Murder at the Elms by Alyssa Maxwell
Published by: Kensington Publishing Corporation
Publication Date: August 22nd, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
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The official patter:
"For fans of HBO's The Gilded Age, the glorious mansions of Newport house many mysteries - murder, theft, scandal - and no one is more adept at solving them than reporter Emma Andrews...
1901: Back from their honeymoon in Italy, Emma and Derrick are adapting to married life as they return to their duties at their jointly owned newspaper, the Newport Messenger. The Elms, coal baron Edward Berwind's newly completed Bellevue Avenue estate, is newsworthy for two reasons: A modern mansion for the new century, it is one of the first homes in America to be wired for electricity with no backup power system, generated by coal from Berwind's own mines. And their servants - with a single exception - have all gone on strike to protest their working conditions. Summarily dismissing and replacing his staff with cool and callous efficiency, Berwind throws a grand party to showcase the marvels of his new "cottage."
Emma and Derrick are invited to the fete, which culminates not only in a fabulous musicale but an unforeseen tragedy--a chambermaid is found dead in the coal tunnel. In short order, it is also discovered that a guest's diamond necklace is missing and a laborer has disappeared.
Detective Jesse Whyte entreats Emma and Derrick to help with the investigation and determine whether the murdered maid and stolen necklace are connected. As the dark deeds cast a shadow over the blazing mansion, it's up to Emma to shine a light on the culprit..."
I've been dreaming of spending the waning days of summer in Newport...
The Case of the Dead Domestic by Tam May
Published by: Dreambook Press
Publication Date: August 22nd, 2023
Format: Kindle, 221 Pages
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The official patter:
"A lady's maid is getting too big for her britches. But does that justify murder?
Everyone agreed: Arabella Parnell thought far too highly of herself. She worked her way up from scullery maid to lady's maid for one of Arrojo's finest families and personal friends of the mayor. She wrote letters to her former employer as if they were comrades. She flirted with some of the most prominent young men in the county.
So the Arrojo police were hardly surprised when they find her dead among the shrubbery in a wealthy bachelor's conservatory.
And yet, amateur sleuth and suffragist Adele Gossling can't help but wonder: Who was Arabella Parnell? Was she just a servant with arrogant manners and too much self-assurance? Or was she the victim of the pride and passions of powerful men, one of whom did her in? With only a hair comb, a broach, and a candlestick to go on, can Adele solve this case?
Read how Adele and her psychic friend Nin unravel a shocking and twisted case inspired by a real-life early 20th-century unsolved crime!
Enjoy the sixth book of this series featuring the sleuth with, as one reviewer puts it, "a wonderful mixture of sassiness and sensitivity.""
I don't know how I've missed this series until now, but thankfully I've found it and already got the first book!
Knockout by Sarah MacLean
Published by: Avon Books
Publication Date: August 22nd, 2023
Format: Paperback, 416 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"New York Times bestselling author Sarah MacLean returns with the next Hell's Belles novel about a chaotic bluestocking and the buttoned-up detective enlisted to keep her out of trouble (spoiler: She is the trouble).
With her headful of wild curls and wilder ideas and an unabashed love of experiments and explosives, society has labeled Lady Imogen Loveless peculiar...and doesn't know she's one of the Hell's Belles - a group of vigilantes operating outside the notice of most of London.
Thomas Peck is not most of London. The brilliant detective fought his way off the streets and into a promising career through sheer force of will and a keen ability to see things others miss, like the fact that Imogen isn't peculiar...she's pandemonium. If you ask him, she requires a keeper. When her powerful family discovers her late-night activities, they couldn't agree more...and they know just the man for the task.
Thomas wants nothing to do with guarding Imogen. He is a grown man with a proper job and no time for the lady's incendiary chaos, no matter how lushly it is packaged. But some assignments are too explosive to pass up, and the gruff detective is soon caught up in Imogen's world, full of her bold smiles and burning secrets...and a fiery passion that threatens to consume them both."
One day Avon will approve my ARC requests... Until that day I have to wait like everyone else for the new Sarah MacLean books....
Miss Morton and the Spirits of the Underworld by Catherine Lloyd
Published by: Kensington Publishing Corporation
Publication Date: August 22nd, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"Set against the timelessly intriguing backdrop of 1830s high-society London, this delightful historical mystery series features Miss Caroline Morton, daughter of a disgraced earl, now gainfully employed as a lady's companion - along with a sideline in sleuthing...
Lady Caroline is happy to be back amid the swirl of London society, guiding her employer's daughter, Dorothy Frogerton, through her first Season. Dorothy has been declared "an original" by a patron of the exclusive social club, Almack's, and is sifting through potential suitors. Mrs. Frogerton, meanwhile, finds her own diversions, including spiritualist gatherings at the home of Madam Lavinia, and begs Caroline to come along.
Caroline is skeptical of Madam's antics and faux French accent - until she slips a note into Caroline's hand, which contains intimate family knowledge. Even as Caroline tries to discern whether the spiritualist's powers are real, a much darker mystery presents itself. Madam Lavinia is found lifeless in her chair, a half-empty glass of port at her elbow. In her desk is a note addressed to Caroline, entreating her to find her murderer.
Caroline needs no psychic abilities to determine a motive, for it seems that Madam was blackmailing some of her clients and has left a trail of aggrieved aristocrats behind. But as Caroline and Mrs. Frogerton investigate further, they find other suspects, and a litany of deceptions, some very close to home. Now Caroline will need to keep all her wits about her if she is to stop others from joining Madam Lavinia in the afterlife..."
Oh yes, a dead dubious psychic!
Strange Unearthly Things by Kelly Creagh
Published by: Viking Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: August 22nd, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"A hauntingly romantic paranormal Jane Eyre reimagining, by the author of Phantom Heart!
Eighteen-year-old Jane Reye is a psychic artist. She draws what she sees, and what she sees are spirits and the supernatural. Growing up orphaned, she's now of legal age and can no longer return to the girls' school she's called home for most of her life. Lost and alone after the death of her lifelong friend, she receives an invitation to partake in a study at the English manor Fairfax Hall: an investigation of the property that requires her specific area of expertise. Upon arrival, Jane understands this will be no ordinary study when she meets Elias Thornfield, the elusive proprietor of the estate, a boy her age, roguishly handsome, who dons a mysterious eye patch. During the study it becomes clear that something is amiss - something having to do with Elias and the spiritual activity taking place around the manor. Turning to her art to unravel the mystery, Jane is shocked to find that her talents - and her growing affection for Elias - could be the key to saving him from a horrible fate."
Oh yes, not just Jane Eyre, but one with a haunted house and the more artistic version of automatic writing!
Foxglove by Adalyn Grace
Published by: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: August 22nd, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 464 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"The captivating sequel to the New York Times bestselling, Gothic-infused Belladonna, in which Signa and Death face a supernatural foe determined to tear them apart.
A duke has been murdered. The lord of Thorn Grove has been framed. And Fate, the elusive brother of Death, has taken up residence in a sumptuous palace nearby. He's hell-bent on revenge after Death took the life of the woman he loved many years ago...and now he's determined to have Signa for himself, no matter the cost.
Signa and her cousin Blythe are certain that Fate can save Elijah Hawthorne from wrongful imprisonment if the girls will entertain Fate's presence. But the more time they spend with him, the more frightening their reality becomes as Signa exhibits dramatic new powers that link her to Fate's past. With mysteries and danger around every corner, the cousins must decide whom they can trust as they navigate their futures in high society, unravel the murders that haunt their family, and play Fate's unexpected games - all with their destinies hanging in the balance.
Daring, suspenseful, and seductive, this sequel to Death and Signa's story is as utterly romantic as it is perfectly deadly."
Damn, I can't wait to read this.
If you are looking for something to fill the gaping hole left between seasons of The Gilded Age this isn't where you should be looking. And yes, a lot of it just falls on the scope scale. The Gilded Age has a budget of roughly $15 million an episode and this, this did not. The average Hallmark movie has a budget around $2 million. So you can see there's a steep divide. And I went into this with an open mind. I knew to lower my expectations. That this was just the first movie adapting Alyssa Maxwell's Newport books and I should enjoy this delightful series getting exposure, but so many WTF moments kept pulling me out of the narrative. Which means let's talk letterpress. Our heroine, Emma Vanderbilt-Cross, works at a newspaper. Newspapers in 1895 means letterpress. But just slapping a press in a room with a cabinet does not a proper newspaper make. The entire newspaper seems to be run out of one office with an old guy in the corner with a small platen press... Which is actually impossible given the printed newspaper we are shown. Also don't get me started on how slow he sets the type. Did the writers of this know there used to be competitions among newspapers to see who had the fastest typesetters? Because our friend here would come in last. But the vagaries and lack of knowledge regarding printing is, in my experience, quite common. Don't get me started on the Heidelberg Windmill fiasco in Without a Clue! So let's tackle those issues that other people might actually notice. Just look to the inferior fabrics that the dresses are made of. Seriously, is that poor girl wearing a repurposed eighties prom dress for her coming out? And I mean 1980s not 1880s. It's sure pink and shiny enough. Molly Ringwald would approve. Also the costumes are all so ill-fitting and could they just stop randomly adding lace to cover up imperfections. I'd rather see the imperfections than that much lace. But the biggest sin of all is that this was filmed in Canada. "The Breakers" was previously home to Charles Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. And yes, that at least means it's opulent enough, but it's not Newport enough. The thing is we're dealing with two different coasts and therefore two very different architectural styles. Newport is very gilded, as the title of it's most famous show indicates. The rooms in the homes look like they belong in museums with all that gilt. Whereas Vancouver Island, home to Hatley Castle, is all western lumber and oil barron wealth, so the look leans more towards wood with an occasional node to the arts and crafts movement when not just showcasing the lumber. In other words, nothing like the actual homes in Newport. And I just could not suspend my disbelief. You're probably saying, yes, we get it, the production quality annoyed you, what about the plot? Well, our heroine is too dumb to live. She never stays around to listen to people's answers and just hares off. She spent days looking for the servant Mason and she finds him and just wanders off without getting a single answer!?! Um, if you want to write for a newspaper perhaps actually follow through? At least her half brother looks enough like a young Michael Sheen that when she inevitably dies from doing something stupid he can take over the show and I'll be "content" with that.
King Lehr and the Gilded Age: With Extracts from the Locked Diary of Harry Lehr by Lady Decies and Elizabeth Drexel Lehr
Murder at Beechwood by Alyssa Maxwell
The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter
Night of a Thousand Stars by Deanna Raybourn
Murder at Marble House by Alyssa Maxwell
The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher by Hilary Mantel
The Penguin Book of Witches by Katherine Howe
