A Ghastly Catastrophe by Deanna Raybourn

March 03, 2026

A Ghastly Catastrophe is Deanna Raybourn’s tenth Veronica Speedwell mystery. If you haven’t started this Victorian mystery series, you definitely need to start with A Curious Beginning. Like any series, some are better than others. If you read the...

A Beautiful Blue Death by Charles Finch

December 09, 2025

I’m glad Aubrey Hamilton talked me into reading Charles Finch’s first Charles Lenox mystery, A Beautiful Blue Death. It was a finalist for the 2007 Agatha Award for Best First Novel. I had read a recent one in the series, but I never started at the...

The Naming of the Birds by Paraic O’Donnell

January 05, 2025

The Naming of the Birds, Paraic O’Donnell’s sequel to The House of Vesper Sands, hooked me from the beginning. I will say, though, that Inspector Henry Cutter was a little too pedantic for my taste. Although I read almost all of his lengthy lectures, I...

The Innocents by Bridget Walsh

March 27, 2024

Anyone who enjoyed Bridget Walsh’s first Variety Palace Mystery, The Tumbling Girl, will want to return to Victorian England for the second historical mystery, The Innocents. Readers really should pick up the first book before this one, though, with the return...

A Grave Robbery by Deanna Raybourn

March 12, 2024

Deanna Raybourn’s A Grave Robbery, the ninth Veronica Speedwell mystery, might be my favorite in the series. There’s a compelling storyline. The banter between Veronica and Stoker is witty as always. And, there are several new characters introduced, as...