Twenty-One Days by Anne Perry

Twenty-One Days: A Daniel Pitt Novel by Anne Perry --- 303 pages

Best selling historical mystery writer Anne Perry is best known for her two mystery series set in Victorian England, the William Monk mysteries and the Thomas and Charlotte Pitt mysteries.   After thirty-two books appearing over  almost forty years, the Pitts made their final, triumphant appearance in Murder on the Serpentine (2017), in which Pitt, head of Britain's Special Branch, is knighted by Queen Victoria for his services to Crown and Country.

This year the indefatigable Perry debuts a new series, set ten years on in 1910. The old Queen is dead, and the Edwardian Era is underway. Thomas and Charlotte's son Daniel, is a newly minted barrister starting on the ground floor of one of London's most prominent law practices. We meet Daniel in the throes of defending his first serious criminal case. A former police officer, who once worked for Thomas Pitt and now works as a private inquiry agent, stands accused of murdering a man who owed him a substantial sum of money. All the evidence seems to point to Roman Blackwell's guilt, and one witness, Oscar Park, has been particularly damaging in his testimony.

Acting on a hunch, Daniel enlists the help of an expert witness to prove his client's innocence.  And just in time, for he is urgently summoned to assist in another, much more serious case in which a writer of salacious biographies of the rich and/or powerful stands accused of the murder of his wife and the disfigurement of her corpse. Russell Graves insists he is innocent, but he is an arrogant and abrasive man who does nothing to advance his cause. The jury finds him guilty, and he i sentenced to be hanged in just twenty-one days --- unless his lawyers can find legal grounds or new evidence to mount an appeal.

The more Daniel has to do with Graves, the more he dislikes the man; his sympathies are all for the victim, Graves' wife Ebony, and two surviving children, Sarah and Arthur. Graves insists that he's been framed by powerful enemies seeking to derail the publication of his new book, in which he claims to expose corruption and abuse of power at the highest levels of government.

Daniel discovers that Graves' book defames the character of two people close to his family, as well as his own father, Sir Thomas; and destroys the reputation of Special Branch. Daniel also learns that Graves physically abused his wife, children and servants for years. He's sorely tempted to let Graves hang but --- he's not convinced that Graves is guilty of murdering his wife. Can Daniel prevent Graves from hanging for a murder he did not commit, yet make sure he's punished for his actual crimes --- and guarantee that his malicious book never sees the light of day?

Click HERE to see the review from Publishers Weekly.

Click HERE to see the review from Kirkus Reviews.

The Waters of Eternal Youth by Donna Leon

The Waters of Eternal Youth: A Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery by Donna Leon ---292 pages

This is Leon's 25th Guido Brunetti mystery, and it is as beguiling as every other book in this popular series set in Venice. We begin with Guido and his wife Paola sitting through a magnficent dinner party hosted by Paola's aristocratic parents for their friend, the Contessa Lando-Continui, who is trying to woo several wealthy foreigners to contribute to her charitable foundation. Guido and Paola are there to provide "local color;" they are "real Venetians" after all. But the Countess also has another reason for including Brunetti. Elderly and increasingly frail, the Contessa wants answers to questions that have remained unanswered for too long.

Fifteen years ago, the Contessa's  then teenage granddaughter, Manuela, fell into a canal and almost drowned. She survived, but suffered irreversible brain damage, and ever since has had the mental capacity of a small child. The man who dived into the canal and pulled her to safety was an alcoholic. He told the police that he saw a man push Manuela into the water. He was the only witness, but he was drunk at the time. And the next morning, when he work up, he could not remember what he had said the night before. Manuela of course was not able to tell the police what happened.  And so the police concluded it was an accident (or perhaps a suicide attempt) and the case was closed.

The Countess however still suspects foul play was involved. She wants Brunetti to look into it quietly and see if he can find new evidence sufficient to reopen the investigation.   Brunetti agrees, reluctantly, to placate an elderly woman. Until he meets Manuela.

Click HERE to read the review from Publishers Weekly.

Click HERE to read the review from Kirkus Reviews.

Click HERE to read the review from Booklist Online.

Click HERE to read the review from the Christian Science Monitor.

Ash by Malinda Lo

Ash by Malinda Lo, 272 pages


A lesbian retelling of Cinderella, Ash is the story of an abused girl who is pursued by a fairy but she ultimately gives her heart to the one woman who showed her kindness. The storytelling is excellent although I was disappointed after being led on that something special was developing between the main character and the male lead only to have the plot twist in the end. I've never been a fan of "pretend to love someone while loving another" type stories, but this book was well written if very sad to me.

Unnatural Habits by Kerry Greenwood

Unnatural Habits; A Phryne Fisher Mystery by Kerry Greenwood --- 288 pages

Kerry Greenwood is the author of a popular series of mystery stories set in her native Australia in ther aftermath of World War I, featuring her amateur sleuth, the Honorable Phryne (rhymes with briney) Fisher.

In this novel, the eighteenth in the series, Phryne rescues a young and impetuous woman reporter from a beating for poking her nose into places where it is not welcome. When the reporter, in hot pursuit of an expose on pregnant young women vanishing from the so-called refuge provided by a convent of nums, mysteriously drops out of sight, Phryne and her "minions" --- the various orphans she's rescued and friends in high and low places she's picked up in the course of her adventures --- go looking for her. Phryne uncovers several different crimes and scandals during her insouciant investigations, but not the whereabouts of the young reporter.

Greenwood's Phryne has been compared to Dorothy Sayers' Harriet Vane, but I would rather compare her to the shallow and silly "noble sleuth" version of Lord Peter Wismey, before he encounters Harriet and becomes a real person. Far more interesting than Phryne or her improbable adventures are the historical descriptions of postWorld War I Australia that Greenwood embeds in her stories.

Leaving Everything Most Loved by Jacqueline Winspear

Leaving Everything Most Loved: A Maisie Dobbs Novel ---339 pages

In 1933, two months after a murdered Indian woman named Usha Pramal was found dumped in the Grand Surrey Canal in Camberwell, the victim's anguished brother arrives in London and retains Maisie Dobbs to investigate the death, since Scotland Yard has made no progress in solving the murder.  Indeed, it appears to Maisie that the police have conducted only the most cursory investigation at all.

But when Maisie begins to look into the matter a second woman --- another Indian woman staying in the same hostel who was friends with Usha --- is murdered in the same way just hours before she was due to meet with Maisie and reveal what she knew about Usha's activities and acquaintances in the weeks before her death.

As part of her investigation Maisie finds herself talking to other Indian immigrants living in London, and becomes more and more attracted to the history, culture and spirituality of India. All of the success she has achieved, the place she has made for herself, and the relationships she has established, though satisfying are not enough any more. She has a hunger to see more, to learn and to stretch herself in new and different directions. And so, as she pursues her case she also pursues an important decision: is it time to leave behind everything she most loves --- to break her heart so that she can open herself to new experiences and possibilities?