A Romance Begins in Bombay Before WWI

 

It’s New Year’s Eve 1913 and Maddy Bright wants to be back in England. She can’t get used to the sweltering heat in India and thinks only about what she’s missing back home. Then she meets Luke Devereaux. He shows her Bombay and she begins to love the beautiful, unique countryside. They fall in love and are desperate to marry.

It’s a suitable match, but Maddy’s mother, Alice, prefers Guy Bowen. However, Maddy has her way and on the eve of Luke having to leave to fight in WWI they are married and promise each other to meet again in Bombay when the fighting is over.

However, the war years are more difficult then they could foresee. They both experience the horrors of war although continents apart. When the war is finally over, Luke has injuries that prevent him from returning to Bombay. Maddy wants to wait for him, but life must move on and their love story takes an unusual twist.

This is a beautifully written love story. At the beginning you think it will be predictable, but the story twists and unexpected events change the course Luke and Maddy had planned for their lives. I found the book romantic, sad, and in the end very satisfying.

Ashcroft writes wonderful description. You can smell the bazaars and see the vivid sites of colonial Bombay. If you enjoy a love story that is not predictable, you’ll like this book.

I received this book from St. Martin’s Press for this review.

A New Heroine for Lisa Gardner

Frankie Elkin, white, middle-aged, and a recovering alcoholic, has a unique occupation. As a civilian she looks for missing people. These are cold cases or cases where the police have given up looking. She has been remarkably successful finding the last sixteen people she looked for. The problem is these people were all dead. She’d like to recover someone living.

Her latest case brings her to Mattapan, a suburb of Boston populated primarily by Haitians. This is a neighborhood where she stands out and many of the residents are not happy about her or the fact that she’s looking for the missing girl.

Angelique Badeau is a teenager who disappeared after leaving her high school. There are no clues and the police have stopped looking. She was an intelligent girl who hoped to go to college. Frankie comes to be trusted by Angelique’s mother and brother. When another girl, a close friend of Angelique’s, is found dead, even the police are glad of Frankie’s help.

As with other Gardener books, this one has plenty of action. Frankie is a good heroine. She keeps on with her quest even when it might mean her own death. I enjoyed that part of the book. However, the book starts with an extended nightmare which is a bit off-putting. I also found the constant attention paid to the race of the characters a bit too much.

However, on the positive side, the minor characters were well portrayed. I’d like to see more of them. I particularly loved the crazy cat Frankie shared the apartment with.

I received this book from Penguin Random House for this review.

The Crisis of Edward VIII’s Abdication

 

Prior to WWII the world was in turmoil. This was accentuated in Great Britain by the love affair between Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson. This book presents the history political as well as societal, along with new information that gives a clear view of the turbulent time.

Edward is presented as a self-absorbed man who put his desires ahead of the good of the country. The author clearly believes that in spite of Edward’s younger brother, George, being a reluctant king, the country was the winner. Wallis Simpson is presented as pragmatic and cold. It isn’t clear that she was ever in love with Edward although he was infatuated with her. She even tried to break it off at one point.

The scenes of Wallis’ divorce are worth the price of the book. The political and personal machinations that went into that episode are incredible. The assassination attempt on Edward is also fascinating reading.

This book is filled with historical detail and could have been dull, but the author did an excellent job bringing the characters to life and moving the story at a quick pace. It was almost like reading fiction.

If you’re fascinated by the tumultuous times before WWII, this is a must read.

I received this book from St. Martin’s Press for this review.

Fox Hunting Mixed with Murder and Art Theft

 

It’s the end of fox hunting season, and Sister Jane, Master of the Jefferson Hunt, is preparing for closing the season. However, things are never dull for Sister Jane and her friends. Soon high dollar paintings by Alfred Munnings are stolen. Although Munnings painted many horse related paintings, the ones stolen are all of ladies riding sidesaddle.

Murder enters the mix when one of the owners of a Munnings painting is killed. This is followed by more murders as the police and private investigators try to locate the stolen paintings. The Covid virus also makes an appearance along with protesters who are against fox hunting even though they don’t understand it.

I always find the Sister Jane novels delightful. The fox hunting scenes are so well written you feel you’re there on a horse. The animals both foxes and horses not to mention the dogs make the story come to life.

The mystery is not the focus of the story. Sister tries to do some sleuthing but it’s not the main part of the story. I did enjoy the history surrounding Alfred Munnings and his art. The only negative is that there are a great many characters. If you follow the series, this isn’t a problem, but new readers may find it challenging to remember who everyone is.

I particularly enjoyed the discussions between Sister and her friends about the environment and how to preserve rural areas. If you love animals and rural life, you’ll enjoy this book.

I received this book from Random House for this review.

Learning and Coping on a Hiking Trip

 

Olivia and Melanie Greene lost their parents ten years ago in a fatal auto accident when the girls were on a hiking trip. Each sister has coped with the loss in their own way. Olivia buried herself in law school, work and a materialistic life style. Melanie went to the other extreme dropping out of college and pursuing a spiritual experience crafted from many sources including Christianity.

In an effort to bridge the gap between them, Melanie convinces Olivia to go on a hiking trip in the Porcupine Mountains in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Once committed, each sister is not quite sure why they’re doing this.

The author did an excellent job portraying the differences between the sisters. Melanie is a little disorganized while Olivia is controlling and has planned the trip in minute detail. The contrast makes for fascinating reading as the sisters face unexpected dangers and deviations from Olivia’s carefully laid out schedule.

If you’ve even gone camping, you can relate to the problems faced on the trail. Sometimes it seems that whatever can go wrong will. Camping makes you realize that there’s only one way forward. You learn from your mistakes and move on. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the way the sisters coped with their surprises. I highly recommend this book. It’s an excellent character study.

I received this book from NetGalley for this review.

A 1919 Wedding and a Con

 It’s 1919 and the war is over. Gideon’s friend, Captain Logan Carstens, is back from France. He’s engaged to Rosemary, a society beauty, and it should be a happy time, but Logan fell in love with Noelle, a French girl. He won’t dishonor Rosemary by breaking the engagement, but he’s miserable pining for Noelle.

On a happier note, Elizabeth and Gideon are planning their wedding. This is difficult for Elizabeth. She’s not a society girl and much as she loves Gideon planning a wedding is proving a burden. It’s especially difficult because the engagement can’t be announced. Elizabeth is afraid the thug Ocsar Thornton, who she had conned and who believed her dead, will find her and try to exact revenge.

This is the fourth book in the series that continues the exploits of Elizabeth and Gideon. At first they seemed an ill-matched couple. She’s the daughter of a successful conman. He’s a lawyer who won’t lie. During the series they have come to respect each other’s background. Elizabeth is trying to reform her desire to perform a con in a good cause. Gideon is learning that justice is far from black and white.

The book is peopled with a wonderful set of characters from Elizabeth’s family to Logan Carstens, the reluctant bridegroom, and his somewhat vicious society fiancée. The cons are great fun. You can’t help rooting for the schemes to succeed.

The author has done a considerable amount of research to bring the period to life not just in the descriptions of the background but in the manners of the characters. If you enjoy historical fiction. This is a good one.

I received this book from NetGalley for this review

Mystery and Romance with a Dickensian Background

 

Jackson Forge is a likable, but rather naïve young man. A newly minted police constable, he dreams of cleaning up the criminal elements of Victorian London. On his first day on the job, he suffers a sham robbery used to get money from him. First rob the mark than return the purse for a reward.

Kit Turner is the ringleader of the gang. She’s an orphan who tries to help her neighbors with her ruse to get money. She’s a complex character. Lonely and vulnerable, she tries to hide it beneath a brave and feisty front.

Jackson, who is in some trouble with his superiors for being late to his first briefings as a constable, is given the job of finding a missing cabby. The cabby is Kit’s foster father. Although unwillingly at first they team up to find him. This leads them into a dangerous underworld of cutthroats and thieves.

The background is Victorian England and there is a definitely Dickensian aura. I thought the author did an excellent job of capturing the mood of the time. She obviously did a great deal of research to achieve the effect.

Jackson and Kit are likable characters. Both are strong and have much to learn. Together they make a great team and romance follows.

I received this book from Barbour Publishing for this review.