

The setting change also affected Blake and Avery's relationship and their ability to resolve clues.  While they were in India, Avery needed Blake’s fluency in multiple languages and his extensive knowledge of the cultures. In London, Blake seems to have fewer investigative tools. 

This installment of the series was a miss for me and I will not be reading the series any further. 2 out of 5 stars.

The Mistress of Bhatia House

This book is the 4th Perveen Mistry 1920s India mystery. I have read every one of them and can honestly say that all of them were fantastic. Our main character, Perveen Mistry, is a lawyer but cannot represent clients in court because women are not allowed to do so. She uses her education by drawing up wills and contracts and works at her father’s law firm. She is allowed to mix with British aristocrats who are stationed in India but may not enter their clubs because of her dark skin. Perveen has been able to build a life for herself despite the restrictions she must abide by.

The publisher's summary:

India, 1922: Perveen Mistry is the only female lawyer in Bombay, a city where child mortality is high, birth control is unavailable and very few women have ever seen a doctor.

Perveen is attending a lavish fundraiser for a new women’s hospital specializing in maternal health issues when she witnesses an accident. The grandson of an influential Gujarati businessman catches fire—but a servant, his young ayah, Sunanda, rushes to save him, selflessly putting herself in harm’s way. Later, Perveen learns that Sunanda, who’s still ailing from her burns, has been arrested on trumped-up charges made by a man who doesn’t seem to exist.  

Perveen cannot stand by while Sunanda languishes in jail with no hope of justice. She takes Sunanda as a client, even inviting her to live at the Mistry home in Bombay’s Dadar Parsi colony. But the joint family household is already full of tension. Perveen’s father worries about their law firm taking so much personal responsibility for a client, and her brother and sister-in-law are struggling to cope with their new baby. Perveen herself is going through personal turmoil as she navigates a taboo relationship with a handsome former civil service officer. 

When the hospital’s chief donor dies suddenly, Miriam Penkar, a Jewish-Indian obstetrician, and Sunanda become suspects. Perveen’s original case spirals into a complex investigation taking her into the Gujarati strongholds of Kalbadevi and Ghatkopar, and up the coast to Juhu Beach, where a decadent nawab lives with his Australian trophy wife. Then a second fire erupts, and Perveen realizes how much is at stake. Has someone powerful framed Sunanda to cover up another crime? Will Perveen be able to prove Sunanda’s innocence without endangering her own family?

The mystery to be solved was not apparent in the first few chapters. It wasn't revealed until a third into the story. While this would normally upset me, the setting descriptions and character dialogue were interesting enough to keep me glued to the pages. Two thirds into the story I became bored. Conflict between Perveen and other characters, seemingly unrelated to the plot, was prominent and it wasn't as interesting as the beginning pages. Sunanda’s innocence or guilt was not fleshed out well as the author concentrated on using her in a cover-up of another crime.  As for the mistress herself, her role was not discussed much. Given that the title of the book was about the mistress, I expected more.

I am disappointed with The Mistress of Bhatia House. Let's hope the next installment of the series will be better. Two out of 5 stars.

The Cursed Heir

The Cursed Heir is the 2nd book in author Heather Atkinson's Alardyce House series. The series takes place in Edinburgh during the Victorian Era and in this installment of the series the family has gathered to celebrate the engagement of Alardyce House heir Robert to his childhood sweetheart Jane. For his mother Amy the moment is marred by the darkness she sees in Robert, a darkness that his biological father  Matthew had. Matthew was a criminal who beat and killed women and was hung for his crimes. Amy wants to prevent her son from the noose. However, reports are emerging about Robert beating female household staff. Amy fears that the streets of Edinburgh are not safe when Robert is in town. To make matters worse, the increasing distance between him and his step-father Henry threatens the peace of Henry's marriage to Amy. The only question is whether this most cursed heir will ruin the family's reputation forever or will a mother's love save them all.

This was an exciting page turner with alot of plot twists. The reader never knows when Robert is going to strike again or when other characters will prevent him from obtaining access to girls that he is interested in. The story begins several years after the first book ends. Since the family relationships are complex, I recommend that you read The Missing Girls of Alardyce House first. Even though I read the first book month or two ago, I found it difficult in the beginning to remember who hurt who previously.  While I loved The Cursed Heir, I think that The Missing Girls of Alardyce House was better.  Cursed Heir had less action but more family drama. The story ended with an unresolved cliff-hanger that won't be resolved until the third book of the series, His Fatal Legacy begins.  His Fatal Legacy was published last month on March 20, 2023.  I will be reading it next month.

4 out of 5 stars.

The Avignon Affair

The Avignon Affair is the newest installment of the Vatican Secret Archives thriller series by Gary McAvoy and Ronald Moore. It takes place in Rome and Paris in the present day. There is also an alternating plot that takes place in France in the 1300s that concerns the death of a cardinal who is masquerading as a bishop while carrying a secret document. 

The publisher's summary:

Father Michael Dominic is called to France for an unusual assignment. A fourteenth-century bishop was found in a crypt buried under the burnt remnants of Notre-Dame-but he's wearing the ring of a cardinal, and two parchment scrolls had been hidden in his garment sleeve. Who was this 700-year-old custodian of carefully guarded secrets?

Once Father Dominic decodes the rolled scrolls, long-hidden confessions are exposed that throw France into political turmoil while creating havoc within Dominic's own team of friends. Relationships are tested and shocking new revelations emerge in The Avignon Affair.

I could not put this book down. The mystery to be solved begins with the Prologue so that the rest of the story is about what happened, how and why. The team of Father Dominic, Hana Sinclair and Marco Picard return in this installment of the series to solve another mystery from medieval times. Medieval mysteries are my favorite sub-genre so this series is a perfect fit for me. The team includes Father Michael Dominic who is the head of the Vatican Secret Archives, Hana Sinclair who is a reporter for the French newspaper Le Monde and Marco Picard, a bodyguard hired by Sinclair's grandfather to protect her. After reading 3 books in the series, they have become old friends to me.

While I was riveted by the story, the plot turned into a fantastical ending that was not believable. It was definitely interesting but just not plausible. I hate to be a spoiler here so I won't go into any details. The history part of the series delves into the Papacy of the late 1300s and the French monarchy which I thoroughly enjoyed. The authors mixed the older history with the new as the rebuilding of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris is also part of the story. This mix is what makes this series tick. 

I hate to give a McAvoy book a lower rating that 5 out of 5 stars but The Avignon Affair had flaws. I am rating it 4 because the suspense level was significant.

Why Mermaids Sing

I loved this historical mystery set in 1811 London. It is the third book in the Sebastian St. Cyr series but the first one that I have read. In this installment of the series, murder stalks London's elite families as the sons of prominent families are found dead in public places. Their bodies have been mutilated with strange objects stuffed in their mouths.  Sebastian handles the investigation to find the killer alongside his sidekick, magistrate Henry Lovejoy.

Sebastian is a likable character. He is the only surviving son of the Earl of Hendon and will inherit the title some day.  His father is horrified that he is performing common work for the police force. He currently has the title of the Viscount Devlin. Sebastian served in the army as an intelligence specialist and the skills and contacts he obtained from his military service came in handy in this investigation. This background is a fabulous basis for a sleuth.  His girlfriend, Kat Boleyn, is a prostitute but he wants to marry her.  I am not sure how he came to fall in love with Kat. That information must be in the prior books in the series.  It didn't seem likely to me that he would fall for someone like Kat.

The writing was tight. There were alot of twists and turns in the plot and the author had me guessing what the outcome might be.  The whodunnit was surprising and I did not see it coming. I am excited to continue reading this series.  Author C. S. Harris is a new author for me and it's always awesome to find a new author that I love.

5 out of 5 stars.

Master Wycliffe's Summons

Master Wycliffe's Summons is the 14th book in Mel Starr's series The Chronicles of Hugh de Singleton, Surgeon. I have read most of them and they are fabulous. Starr writes tightly woven medieval mysteries that move fast. The death always occurs early in the story so that the rest of the novel can be about solving the crime.  In this particular installment of the series, a student at Queen's College Oxford, Richard Sabyn, has been found dead in bed. There was a lightening storm the night before and it appears that he may have been struck by the lightening.  However, Oxford Master John Wycliffe does not believe that the evidence shows a lightening strike and wants Singleton to look into the death. Singleton agrees with Wycliffe that it is possible to make it look as though Sabyn died from a lightening strike. 

I enjoyed the story but it was not as exciting as some of Starr's earlier books in the series. The pace was slow and the howdunnit didn't grab my attention. While the howdunnit was interesting I don't think the writing was well executed. Singleton spent alot of time trying to figure out how someone could collect enough urine, dove droppings and a small amount of charcoal to create the substance that killed Sabyn. I was eating dinner while I read the book and that urine section didn't set well with my tummy. I did find it interesting that the deceased was copying a gospel into English while John Wycliffe, who translated the Bible into English between 1382 and 1395, denied any knowledge of it. Our protagonist did not perform any surgeries but did gather herbs for several people to help ease the pain of the plague. 

3 out of 5 stars.

Midnight Fire

Midnight Fire is the second book in the Jagiellon Mystery Series by P. K. Adams. I love that it takes place in Poland and Lithuania. It seems that most historical fiction novels are set in England and France so this series is a breath of fresh air. The story begins in the summer of 1545 with Caterina Sanseverino Konarska traveling with her ailing son Guilio from their home in Bari, Italy to Krakow. Guilio suffers from mysterious fevers that have stunted his growth. Caterina hopes to see Queen Bona again so that she can ask her if Guilio can see a court physician. Caterina had initially traveled with Bona Sforza to Poland when she was engaged to marry King Zigmunt. That story is told in book one of the series Silent Water. Now the king lies on his deathbed and the court no longer seems the lively, cultured place that she remembered 25 years ago. After meeting Queen Bona, Caterina is allowed to travel to Vilnius where the best court physician is on hand in case crown prince Zigmunt August needs him. However, Bona asks Caterina a favor. Can she dissuade the crown prince from marrying a scandal ridden mistress, Barbara Radziwill? For the sake of her son, Caterina agrees but she soon discovers that Zigmunt August will listen to no one, especially when it comes to his mistress. When a murder shakes the Vilnius court, the crown prince immediately suspects his mother's agents. Caterina is thrust again into another investigation. However, she realizes that in trying to clear the queen's name, she has placed herself and her son in danger.

I LOVED this book! It was a perfect read, with great characters, a fast pace, and a great plot. Caterina's sleuthing skills are solid and she is able to use her position at court to advance her investigation. There were two settings here, the Krakow court and the Vilnius court. Both were  built with extravagant furnishings and I loved reading about the palaces and the clothing that the ladies wore. I learned about the Turkish baths that women, as well as men, visited.  I was not aware that women frequented these establishments nor that there were even co-ed baths. The novel is also a well crafted murder mystery that follows the mystery formula flawlessly. If there is anything negative to say about Midnight Fire it is that the first murder does not happen until after I had read a third of the book. This is not really a bad thing as I was captivated by the story up until that point and the story continued to be smooth reading. However, learning that the plot was more than Caterina helping her son and Queen Bona was a little jarring.

If you would like to be transported to a 16th century royal court, Midnight Fire will not disappoint.  The culture of a country not written about before in historical fiction will be enlightening as well.  5 out of 5 stars.

A Rising Man

Abir Mukherjee's first novel is a masterpiece. Taking place in the early 1900s Calcutta, a newly arrived Scotland Yard detective, Captain Sam Wyndham, is confronted with the murder of a British official. Desperately seeking a fresh start after his experiences during the Great War, Wyndham has been recruited to head up a new post in the police force. He is immediately overwhelmed by the heady vibrancy of the tropical city, but with barely a moment to acclimatize or to deal with the ghosts that still haunt him, Wyndham is caught up in a murder investigation that threatens to destabilize a city already teetering on the brink of political insurgency.

The body of a senior official has been found in a filthy sewer, and a note left in his mouth warns the British to quit India, or else. Under tremendous pressure to solve the case before it erupts into increased violence on the streets, Wyndham and his two new colleagues—arrogant Inspector Digby and Sergeant Banerjee, one of the few Indians to be recruited into the new CID—embark on an investigation that will take them from the opulent mansions of wealthy British traders to the seedy opium dens of the city.

I always love historical fiction set in India. This particular book focuses more on the local police department and its investigative methods than the usual partying done by the British. While I like those books too it was refreshing to read about a new aspect of life in India 100 years ago. The weather is a big issue for our detective. He has difficulty moving from a cold, rainy England to 110+ degrees India. It affects his ability to do his job and the author did a great job writing this setting into the story.

The men featured in the story were prominent characters. The women were important but the comeraderie, or lack thereof, among the men moved the plot forward.  Captain Wyndham cannot break through the tight group of male characters. He is considered persona non grata. Usually when a person lands themselves in India the British society welcomes that person with open arms. Wyndham's experience was atypical for the time period.

There is plenty of historical detail written into the story.  The characters need to navigate through a minefield of political pitfalls in order to do their jobs well. Wyndham and his Indian sidekick Surrender-Not Banerjee make a great crime fighting duo who can carry this fantastic new detective series forward. I am looking forward to reading the next book in the series.

5 out of 5 stars.

The Lover's Portrait

 

The Lover's Portrait:  An Art Mystery is the second book in Jennifer Alderson's Zelda Richardson Mysteries. Three additional books have been published and all of them are art mysteries.  The author also writes the Travel Can be Murder cozy mystery series.

The Lover's Portrait alternates between the WWII era and the present day. The story opens with Philip Verbeet and Arjan van Heemsvliet storing artworks in a secret location to keep the Nazis from finding them.  The scene then flips to the present day Germany with Konrad Heider perusing his computer for sightings of paintings from his late father's lost art collection. The scene changes one more time to Amsterdam in the current year. Zelda Richardson has just been hired as an intern at The Amsterdam Museum and tasked with revising the website for an exhibition of over 3,000 stolen artworks that have gone unclaimed since WWII. When the exhibition opens one month later, Zelda is invited to attend with her boss. There she meets Rita Brouwer, an American who is claiming that her father owned one of the lesser known paintings that she calls Irises. Zelda falls in love with Rita's family story and wants to help her prove that she is the owner of the painting. When a photo of Rita and the painting appear in the newspaper the next day, another claimant comes forward. Who is the owner? The Museum meets with the claimants as an investigation into the ownership of the painting begins. 

I loved this art mystery. Zelda's extensive investigation into a stolen artwork was fascinating. Before reading the book I did not know the process that museums follow to determine the history of a painting. Alot of research has to be done concerning the artist's business and personal life. Business records, mortgages, leases, letters, birth and death records, new articles, exhibition catalogs, and government documents are reviewed to become familiar with the artist. Likewise, a claimant's background is similarly reviewed to see if it matches up with the artist's background. 

Zelda is a great amateur sleuth. With an art history baccalaureate degree, she is seeking to be admitted to a master's program in museum studies. Zelda is ambitious enough to defy her superiors at the museum. She wants to come up with new facts to impress her bosses and has to take risks to find them, even if that puts her in danger.

The other two books in the series are now on my tbr list. This mystery was that good.  5 out of 5 stars.

The Spymaster's Brother

The final book in the Francis Bacon Mystery series by Anna Castle centers around the protagonist's brother, Anthony Bacon.  When the story opens Anthony has returned to England after living in France for 13 years. While he was in France Anthony built a huge intelligence network throughout Europe. He and Francis are seeking a wealthy patron and offer Anthony's services to the highest bidder. Since he is suffering with severe symptoms of gout, Anthony has trouble walking unassisted and with his self care. When a dead body is found next to Anthony's coach, Francis thinks his brother killed someone because the dead man had been spreading vicious rumors about Anthony that could ruin his reputation and the value of his network. Francis's sidekick Tom Claraday believes Anthony's secretary committed the murder and the two of them set out to find the killer.

This series has been highly entertaining. I love the two sleuths, Francis and Tom. They work well together and their different personalities do not hinder their investigations. It actually helps them determine the identity of killers. While reading the Spymaster's Brother, I became so intrigued about Anthony Bacon's life that Internet research into his life occasionally interrupted my reading of the book. His life story is fascinating. It was intriguing enough to overshadow my enjoyment of the book. I feel my independent research was more interesting than the plot. Had I not checked out Anthony's life story, the story probably would have been another entertaining read for me.

The period details are another enjoyable part of the series. The author wrote the setting descriptions well enough for me to want to visit England, especially Cambridge where Tom Claraday was at school in the early books in the series. Ms. Castle's knowledge about the Elizabethan time period shined throughout the series. I hope she continues to write historical fiction.

4 out of 5 stars. Anna Castle take note, a series based on Anthony Bacon and his assistant living in France building that spy network would be great reading. 

Let Slip The Dogs

In book 5 of the Francis Bacon Mysteries the story takes place at Richmond Palace in 1591. Courtiers and titled ladies are in each other's arms while Tom Claraday and Trumpet conclude their plans to fool Trumpet's soon-to-be husband on the wedding night.  They will get him drunk and substitute a lookalike in the bed chamber while Trumpet meets Tom in his room. Even the main character Francis Bacon will get involved in a private liaison. However, when a young man who is known to collect gossip is found dead in the Queen's orchard there is only the question of whether he was murdered to keep a romantic secret or a political one. Bacon does not want to get involved. He is particularly bothered in this installment of the series by not having a position or patron and has considered being bought by a foreign entity for money.

I enjoyed this book but would have to say that it is my least favorite so far in this series.  This just goes to show how well the earlier books were written.  The actual murder did not occur at least until a third into the book with sex taking prominence in the plot. It seemed out of character for Francis Bacon to get involved in a sexual liaison and to be so depressed about his finances that he considered committing a treasonous act just for money. Everyone gets down in the dumps and does stupid things but not in a mystery series. Also, the investigation of the murder did not involve Bacon because he was busy with his pity party. It was done by Tom and Trumpet talking between themselves. They didn't interview witnesses, etc... The main character/sleuth should be the one doing the sleuthing and this was a mistake on the author's part.

Let Slip the Dogs was a departure from the mystery formula that the author has followed in the series. Let's see what she does with the final book in the series.

Publish and Perish

Publish and Perish is the the 4th Francis Bacon Mystery. It takes place in 1589 when Francis Bacon is 28. The story concerns a year long war of words between a Puritan pamphleteer Martin Marprelate and several of England's more famous writers of that era. When 2 writers are murdered Lord Burghley asks Francis Bacon to find out who the killer is, a task made difficult by the fact that no one knows the identity of Martin Marprelate. Bacon enlists the assistance of his clerk Tom Clarady to help him solve the crimes.

I have come to love the regular characters in this series. Bacon is still a young barrister here but his intellect is getting noticed by the Crown. Tom Clarady is a lovable character.  He is a witty, 20 year old, bar hopping lady's man. His buddies Tom Nashe and Christopher Marlowe make a great crime solving threesome or just a fun night out at the tavern. They have a female friend Alice Trumpington who they call Trumpet who adds a delicious flavor to this group of friends. She is known to dress as a man so that she can travel the streets of London freely. These four friends are a riot when they get together. Bacon's mother and aunt, both ardent Christian reformers, play a prominent role in this installment of the series. Both are well educated, wealthy widows who basically do whatever they want.

Publish and Perish, and all the earlier books in the series, is written with suspense. Clarady and his pals run into dilemma after dilemma and its not just about solving the crimes. Trumpet needs to marry but also needs to turn away suitors. Clarady is now a ward of the Crown since his father died and has to file a lawsuit in order to obtain his inheritance. Nashe cannot get work. Bacon thinks his cousin might be the killer but wonders if he is just angry that his cousin has received every advantage in life. Both Bacon and Clarady return to the same group of suspects several times. They are stumped with this case and finally decide they must determine who Martin Marprelate is first before determining who killed the writers.

The Marprelate Controversy actually happened. In the author's Afterward she wrote that the Puritans wanted to replace the religious aristocracy of the church with religious democracy. The Crown looked upon that viewpoint as treason but was still never able to figure out Marprelate's identity. Over time 22 people were suggested to be him, but all of them denied it.

5 out of 5 stars!

The Widow's Guild

The third book in Anna Castle's Francis Bacon Mystery series opens with Lady Alice Trumpington, "Trumpet," hastily arranging her marriage to the ill and elderly Ralph Gumery, Viscount Surdeval.  Friends Tom Clarady and Ben Whitt are invited to the wedding but Tom gets a special invitation to stay for the wedding night. Trumpet has plans to provide Surdeval with sons but through Tom. However, as much as Tom desires her, he will not sleep with Trumpet. In the morning they find Surdeval dead in his bed with a cross carved into his chest.  Surdeval's nephew enters the bedroom, sees Tom and Trumpet together, accuses them of murder and they are sent to the Tower. Barrister Francis Bacon's aunt, Lady Elizabeth Russell, hires him on behalf of the widow's guild that she runs, the Andromache Society, to defend Trumpet. Bacon soon learns that there are two other victims, all lords who were nominal Catholics and had crosses carved into their chests, and that their private chapels were robbed on the night of their deaths. He must determine why and how these lords were killed and whether the robberies are connected to the deaths.

I am enjoying reading this series with its well developed characters and information on the English legal system. With character Francis Bacon taking the lead in this novel, the reader learns how barristers are educated, the law on widows benefits, the selling of wardships, and who can be tortured for being Catholic.  Trumpet is an interesting character. She occasionally dresses as a male in order to publicly meet with friends Tom Clarady and Ben Whitt. In prior books she dressed as a man in order to attend law school with them. As a woman in Elizabethan England she was prohibited from attending school but almost finished her education before she got caught. I admire her spunk. She doesn't want to be married so she chooses an elderly, rich man as a husband with the plan that he will die soon after the marriage leaving her a wealthy widow who can live however she desires.

The Widow's Guild is a fabulous installment in the Francis Bacon series. I rate it 5 out of 5 stars.

Death by Disputation

Death by Disputation is the second novel in the Francis Bacon Mystery series by Anna Castle. It is 1587 and Francis Bacon is a fairly new barrister at Gray's Inn when he hires college boy Thomas Claraday to determine who the front man is for the Puritans at Cambridge University. Claraday transfers to Corpus Christi College at Cambridge to finish his bachelor's degree while he conducts his investigation. However, soon after his arrival he finds his tutor Bartholomew Leeds dead, hanging from the roof beam of their sleeping loft. Leeds' apparent suicide is quickly deemed a murder. Claraday then is also tasked with finding Leeds' killer.

As with the first book in the series, Murder by Misrule, the author has followed the mystery formula perfectly. The murder occurred early in the book, in fact on the first page, leaving the remainder of the book for solving the crime. Both the clues and red herrings also began on the first page and continued throughout the story to keep the reader interested. The book is written more like a straight mystery that just happens to occur in medieval times. It is not written in the style of a historical mystery.

Tom Claraday, the main character, gets himself into plenty of scrapes to keep the reader on their toes. He is a likable character who tries to fit in with his classmates all while he conducts an affair with his headmaster's wife, Margaret Eggerley. His initial suspect is Christopher Marlowe, a classmate who was asleep in a drunken stupor in the loft when Tom found the body. Tom cannot figure out whether Marlowe is with or against the Puritans and his suspected homosexuality connects him to Leeds, another suspected homosexual. Francis Bacon is not featured much in this installment of the series. It is really all about Tom, although Tom is required to write Bacon daily with his progress notes on the investigation. This is a little odd given that the series is called a Francis Bacon Mystery.

The historical aspect of the story was written well. The writing was done in contemporary English so the reader can get through the book quickly. The characters and descriptions were definitely Elizabethan and a few Elizabethan words were added to contribute to the mood.

Death by Disputation is an engrossing historical mystery and I highly recommend it.