Review: Murder On Cold Street by Sherry Thomas

 

 

I don't like reading series books out of order, but when your book group reads a book further along in the series than you've gotten, you either read through them all in advance to catch up (nope) or you learn things you shouldn't know yet.

It's actually ok, since I read the first book, A Study In Scarlet Women quite awhile ago now, and I did not recall much from that story when reading the newer one.

So book five in the series, Charlotte Holmes continues the ruse of acting on behalf of her "brother" Sherlock Holmes as an assistant to him solving cases.  I don't think many would be fooled by the incredibly ill master detective who can't talk to clients himself, but he hears and sees them from an adjoining room when they come to consult with him.

Inspector Treadles, who knows the secret, was found in a locked room in an abandoned house with two dead men on the floor.  Police had to break down the door to get to him, and he's under arrest for their murder, and will almost certainly hang for the crime.

He will say nothing to anyone, but will allow Charlotte to do what she can to free him without giving her anything to go on either.

Assisted by her old friend Lord Ingram, Mrs. Watson, and the Inspector's wife, Charlotte attempts to solve a complex case with time running out and little to go on.

Charlotte is an interesting character, rather eccentric in her dress and her sense of mores.  She is very hands on and examines every crime scene, interrogating suspects with a bit of a heavy hand sometimes, knowing that others such as Lord Ingram and Mrs. Watson will smooth the way later.

Review: The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner

 

Nella is an apothecary in 1791 London. Long ago, she took over her mother's apothecary business.  

While her mother was purely a healer, Nella's own path has led her to be a dispenser of poisons. She sells these only to women who are in dire need.  Her shop is well hidden in a back alley.  Where the front of her mother's shop used to be, there's only an empty room with a grain barrel in which the desperate place a letter asking for help.

Each customer is entered in her register, name, prescription and amount, and who the medicine is for.  Nella feels she is preserving the lives of the women who come to her who would otherwise be nameless in history.

One day she receives a curious note in tidy hand requesting her services.  Something about the note causes her to worry and be cautious. 

The next day, twelve year old Eliza, a household servant, comes to collect the poison.  She admits she wrote the note and is getting the medicine for her mistress and herself.  Completely self-possessed, she answers Nella's questions and listens to her instructions for administering the poison, which she will do herself.

From Eliza's chapters, we learn the truth of her situation, and how though the poison was successful, things fall apart at the manor with the demise of the master of the house.  Left on her own while the mistress retires to a country estate, Eliza goes to Nella's and asks to stay there and learn something of the apothecary business while her mistress is away.

Nella, horrified, sees what the dispensing of poisons has done to her own body and soul, and refuses.  Though she tries to push Eliza away, the child becomes involved with Nella's next customer, to the ruination of all of them.

In the present day, Caroline is on vacation alone in London unexpectedly. She was to celebrate her tenth anniversary with her husband on this trip.  Learning that he's been having an affair with a co-worker shatters all she was hoping for and she comes to London alone and to sort things out.

On a mudlarking expedition with a chance group of people, she finds an apothecary jar in the mud with an etching of a bear on it.  Trying to re-connect with the student of history she once was, and keep her mind busy, she researches the jar and tries to find its history with the help of a new friend at the British Library.

Through Caroline's research we find out what happened to Nella and Eliza in the past. Her own story echoes that of many of the women in the apothecary's register.

I loved the parts of the story in old London. Nella and Eliza are so wonderful together despite Nella's reluctance to let Eliza into her life.

Things are messier in the present day, and while I wished Caroline well, I was ready to hear more about Nella and Eliza.

https://www.sarahpenner.com/

Cold Blooded Myrtle (Myrtle Hardcastle Mystery #3) by Elizabeth C. Bunce

 

The third Myrtle Hardcastle mystery takes place at Christmas time in the small village of Swinburne. 

Part of the festivities in the town at this time of year revolve around a yearly Display of the town in miniature, crafted by the owner of Leighton's Mercantile.  Everyone dreams of the Display and the important events of the town the previous year depicted in the shop window.

This year, the owner is late opening the curtain on his work of art.  His wife bustles into the shop, however, and draws the curtain before looking for her husband. 

Everything is perfect in it's detail, as always, except none of the expected events are depicted.  Instead, the focus is on the unexpected inclusion of a nearby college campus.  At the center of that is the campanile, a bell tower, with a crowd of people at its base.  Near them is a black painted well, and some olives.

There's a scream just then from within the shop, and a gasp of horror from within the crowd itself.

Inside the store, Mr. Leighton is dead.  He's been made to drink hemlock. He sits bolt upright in his chair, staring.

Thus begins the unraveling of a mystery from the town's past. A young girl fell from the bell tower but was never found.  It seems several prominent people in the past, including Myrtle's own beloved mother, may have been involved somehow in the disappearance of Olive Blackwell.

Myrtle and Miss Judson have their work cut out for them this time, trying to piece together past and present, and hoping to prevent more murders, which inevitably come to Swinburne.

It's one thing to investigate murder among strangers, but when you know all of the suspects well, it's a difficult task.  

Next year's Myrtle book is revealed on the last page:  In Myrtle Peril.