#DeathOfANovice #NetGalley
4.5 stars..Love Reverend Mother mysteries and this was not an exception. The ending felt a little bit out of focus to me, however. I think the ending was to segway into the next book, where possibly Patrick the Detective and Eileen McSweeney could solve a mystery together?
The Reverend Mother is shocked to walk into an outbuilding and find that her most promising young novice, Sister Gertrude lying dead. She is even more shocked to learn that her death was of alcohol poisoning although the young nun never had touched liquor. She calls on the two men she relies on most, Dr. Scher and young Inspector Patrick Cashman.
Could there be a link between the I.R.A.'s sabotage of a gunpowder explosion on Spike Island which may connect to Eileen? Was their also a tie to Mary MacSwiney, the educator and Sinn Fein revolutionary, who was giving the young novices Gaelic lessons and involving them in activities?
A wonderful and exciting glimpse into a violent time not so long ago. A favorite series of mine. Thanks NetGalley and Cora Harrison for this ARC.
4.5 stars rounded to 5. Thanks to Susan McDuffie for sharing this very enjoyable ARC with me. Muirteach and Mariota are a very unique couple and this outing proved to be no different. I was a bit disappointed with how readily Muirteach responded romantically to the overtures of what turned out to be the "anti-heroine", but heartened by the ending of the book that reconciliation will occur.
There were a lot of murders and animal maiming which also ultimately were ascribed to this same unpleasant but lovely Ingvalt. Her relationship to the characters involved, revealed at the end was startling, so how she fooled Muirteach with her character was readily seen. Her links to Greenland were very unique and almost unbelievable.
Startling to me was how much credence, right there in Scotland, was given to nobility and how quickly accused underlings were imprisoned and held in terrible conditions. The Lady Ingvelt, married to a nobleman, was given great latitude to continue murdering and maiming until Muirteach confronted her. The ensuing struggle for her to poison and kill took her to her death and almost took Muirteach with her.
A great read and the next one hopefully will see them home with a child. I want to mention Susan McDuffie's very fine historical author's note about these distant places and their connection to Medieval Scotland .Start your reading of this series now.
4.5 stars. There was a lot of activity in the first part of the book as Abby packed her bag more times than I could count to escape from various threats. She was placed by her father Calum with the Earl of Huntly, his nephew actually, to keep her safe from the Count of Damville and to have a marriage made for her.
I am not sure what or why happened to her father's wishes, but she was soon being sent off for a marriage not to her liking. She and Ian MacGregor had been handfasted in a prior ceremony, but as he was traveling incognito as a spy and mercenary, she assumed he was not honoring their marriage.
Somewhere along the way a French female, Claudine, attached herself to her as a friend. Abby's mother had abandoned her father and herself years before so the female attention was welcome.
She and Claudine are taken from Huntly by Damville to her incipient marriage. Ian was also taken prisoner but with Claudine's help she and Ian kill the Count and with her seriously wounded father get back to the Castle.
The ending is fun as she finds that Claudine is actually her mother Marie, and they work through their anger and pain at that abandonment while nursing Calum. The family now being united, Ian and Abby have a ceremonial marriage and presumably are expecting a child. Calum and Marie Claudine are at a different location resuming their relationship
"When Superintendent Tom Harper's wife is threatened during an election campaign, the hunt for the attacker turns personal."
It was an amazing book, with two separate story lines being woven in quite seamlessly. I savored it, and read slowly as I hated for it to end.
It was 1897 in Leeds and women in Leeds had been able to vote in some local elections since 1873. Nationally since 1894, ( per the historian-author Chris Nickson), women were being voted to some local offices.
When the book opens, Annabelle Harper and 6 other female candidates were standing for Poor Law Guardian in Sheepscar, and the campaign was three days old. Opposing parties hoped to have some ambitious young men run for those posts instead.
What will transpire rises far above politics and becomes life threatening, even life ending. Bombings of rallies, personal threatening letters, physical attacks and more became the order of the day. The continual violence and threats consumed the entire police department, especially Tom Harper as Superintendent, as his wife was particularly targeted and his young daughter briefly abducted.
The "calling cards" of the perpetrator were excerpts of folk songs about death to women. An expert, Frank Kidson, who was consulted about the folk songs was an actual person.
The second story line or dual mystery added a very interesting dimension to the book, in the person of Billy Reed, formerly assistant to Harper. He is now head inspector at the police department in Whitby,on the coast.
Smuggling has come to his attention with the appearance of "Terrier John" a Leeds character with contacts still there. He collaborates long distance and successfully with Harper about a Leeds connection, adding dimension to this tale.
Chris Nickson is an amazingly skillful author with a love of Leeds,its varied and deep history,and demonstrates it with each book he writes. Highly recommended. Thanks to NetGalley and Severn House for this ARC
"In turn-of-the-century New York City midwife Sarah Brandt is again helping police Detective Sergeant Frank Malloy. This time, an arsonist is presumed to have murdered a wealthy industrialist in an explosion."
5 stars and down to just a two books of this series. One is available to me on digital loan and one is not out yet. I am hoping the publisher lets me have it and have messaged them.
Book #6 has a lot going for it, Sarah and Frank end up closer than they were and it is quite an unusual sequence of events. It begins when Teddy Roosevelt, Police Commissioner, contacts Malloy to investigate a murder committed with a bomb on a wealthy society member.
The victim, well known to known to the Deckers and is assumed to be "Anarchists" that committed the murder because a bomb was used. The son of the victim, Creighton Van Dyke, had left his father's home and his employ, because of serious philosophical class differences.
In fact he was currently living in a common law relationship with Katya, an immigrant who had ties to this criminal element.One murder led to another but happily eventually it resolves that the deceased died partly because of their own efforts or actions.
Sarah's parents both get involved in this situation and give advice and seem to begin to approve of Frank and Sarah's budding relationship with him. Additionally in this happier ending Frank's little boy Brian is to attend school for the deaf and Sarah and little "Aggie" will be visiting him at his home.
A very fine read and a strong historical precedent for this type of murder
5 Stars - "The Reverend Mother receives a decidedly gruesome gift in this compelling Irish historical mystery"
Big thanks to Cora Harrison for writing this mystery, and NetGalley for sending it to me. The Reverend Mother series are great as are all of her Irish mysteries. I have a second one I will be starting also in the Reverend Mother series ( so excited). I am Irish and the age of the Reverend Mother and her cousin Lucy so I particularly love this series.
This one is a generational saga with this murder, and subsequent murders, not revealed until the last few pages. A tradesman who many felt was "uppity", because he had amassed so much money and built a large house in an exclusive area, is murdered. Henry Mulcahy was not well loved, but his housemaid and nurse Bridie was beloved of the sisters at the convent. Bridie and Mrs. Mulcahy are also eventually victims of the cover-up of this crime.
Not only was Mulcahy "of the skins" murdered, but his decaying for 3 days body was delivered in a trunk to the Reverend Mother. It was said to contain schoolbooks but actually contained Mr Mulcahy packed in some gruesome exhibits of his trade.
Reverend Mother Aquinas' cousin Lucy who had been at an auction, bid on the trunk and sent it to her. The nuns of St. Mary's Isle have a school for poor children at that location and a religious community had been there since ancient days.
Figuring in this episode also are several young adult protégés of the Reverend Mother, Eileen MacSweeney and Patrick the Constable. Adding to this is that several of Mulcahy's children, he has 13, as well as Eileen, are Republican Army sympathisers. This is the cusp of Ireland's partition.
My review will be on my Blog and at NetGalley for the May Publication date, but also is written here.
From the Publisher "It’s not every day that you’re summoned to the Italian countryside on business, so when archaeologist Angelo Morelli asks for Ruth Galloway’s help identifying bones found in the tiny hilltop town of Fontana Liri, she jumps at the chance to go, bringing her daughter along with her for a working vacation. Upon arriving, she begins to hear murmurs of Fontana Liri’s strong resistance movement during World War II and senses the townspeople are dancing around a deeply buried secret. But how could that be connected to the ancient remains she’s been studying?
Ruth is just beginning to get her footing in the dig when she’s thrown off-guard by the appearance of DCI Nelson. And when Ruth’s findings lead them to a modern-day murder, their holidays are both turned upside down, and they race to find out what darkness is lurking in this seemingly picturesque town."
I came upon Elly Griffiths' novels fairly recently but have devoured the Ruth Galloway series (although not in sequence- that is for later rereads). I have an Anthropology graduate
degree so I love the prehistory and examination of relics aspect of Ruth's career. I also very much enjoy how she is "seconded " to the local Major Crimes unit and meets DCI Harry Nelson, her polar opposite.
Ruth has a diverse group of friends and associates and is the most educated person in her small family of origin. Their distinctiveness is a reflection of her life choices and where they intersect with others. She lives in a small cottage on the Norfolk marsh land with two cats but also is a noted forensic Archaeologist.
Fast forwarding to Book #10
How then did Ruth, fortyish and plump, meet and have a child with DCI Harry Nelson? You will need to start on this amazingly well done series and find out.
Kate is now in school and quite advanced for her age, knows "Nelson" is her father, and he shares parts of her life. Why then is Harry Nelson still living with his glamorous wife and his two almost grown daughters? Life is complicated sometimes.
Ruth, as an internationally known forensics expert in bones, is invited to Italy by a former colleague. Nelson is self invited when he reads of an earthquake in the small mountain town in Italy and brings Cathbad with him and he rushes to check on Ruth and Kate.
How this tale ends is both mystifying and a bit terrifying, as a good mystery should be.
"A wounded soldier and a rector's daughter discover strange goings-on in the sleepy village of Kurland St. Mary in Catherine Lloyd's charming Regency-set mystery debut."
My first Kurland St. Mary Mystery was a fun read with some intricate details to the plot. The two main characters, Lucy Harrington and Major Robert Kurland both seem to be oblivious to their growing affection. There were two more book excerpts attached, and in those also they are close to one another while avoiding an emotional attachment.
Violence is done by a close associate of the Major, without his awareness, to both Miss Lucy Harrington and one of her household. Mary a long time maid was murdered and hidden in a crypt and Lucy came close to sharing her fate.
Lucy's family entanglements hinder any social life, as she has been her father's housekeeper and caregiver for her twin brothers for eight years. Major Kurland comes home seriously wounded from Waterloo with an entourage who barely protected him.
Their ability to share details of events in this small village and help others makes a very readable storyline. I intend to get book two right away.
