Crisis at the Cathedral

I have read all 19 of the Dorothy Martin mysteries from Jeanne Dams and was happy to receive a digital ARC for the new book in the series–Crisis at the Cathedral.

I first met Dorothy Martin–an American living in Shrewsbury, England–in The Body in the Transept and Trouble in the Town Hall back in the 1990s, but then life intervened and didn’t have much time for reading.  I re-discovered the series recently through my public library’s Hoopla app and spent several hours enjoying her investigations.  As she often says, she doesn’t look for trouble but often seems to end up in the thick of things anyway.

Much to my surprise, I was unable to get into the new book.  I read the first few chapters, and it took me time to pick the book back up.  The story centers around a missing Muslim couple who disappeared suddenly from Shrewsbury, living their children asleep at the local inn.  The resulting to-and-fro from Shrewsbury to London while Dorothy and crew search was drawn-out and didn’t do much to move the story forward, and the final third of the book strained credibility.

I’m hoping that this is an anomaly and that Dorothy returns to form in her next outing.

 

Lady Helena Investigates

I enjoy discovering new series to read, and think I’ve run across a good one.  Unfortunately, only the first book has been published, but I’m hoping for more.

A young widow in Victorian England is confronted with the untimely death of her husband and a French doctor who is convinced the death was no accident.  Lady Helena has a meddling family and a tragic history in love, but also possesses a stubborn independence that leads her to investigate her family history.  The sixth of seven children, Helena has the unfortunate nickname “Baby”, and is frequently treated as such by her much older siblings.  Helena realizes that, due to her age, she knows little about her parents (her father died when she was 19 and her mother has been slipping into dementia since his death).  As a widow in mourning, her social options are limited, and she begins reading her mother’s journals to re-kindle an interest in herbology and to discover her mother.  Of course, some things are better left in the past.

This is a well-written book with engaging characters (though perhaps Helena didn’t need quite so many older siblings).  I look forward to the promised future books in the series.

I received access to this book from NetGalley.

The Island of the Mad

I’m a fan of Sherlock Holmes and Mary Russell (and of Mary’s biographer, Laurie King), but was disappointed in the last episode (The Murder of Mary Russell), which seemed to me to be very dark. I’m happy to say that the joy has returned in the latest adventure The Island of the Mad.

I received access to a copy from NetGalley on Monday, and finished reading it on Tuesday (luckily for me that I was on spring break and had no pressing obligations that I was ignoring). This is clearly Mary’s investigation and story as Sherlock plays only a supporting role. It was interesting to see some cracks in his stoic facade as he wonders if Mary had any regrets about their marriage.

While the mystery seemed somewhat contrived (and I quickly, unlike Mary, deduced the reason behind Lady Vivian’s madness), I enjoyed the story and the details of Venice during the onset of facism. All in all, a great addition to the Mary Russell canon, and I recommend “The Island of the Mad”.