Feature Post and Book Review: Murder by Lamplight by Patrice McDonough

Book Description

November 1866: The grisly murder site in London’s East End is thronged with onlookers. None of them expect the calmly efficient young woman among them to be a medical doctor, arrived to examine the corpse. Inspector Richard Tennant, overseeing the investigation, at first makes no effort to disguise his skepticism. But Dr. Julia Lewis is accustomed to such condescension . . .
 
To study medicine, Julia had to leave Britain, where universities still bar their doors to women, and travel to America. She returned home to work in her grandfather’s practice—and to find London in the grip of a devastating cholera epidemic. In four years, however, she has seen nothing quite like this—a local clergyman’s body sexually mutilated and displayed in a manner that she—and Tennant—both suspect is personal.
 
Days later, another body is found with links to the first, and Tennant calls in Dr. Lewis again. The murderer begins sending the police taunting letters and tantalizing clues—though the trail leads in multiple directions, from London’s music halls to its grim workhouses and dank sewers. Lewis and Tennant struggle to understand the killer’s dark obsessions and motivations. But there is new urgency, for the doctor’s role appears to have shifted from expert to target. And this killer is no impulsive monster, but a fiendishly calculating opponent, determined to see his plan through to its terrifying conclusion . . .

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/157995356-murder-by-lamplight?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=K3stzdcSXC&rank=1

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My Book Review

RATING: 4 out of 5 Stars

MURDER BY LAMPLIGHT (A Dr. Lewis Mystery Book #!) by Patrice McDonough is an intriguing historical crime mystery that pulls you into a world of poverty and depravity in Victorian London. One of England’s first female physicians and a taciturn Detective Inspector find themselves working together to solve a series of heinous murders. This is the first book in the series and a realistic look at society in 1866.

Dr. Julia Lewis has always wanted to study medicine and become a physician like her father and grandfather, but to achieve that goal she had to travel to relatives in the United States to attend medical college. She returns to live with and practice with her grandfather in Victorian London.

While her grandfather is on another call, Julia responds to the request of the police to study a corpse at a murder scene. Detective Inspector Richard Tennant of Scotland Yard is shocked when a female doctor arrives, but Julia is used to the skepticism and goes on to prove her professionalism with the lurid scene. When another body is found with similar clues, Tennant reaches out to Julia to inspect the body once again. The killer is having a laugh at Tennant and the authorities with written clues and misdirection but when Julia is targeted, there is a new urgency to find this killer.

I loved this introduction to these new well-developed main characters and am very happy this will be a series. Julia is a strong, independent female lead who lives outside the norms of the society of her times and I always enjoy reading about and following these types of characters. Richard is her perfect foil. He seems to be a man of his times, but he has demons from his past and yet he finds something about this female doctor not only aggravating, but intriguing. I am looking forward to reading about how the author moves this hint of a relationship forward in future books.

I found the research into this period in London very thorough and it brought me right into the dark, gritty slums of Whitechapel and the debates about the cholera outbreaks. The murder mystery plot is full of twists and suspects, and I was shocked with the discovery at the climax. This book is graphic with descriptions of the violence done to the murder victims, sexual assault, male rape, prostitution, and homosexuality. The descriptions of living in the slums of London are also written with the truth of the times and not watered down.

I recommend this historically realistic first crime mystery in the Dr. Lewis Mystery series and I am looking forward to many more.

***

About the Author

Patrice McDonough, a native of the Garden State, has a master’s degree in history from Rutgers University/NJIT. She teaches history and serves as Department Chair at a college preparatory high school for girls, was named an Outstanding Educator by the Archdiocese of Newark in 1995, and is a member of the Historical Writers of America. She spends her leisure time begging her golf ball to land on the fairway or reading the histories, mysteries, and historical novels piled high on her night table. While thinking about her World History and Western Civilization students and sitting in front of a 1789 map of Paris, she wrote Clock Master’s Daughter: A Novel of the French Revolution.

Social Media Links

Website: https://www.patricemcdonough1789.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61553881089597

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/patricemcdonoughauthor/

Book Review: A Rogue’s Company by Allison Montclair

My Book Review

RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars

A ROGUE’S COMPANY (A Sparks and Bainbridge Mystery Book #3) by Allison Montclair is another first-rate addition to this historical mystery series set in 1946 London and featuring the daring duo of ladies of The Right Sort Marriage Bureau. While this is the third book in the series, it can be read as a standalone, but there are character plotlines that continue to progress in each book. I have read the series in order and have loved every book.

Miss Iris Sparks and Mrs. Gwendolyn Bainbridge are doing well enough to expand their matchmaking business. As their business grows, so does their friendship. With the return of Gwen’s father-in-law from Africa, she is determined to state her case and have his guardianship removed from her son, but what she doesn’t know is he has other reasons to keep the guardianship intact.

When a new client shows up at The Right Sort, Gwen does not believe he is there for a match. When he continues to appear around the Bainbridge home, she becomes alarmed. When Gwen and his lordship are kidnapped, Sparks seeks help from underworld acquaintances, but will it be in time to save Gwen’s life?

This addition to the series had me turning the pages from beginning to end. The information on the British in Africa at this time was not only interesting, but well integrated into the story without slowing the pace. The mystery plotline is full of twists and red herrings that I was not able to unravel before the conclusion but were tied together with believable resolutions by the author. I love every one of the main characters in this series and find them to be well developed and quite realistic to the period. It came as a surprise to learn that Allison Montclair is a pseudonym, but it does not matter to me because a great story is a great story.  I always look forward to visiting with these protagonists again with each book and following them on their next adventure.

I highly recommend this historical cozy mystery series!

***

About the Author

ALLISON MONTCLAIR grew up devouring hand-me-down Agatha Christie paperbacks and James Bond movies. As a result of this deplorable upbringing, Montclair became addicted to tales of crime, intrigue, and espionage. She now spends her spare time poking through the corners, nooks, and crannies of history, searching for the odd mysterious bits and transforming them into novels of her own. The Right Sort of Man is her debut novel.

Allison Montclair is a pseudonym of Alan Gordon.

ARC Feature Post and Book Review: To Slip the Bonds of Earth by Amanda Flower

Book Description

December 1903: While Wilbur and Orville Wright’s flying machine is quite literally taking off in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina with its historic fifty-seven second flight, their sister Katharine is back home in Dayton, Ohio, running the bicycle shop, teaching Latin, and looking after the family. A Latin teacher and suffragette, Katharine is fiercely independent, intellectual, and the only Wright sibling to finish college. But at twenty-nine, she’s frustrated by the gender inequality in academia and is looking for a new challenge. She never suspects it will be sleuthing…

Returning home to Dayton, Wilbur and Orville accept an invitation to a friend’s party. Nervous about leaving their as-yet-unpatented flyer plans unattended, Orville decides to bring them to the festivities . . . where they are stolen right out from under his nose. As always, it’s Katharine’s job to problem solve—and in this case, crime-solve.

As she sets out to uncover the thief among their circle of friends, Katharine soon gets more than she bargained for: She finds her number one suspect dead with a letter opener lodged in his chest. It seems the patent is the least of her brothers’ worries. They have a far more earthbound concern—prison. Now Katharine will have to keep her feet on the ground and put all her skills to work to make sure Wilbur and Orville are free to fly another day.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/181037562-to-slip-the-bonds-of-earth?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=mIsgS8Umhv&rank=1

Expected Publication: March 26, 2024

***

My Book Review

RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars

TO SLIP THE BONDS OF EARTH (Katharine Wright Mystery Series Book #1) by Amanda Flower is the perfect mash-up of biographical fiction and cozy mystery featuring an overshadowed and forgotten sister finally being recognized for her strengths and accomplishments and weaving into the facts of her life a smartly plotted cozy murder mystery. This is the first book in the series, and I am thoroughly hooked.

Katharine Wright is a brilliant scholar, teacher, and suffragette who also runs the family household of her reverend father since the death of her mother at the age of fifteen. Besides all these personal accomplishments, she also assists her brothers, Wilbur and Orville, with their books in their bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio. While disappointed when she is passed over for a head teaching promotion, she is very excited by a telegram received from her brothers in North Carolina stating that they have flown their motorized flying machine.

When the brothers return for the Christmas holidays, Katharine talks Orville into attending a Christmas party given by the head of the PTA. Orville’s coat goes missing and when the siblings find it, it is in the billiards room with a dead man stabbed with a screwdriver. One of Katharine’s students is in the room with blood all over his shirt and the design papers for their flying machine Orville had in his coat pocket are missing. Katharine’s student is arrested, but Katharine is not satisfied with the detective’s conclusions.

Katharine begins asking questions that lead to the prominent men of Dayton having secrets that are worthy of blackmail, but do they lead to murder? And the flying machine design papers are still missing, could they be worth killing over?

I loved this story for so many different reasons. I knew nothing about Katharine and was happy to be introduced to a strong, independent, educated woman who was so accomplished in a time when it was not common. She lends herself to being a perfect protagonist in a mystery plot with her curiosity and tenacity. The depth of research into Katharine’s life, the Wright family, and all the history of the period is evident and intertwined seamlessly throughout the book. The cozy mystery plot has all the red herrings and twists that keep the reader guessing, and it gives believable resolutions to all questions by the end.

I highly recommend this engaging historical cozy mystery and I cannot wait for more mysteries to follow in this series.

***

About the Author

Amanda Flower is a USA Today bestselling and Agatha Award-winning author of over thirty-five mystery novels. Her novels have received starred reviews from Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, and Romantic Times, and she had been featured in USA Today, First for Women, and Woman’s World. She currently writes for Penguin-Random House (Berkley), Kensington, Hallmark Publishing, Crooked Lane Books, and Sourcebooks. In addition to being a writer, she was a librarian for fifteen years. Today, Flower and her husband own a farm and recording studio, and they live in Northeast Ohio with their two adorable cats.

Social Media Links

Website: http://www.amandaflower.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authoramandaflower/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/aflowerwriter

BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/amanda-flower

Friday Feature Author Interview with Elise Cooper: In Sunshine or in Shadow by Rhys Bowen and Clare Broyles

Book Description

New York, 1908: The days are getting longer—and warmer—in Manhattan. Molly Murphy Sullivan doesn’t want to leave her home in the city, but typhoid is back, and she’s expecting. So she heads north with the children to summer with her mother-in-law in Westchester County. Molly tells herself it won’t be so bad, after all the countryside is pretty, and she’s determined to make the best of it. Even if she’s leaving her husband, Daniel, behind. And at least she’s not the only one heading north. Her great friends, Sid and Gus, are headed to the Catskills to visit Sid’s family.

Though her mother-in-law is a surprisingly excellent host, Molly quickly grows bored. And when Sid and Gus invite her to visit, Molly jumps at the chance to stay with them at an artist’s community. What a pleasant time they’ll have, so far from the city, although Sid isn’t so enthusiastic about having to visit her family in the nearby Jewish bungalow community. But deep in the Catskills, tensions are running high, and it’s not long before a body delays Molly’s return to Westchester.

***

Elise’s Thoughts

In Sunshine or In Shadow by Rhys Bowen and Clare Bowles the focus is on the good friend of Molly Murphy, Sid. As with all these books readers get a glimpse of what is happening in the time period that is weaved throughout the story.  This book is very relevant because it delves into the Catskills before it became a resort and how antisemitism flourished, just as today.

Because of the typhoid epidemic in the city, Molly and her children decide to stay with her mother-in-law in Westchester.  Molly, who’s bored, visits her friends, who are staying at an artists’ retreat near Sid’s relatives. Sid’s grandfather’s alleged ill health was just an excuse to get her to the Catskill farm, where a matchmaker has brought possible mates for both Sid and her cousin Mira. 

Mira’s match, Mr. Simon Levin, has made many enemies. Sid’s match is a college professor she finds interesting but has no intention of marrying. While out walking in the woods, Levin is shot with his own rifle, and the local police immediately focus on Mira, as a suspect. After her friends beg Molly to help Mira, she unearths other motives for his murder.

The reader is kept guessing as to who the murderer was almost to the very end, with clues strewn throughout. Where it really shines is in the descriptions of life during that time period, 1908, and all the historical information on the early Catskill resorts. A riveting murder, fun characters, interlaced with tidbits of historical information make this story a great read.

***

Author Interview

Elise Cooper: How much are you involved in writing this story?

Rhys Bowen: Very involved. We talk through the story idea.  Then Clare does some research, and we see what we want to incorporate. In the first couple of books, we wrote alternating chapters.  Now Clare is writing more, but I am still going in and giving my suggestions.  I am still very hands on. Working with someone else is a gift because they have enthusiasm and new ideas.

Clare Broyles:  If I do write a scene or a chapter she reads it immediately for feedback, and vice-versa.

EC:  How did you get the idea for this story?

RB:  We realized we never focused on Sid and her Jewish heritage.  We thought it might be interesting to have her family wanting to have her married off. With the typhoid epidemic everyone wanted to get out of the city, but Jewish people were not welcome at the normal resorts.  They decided to go up to the Catskills and stay in primitive cabins. We used typhoid to get Molly out of the city. Even some upscale houses became sick. This is why we bought in the cook, “typhoid Mary,” who went from household to household affecting the families.

CB:  We wanted to write everything going on at the Catskills.  It had its beginning in 1903. Park Rangers were just coming into existence.  Their chain of command had them reporting to NYPD, a perfect line to Daniel. They had the mining in trouble. There was also the growing environmental movement that started to clash with the big quarry there. Plus, there was a Bohemian community of professional women. Ontera was its name. We fictionalized it. We wanted to show that it was a place where woman could be free.

EC:  Your story is very relevant today considering what happened on October 7th and the antisemitism going on in the US today.  Do you agree?

RB:  It is very relevant now.  It did not matter how respected someone was or how rich, it was hard for Jewish families to get out of NYC. They were still not welcome.  The police detective in this story exhibited the underlying antisemitism that comes out all the time. My health club is in the Jewish Community Center and there must be a guard outside and now there is a sheriff’s car.

CB:  There were stories around that time that had to deal with the ‘No Hebrews allowed” signs at the upscale resorts.  Unfortunately, this continues to be relevant throughout the years.

EC:  There is a portrayal of the different levels of Judaism. Please explain.

CB:  Sid’s family was wealthy and less religious versus the religious immigrant strain.

RB:  One of my oldest friends in New York picked up some tiny things we did to make it more accurate.  She did loads of research for us.

EC:  The Catskills?

CB:  It was based on fact.  Some background, there were some wealthy Jewish philanthropists that wanted to help Jewish immigrants. This was about fifty years before.  They bought large tracks of land in the Catskills to give to arriving families who instead of farming made money by renting out cabins.

EC:  How would you describe Mira, Sid’s cousin?

RB:  She is an interesting character. Not much of a fighter.  Not strong-willed or independent. She is hopeful. She is very young who has been a sheltered Jewish girl.  Sid and Gus gave her options in life.

EC:  You also go into arranged marriages?

RB:  Her role in life was to marry whoever her family chose for her and live happily ever after. We put in this quote from Sid, “This is how it is done in the old country.  Parents chose a spouse, daughters obey, with a question of dowry and financial advantage.  Love did not enter into it.” Gradually we see Mira gaining strength throughout the story. There were very few opportunities for women. Sid and Gus survived because they had money. Maybe this is easier than online dating now.

CB:  It is not just the Jewish community that does this.  We first considered to set it in Boston with Gus’ family.  Women at the time did not have much of a voice. Mira’s family did not force her into marriage but made that option the most attractive. I think Gus’s family in Boston would have done the same thing.

EC:  How would you describe the victim, Levin, who was chosen to marry Mira?

RB: He is brash.  He is someone who talks about how good they are at their job and how much money he makes. He is annoying and sleezy. He is not trustworthy but is clever enough to convince people he might be a good match.

CB:  He talks a good talk.

EC:  What about your next books?

RB:  The historical novel comes out in August titled The Rose Arbor. It takes place in 1968 with a little girl vanishing. The heroine is a journalist.  Her roommate is a police officer.  They go down to the South of England. Through their research they find out that three little girls evacuated during WWII also disappeared. This book is a jigsaw puzzle tying all the cases.

CB:  The next Molly book has Bridie growing up, a fourteen-year-old.  Ryan, a playwright, has written and acted in some motion pictures. Bridie is offered a part. It is titled, Silent as The Grave. It takes place in 1908. The very interesting part of the stories are the situations that lead to a murder.  The way the people acted and felt in history.

RB:  The special effects were all real.  Someone tied to the train tracks was real, taking terrible risks.  This all is presented in the book. It comes out the same time next year. All our books are linked to real time. We think about what happened then and how do we tie into it. I like to learn when I read. The sleuth character and how she handles things that stretch her makes the story interesting. When people write me fan mail, they never say that was a clever plot, but say “I love Molly,” which is what matters.

THANK YOU!!

***

BIO: Elise Cooper has written book reviews and interviewed best-selling authors since 2009. Her reviews have covered several different genres, including thrillers, mysteries, women’s fiction, romance and cozy mysteries. An avid reader, she engages authors to discuss their works, and to focus on the descriptions of their characters and the plot. While not writing reviews, Elise loves to watch baseball and visit the ocean in Southern California, with her dog and husband.

Book Review: Murder by Invitation Only by Colleen Cambridge

My Book Review

RATING: 4 out of 5 Stars

MURDER BY INVITATION ONLY (Phyllida Bright Mystery Book #3) by Colleen Cambridge is another charming and entertaining addition to the Phyllida Bright historical cozy mystery series featuring Agatha Christie’s murder mystery solving housekeeper. While this is the third book in the series, it can be read as a standalone for the mystery, but each book gives a little more information and teasers regarding Phyllida’s mysterious past.

 While Agatha Christie and her husband are away in London, Phyllida receives an invitation sent to Mallowan Hall for a murder from the new inhabitants of Beecham House. How can she resist?

Mr. and Mrs. Wokesley have set up a murder mystery play with friends and family playing the suspects. When the scene is revealed all the invited guests are invited to question the suspects from the scene. As the questioning begins, one invited guest gets closer to the body of the murder victim and discovers that he is not acting. Mr. Wokesley is dead.

Phyllida takes control of the investigation while Inspector Cork is delayed in his travels from London. She soon discovers that all the play-acting suspects all truly have reasons to kill Mr. Wokesley. When a second murder occurs, Phyllida may have discovered the killer, but at what price to her own life?

I really enjoyed this engaging return to Mallowan Hall. Phyllida is a wonderful protagonist/amateur sleuth and with every book her mysterious past and aversion to London makes her even more intriguing. This mystery plot is set up like Christie’s own mysteries and cozies of that era. While I enjoyed reading this story due to my love of these characters, the murder mystery is very easily solved. The reasons for all the suspects to have hated and or murdered the dead man were interesting, but never really pulled me away from my early belief of the true murderer. That will not stop me from continuing in this series though. I cannot wait to learn more about Phyllida’s past and see if she and Bradford become even closer.

I enjoyed this return to Phyllida’s historical cozy mystery world and I am anxiously waiting for the next book in the series.

***

About the Author

Colleen Cambridge is the pen name for an award-winning, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author. From a young age, Colleen has loved reading mysteries and now she couldn’t be happier that she is able to write them.

Under several pseudonyms, she has written more than 36 books in a variety of genres and is always plotting her next murder—er, book.

Social Media Links

Website: https://www.colleengleason.com/colleen-cambridge/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ColleenGleason.Author

Twitter: https://twitter.com/colleengleason

BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/colleen-gleason

Friday Feature Author Interview with Elise Cooper: Murder at the Breakers by Alyssa Maxwell

Book Description

As the nineteenth century comes to a close, the illustrious Vanderbilt family dominates Newport, Rhode Island, high society. But when murder darkens a glittering affair at their summer home, reporter Emma Cross learns that sometimes the cream of the crop can curdle one’s blood . . .

Newport, Rhode Island, August 1895: She may be a less well-heeled relation, but as second cousin to millionaire patriarch Cornelius Vanderbilt, twenty-one-year-old Emma Cross is on the guest list for a grand ball at the Breakers, the Vanderbilts’ summer home. She also has a job to do—report on the event for the society page of the Newport Observer.
 
But Emma observes much more than glitz and gaiety when she witnesses a murder. The victim is Cornelius Vanderbilt’s financial secretary, who plunges off a balcony faster than falling stock prices. Emma’s black sheep brother Brady is found in Cornelius’s bedroom passed out next to a bottle of bourbon and stolen plans for a new railroad line. Brady has barely come to before the police have arrested him for the murder. But Emma is sure someone is trying to railroad her brother and resolves to find the real killer at any cost . .

***

Elise’s Thoughts

Murder at the Breakers by Alyssa Maxwell is now a Hallmark movie on the Hallmark Mystery Channel. It has just been released last week.  As with most books that have been made into movies there were changes made but the overall arc of the plot was still intact.

In 1895 a society page writer, Emma Vanderbilt Cross, witnesses a murder while attending a ball at a Vanderbilt mansion in Newport Rhode Island. She soon gets drawn into the investigation after her brother is arrested.

Whether watching the movie or reading the book readers will be enthralled with the characters and the riveting plot.

***

Author Interview

Elise Cooper: This was made into a Hallmark movie.  Can you comment.

Alyssa Maxwell: One of the executive producers, James Walsh, toured the Breakers.  He thought of making a historical mystery set in Newport. As he walked through the bookshop, he saw my book.  After reading it he contacted my agent.  It met a need he had been looking for.

EC: Do you agree there were differences between the movie and the book?

AM:  Yes.  Emma’s romantic interest was different. Katie the maid was not in it.  Jack Parsons, a person of interest was not in it. Once the filming rights were sold, typical for most deals like this, the writer is no longer a part of the project. My creative input was writing the book, while the production company can interpret it however, they may see fit. It is a big project of the book to be condensed to a 1.5-hour movie.

I think Nanny was a combination of Nanny and Katie, the maid.  Nanny is not Irish in the book but was in the movie.  In the book she married someone named O’Neal, but she was not Irish herself.

Obviously, Emma was not romantically involved with the Detective Jesse. Maybe they felt bringing the romance in earlier it would be more appealing. They also made Jesse younger.

EC:  Were you happy with the way the characters were portrayed in the movie?

AM:  Yes, if more movies are made the characters will settle into their roles.  I thought that Emma’s personality was captured as being determined, strong-willed.  Derrick captured the teasing quality, and Jesse the steady, concerned detective who respects her insight into the crime. Brady was portrayed as the rash brother.

EC: Are they going to make future movies?

AM:  I do not think that decision has been made yet.

EC:  The idea for the book story?

AM: I am married to someone born and raised in Newport.  I fell in love with this place because it is so atmospheric and historical.  I knew in my mind I would set it here.  Then I decided on the period of the Gilded Age because it is so visible in Newport, especially the mansions. The Breakers Mansion is the biggest and most ornate, owned by the Vanderbilts. I chose that date because the first Breakers burnt down, and this was the night honoring it being re-built.  I put in the murder from my research with the rivalries in the railroad industry.

EC: Why did you choose to write about the Vanderbilts and not someone else?

AM: The Breakers is one of the very biggest mansions.  It is like the crown jewel in the preservation society of Newport’s County treasure chest of houses.  Plus, there is the familiarity that so many people have with the Vanderbilt family, with their connection to the railroad industry.  This was their vacation home that they went to every summer.

EC: How would you describe Emma?

AM: Protective, independent, stubborn, determined, and spirited.  She is focused, grounded, loyal, and head strong. She does belong to different worlds and sometimes that feels like she is being pulled in two different directions. On one side she is an ordinary Newporter and on the other side a distant cousin of the Vanderbilt family.  She leans to the ordinary Newport side which she sees as the ‘real people.’  She is a champion of the ordinary people of Newport.

EC: Do you think her parents deserted her?

AM:  In a way yes. Being in the art world they are oblivious. They went to Paris to pursue their dream. The did know they left Emma with her nanny who is more like a grandmother to her. She also has her stepbrother, Brady.

EC:  How would you describe Brady?

AM:  He is irresponsible, rash, reckless, and loyal.  He means well but is not disciplined.

EC:  How would you describe Derrick?

AM:  Charming, curious, and confident.

EC:  What about the relationship between Derrick and Emma?

AM:  He enjoys teasing her, which flusters her.  She finds him impertinent at times. At times he toys with her emotions because he is attracted to her.  He sees that independent side and does not want to push it down.

EC:  The younger generation in the book appears to do whatever they want.

AM:  The young aristocratic men are cavalier, arrogant, self-absorbed, and do not deal with life’s challenges. Being the sons of millionaires, they are spoiled and feel invincible as well as entitled.

EC:  Next book?

AM:  It will be out in August and is titled Murder in Vinland. There will be a member of the Vanderbilt family, Florence Vanderbilt Twombly involved.  Emma will be the sleuth and will still have the cast of characters surrounding her.

THANK YOU!!

***

BIO: Elise Cooper has written book reviews and interviewed best-selling authors since 2009. Her reviews have covered several different genres, including thrillers, mysteries, women’s fiction, romance and cozy mysteries. An avid reader, she engages authors to discuss their works, and to focus on the descriptions of their characters and the plot. While not writing reviews, Elise loves to watch baseball and visit the ocean in Southern California, with her dog and husband.