all your Reads in Here

I've read the second, and now the third Lady Sherlock mystery by Sherry Thomas. I'm afraid I'm just not the right audience for these books, although I'm a big fan of the original Sherlock Holmes stories and some of the pastiches. I found The Hollow of Fear difficult to follow at times, and I'm not as in love with Charlotte Holmes as many readers are. As I said, though, I think I'm not the right audience. When Charlotte Holmes helps her half-brother escape from men who are after him, she senses there is a plot in motion. Her sister, Livia, is an unwitting pawn. Livia annually visits Mrs. Newell, a distant relative. When the cisterns fail at Mrs. Newell's house, all her guests move to Lord Ingram's estate, Stern Hollow. Livia is aware that all society speculates about Charlotte's friendship with Lord Ingram, guessing that it's more than friendship. Then Livia, along with two of the worst gossips in London, find Lady Ingram's body in the estate...

Diane Freeman's debut Countess of Harleigh mystery, A Lady's Guide to Etiquette and Murder , was enchanting. It's a suspenseful story with appealing characters, and a courageous amateur sleuth. Actually, it was just fun. Frances Price was a commoner, an American who brought one million dollars to her marriage into the Wynn family. But, her husband, Reggie, wasn't at all what she expected. He really was a philandering cad.  Bed-hopping may be a sport of the aristocracy in Victorian England, but the American-born Countess of Harleigh is still horrified when her husband’s lover reports that Reggie is dead in her bed.  Reggie's death does free his widow to live her own life. After a year of mourning, she rents a house in London,despite the wishes of her brother-in-law. Frances sponsors her sister, Lily, for a Season. And the police receive an anonymous note that accuses her of murdering her husband. In the midst of all this, Frances also suspects that one of her sister’...