MURDER AT THE WHITE PALACE (A Sparks & Bainbridge Mystery Book #6) by Allison Montclair is an intriguing historical mystery that has not one, but two mysteries, past and present, that may be connected and many personal changes occurring in the lives of the two main protagonists. Each book has a unique mystery that is solved, but the main characters continue to evolve and for continuity, I feel these books are best read in order of publication.
The Right Sort of Marriage Bureau is doing well, so Gwendolyn Bainbridge decides she and her partner, Iris Sparks, should throw a New Year’s Eve party for their clientele. With limited availability this close to the new year, they look at an old club being repaired by Iris’ boyfriend, Archie Spelling. While investigating the basement, a wall crumbles and a long dead body is discovered.
Though they both want to be done with murder investigations, the recovered body matches some information surrounding that of a missing thief from a trio of robbers from before the war which all tied back to Archie and Des’ murdered fathers. Are they safe as they investigate the cold cases, or could the past be coming back to clean up any ties to a murderer among them?
The murder mysteries, past and present, are intertwined throughout a more intense and personal character driven story line than previous books. Gwen is now free to control her own life and destiny and is finding freedom intoxicating, while Iris is on track to make more permanent decisions regarding her personal life. The duo’s true friendship, no matter their differences or what occurs in their personal lives, is a reason that I love this series. This story leaned more towards the protagonist’s development, which could change the direction of the entire series, than the mysteries, but the mysteries themselves were interesting and well plotted. This addition to the series does leave a bit of a cliffhanger, but it is in Iris’ personal life and not a part of the mystery plot line.
I highly recommend this historical mystery series and continue to look forward to following Bainbridge in Sparks.
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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.
Today I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for SINS OF THE FATHER (A Detective Nathan Parker Novel Book #4) by James L’Etoile on this Partners In Crime Book Tour.
Below you will find a book description, my book review, an excerpt from the book, the author’s bio and social media, and a Kingsumo giveaway. Enjoy!
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Book Description
Detective Nathan Parker discovers an unidentified man tossed to his death from an airplane is connected to the emergence of a new criminal organization, Red Dawn, when a secretive Joint Terrorism Task Force appears in Phoenix. The leader of the Task Force coerces Parker to support their efforts or his ex-coyote friend, Billie Carson, could face federal charges for supporting a terrorist organization. With Billie’s freedom in jeopardy, Parker agrees and one-by-one, people associated with the Task Force are picked off. When a target close to Parker is attacked, and the Task Force leader vanishes, Parker seeks help from an unusual ally to expose Red Dawn’s mastermind. Familiar foes, lies, secrets, and a father’s sin converge in a deadly standoff.
Genre: Thriller; Police Procedural Published by: Level Best Books Publication Date: July 15, 2025 Number of Pages: 320 ISBN: 978-1-68512-992-7 Series:The Detective Nathan Parker Novels, Book 4
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My Book Review
RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars
SINS OF THE FATHER (A Detective Nathan Parker Novel Book #4) by James L’Etoile is an action-packed police procedural crime thriller and another great addition to this series. The series follows Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office Detective Nathan Parker, his co-workers, family, and friends as they deal with immigrants, cartels, gangs and drugs on both sides of the border. While each book has a main crime plot which is unique to that book, I feel the books should be read in order for character continuity and because of some carryover antagonists from prior books.
A new criminal organization, Red Dawn, is attacking the cartels over the border and has moved to killing FBI Terrorism Task Force members and innocents in Nathan’s jurisdiction. Nathan gets pulled into the investigation by the Task Force’s leader by applying legal pressure on his friend, Billie. While every clue in this investigation leads to Red Dawn, it also has Nathan believing it ties to his past with Esteban Castaneda, the vicious leader of the Los Muertos gang, but he is in solitaire in the Federal Colorado Supermax.
With several dead bodies and one of his own shot and fighting for his life, Nathan and his team are finding more questions than answers. With an unrelenting pace, danger all around them, and twists that continually change the direction of the investigation, Nathan and his team must discover the truth before any more people die.
I always look forward to a new Nathan Parker crime thriller. Nathan, his friends, coworkers, and adopted family are all fully developed and interesting. The information the reader receives through the character of Billie is informative and thought-provoking as she just wants to help people no matter who they are or their legal status. The locations on both sides of the border are all brought to life with Mr. L’Etoile’s descriptive and well researched writing. The crime plots could come right out of the current news cycles and have many layers, twists, and surprises that keep the reader turning the pages. I never quite get the entire picture before the resolution, which I enjoy.
I highly recommend this gripping crime thriller and cannot wait for more!
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Excerpt
Chapter One
Death to a ten-year-old is a pause in a video game. It’s temporary. A momentary setback until you’re back into the game again. At their age, the boys of Boy Scout Troop 116 thought they were immortal. Or they did until they got their first glimpse of human remains.
Ken Dryden stood on the brakes, sending the fifteen-passenger van into a skid on the hard-packed desert road. A flock of eight turkey vultures pecked and tore hunks of flesh from their prey. The enormous birds didn’t budge at the approach of the speeding white passenger van. Only one bothered to look up with a flap of meat hanging from its curved beak.
The birds ignored a loud burst from the van’s horn. Dryden unbuckled and turned to the eight boys in the back. “Stay here.”
Dryden and the assistant scoutmaster, Bill Cope stepped from the van and approached the circle of birds.
“Must’ve found themselves a coyote or something,” Cope said. “Why you insist we take this road? It’s in the middle of—”
“This can’t be…” Dryden trailed off and crept toward the flock of scavengers.
“Whatever they found, they sure don’t want to give it up,” Dryden said as he waved his arms trying to chase the birds off the road.”
“Don’t blame them. Pickings are probably a bit thin out here.”
From behind, a high-pitched voice called out. “Oh, cool. What did they kill?”
Dryden turned and three ten-year-old boys stood a few feet away gawking at the feeding frenzy on the hardscrabble dirt road.
“I told you guys to wait in the van.”
“What did they find?” The tallest boy asked.
“Probably a coyote or something run over on the road, Chase.”
“There’s no tracks in the dirt but ours,” Chase said.
The birds fought and squawked at one another, tearing bits of flesh out from the beaks of weaker birds in the flock. Wings flared and cupped over the remains, claiming them.
“Mr. Dryden? What’s that?” Chase asked.
“What?”
“That,” the boy said with a trembling finger, pointing toward the largest vulture with a torn hunk of flesh hanging from its red beak.
Dryden followed the boy’s line of sight and under the bird’s talons were the remains. He felt sick when he saw it. A brown work boot. Coyotes didn’t wear boots.
“Oh my God.”
“Is it a dead person? Chase said.
“Back to the van boys,” Cope said.
“But—”
“Now!” Dryden barked the order, and the three scouts scurried back to the van.
“Why did you take us on this back road to begin with? What do we do now?” Cope asked Dryden. The two adult supervisors of this scout troop stood at the desert crossroads.
Cope pulled out his cell phone. “No signal out here. We need to call 911.”
Dryden looked back to the van and all eight boys pressed up against the windows gawking at the human remains as the carrion birds devoured their treasure.
“We gotta get them outta here,” Dryden said.
He charged the birds, and most of them backed away. Dryden got a good look at what lay in the desert crossroads—a man, twisted, mangled, and broken. Huge swaths of flesh torn away by the feeding birds. Dryden’s shoulders drooped at the sight—a dead man left in the crossroads.
“I’ll try and keep them away. Drive the boys back out to Quartzite. Call 911. I’ll wait.”
“You wanna stay out here? In this heat?” Cope said.
“It’s early, the heat won’t top out for a couple of hours. I’ll take my pack and all the water we can spare. I’ll be fine. There’s a little shade over there under that Palo Verde.”
Tall, dry creosote brush and a few taller gangly green Palo Verde trees and Saguaro cactus lined the crossroads
“You sure? It’s not like you can help that guy?”
“Whoever he is, he doesn’t deserve to get eaten by these feathered desert rats either. How would you feel if it was someone you knew?”
Dryden retrieved his day pack and two canteens from the van.
“Guys, Mr. Cope is going to take you out. He’ll stop in Quartzite for a pee break.”
“I’ll stay with you, Mr. Dryden,” Chase said.
“Everyone’s going with Mr. Cope.”
A sigh of disappointment filled the back of the van. Dryden knew Chase’s mother was going to meltdown over her precious offspring’s exposure to the dark fringes of life. He figured the Scottsdale socialite would spirit her son away to a resort in Sedona for a crystal bath and chakra realignment.
Dryden hefted his pack and slung the canteens over his shoulder while the van cut a three-point turn and returned in the direction they came.
Once the dust and engine noise died down, all that remained was the breeze cutting through the dried brush and the cackling of the vultures fighting over their prize.
Setting his pack down, Dryden broke off a creosote branch and swung it in front of him forcing the birds away from the remains. Reluctantly, the birds gave up and hopped to the other side of the crossroads.
Dryden closed in on the dead man and grimaced at the mess the vultures made. Unrecognizable. Legs twisted and folded under the body, with a boot sticking out at an impossible angle. No way Chase would earn his first aid merit badge here.
The arms were flayed out over his broken head.
“Oh God.”
Dryden noted the wrists bound with zip ties. This wasn’t a lost hiker. This was a murder victim.
He snatched his cell phone and tried calling Cope to warn him, but the screen reminded him there was no cell signal out here. He shot a series of photos of the dead man, figuring the police would want to see what they found before the vultures could finish it off.
Dryden backed off into the shade and moved out when the vultures grew brave enough to advance. Back and forth for an hour until Dryden spotted a dust trail.
It was too soon for Cope to have summoned help. Quartzite was more than an hour away and the authorities would need time to respond after Cope called them. And this dust plume was coming from the other direction and building fast.
A dead man. Murdered. Alone in the desert. Only a twinge of relief. It wasn’t someone he knew. He knew what that kind of loss felt like and felt guilty about feeling thankful. The dust plume was coming in fast and there was the faint whine of an ATV engine—high pitched and loud.
Dryden snatched his pack and blended into the brush along a game trail, hoping he didn’t encounter an unfriendly javelina. Fifty feet from the road, he hunched down as a green ATV tore into the crossroads and skidded to a stop a few feet away from the body.
Two men stepped from the six-wheel ATV, and one used a bulky satellite phone. After a quick call, the two men donned gloves and picked up the remains, tossing them into the rear cargo compartment of the ATV. They weren’t gentle about it—they were hurried. They needed several trips to gather the bits and pieces.
Once they finished loading the dead man, they sped off in the direction they came from.
Dryden waited until the dust plume died down before he stepped out from his hiding place. He approached the spot in the center of the crossroads where the body had been. There was little to prove a life ended there. The red dirt was marked by a dark circle—what Dryden believed was blood. A single human finger was left behind by the men on the ATV.
A second trail of dust appeared on the horizon in the direction Cope and the boys used on their way out.
Dryden sank back into the brush again until the Black and Yellow Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office SUV pulled to a stop near the intersection.
He couldn’t stop thinking about the finger. Had they left the finger by mistake, or was it a message?
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Author Bio
James L’Etoile uses his twenty-nine years behind bars as an influence in his award-winning novels, short stories, and screenplays. He is a former associate warden in a maximum-security prison, a hostage negotiator, and director of California’s state parole system. His novels have been shortlisted or awarded the Lefty, Anthony, Silver Falchion, and the Public Safety Writers Award. River of Lies, Served Cold, and Sins of the Father are his most recent novels. Look for Illusion of Truth coming soon.
Since her twin sister Sylvie’s disappearance seven years ago, single mother Mabel Reynolds has turned grief into action and become a strong voice for victims of violence and abuse.
When new revelations shed light on what may have happened not only to Sylvie, but dozens of other women, Mabel’s hope for answers is reignited. But the new oh-so-charming DA overseeing the investigation seems more interested in a quick rather than an accurate resolution.
VANISHED (Circle of the Red Lily Book #2) by Anna J. Stewart is a thrilling romantic suspense and the second book in the Circle of the Red Lily series. This book features Mabel Reynolds’ continuing search for answers and justice for her missing twin sister. While the romance, investigation, and capture of the criminal perpetrator are a complete story, the continuation of the overarching Circle of the Red Lily conspiracy suspense plot leads me to recommend the reading of this series of books in order.
Single mom Mabel Reynolds has been searching for answers regarding her missing twin, Sylvie, for eight years. While doing bookkeeping and taxes from home to support herself and her eight-year-old daughter, Keeley, she also volunteers with a local abuse shelter as a way to support others as she waits for word of her twin. As she is assisting a new abuse victim, events occur that follow the same pattern as what happened to her twin. It all begins to once again lead back to the Red Lily secret organization.
A special case District Attorney Paul Flynn is assigned to investigate the disappearance of the women tied to a mysterious historical mansion where all their pictures were discovered. Mabel shows up on his first day to find out if he truly wants answers or is like the rest of the DA ‘s office and just wants the case to go away. Paul discovers that not only does Mabel have information he needs, but that he has a personal attraction to her that he finds surprising.
As the danger around Mabel and Paul’s discoveries increases, so does their relationship. With threats coming from every direction, can Mabel and Paul, with help from the other inhabitants of Temple House, discover answers to where Sylvie is and who is involved in this 100-year-old Tinseltown criminal conspiracy?
This book had me captivated right away and I read it all in one sitting. Mabel is very strong and sympathetic, determined to raise her daughter in a loving home and find answers to the disappearance of her twin. Paul has a tragic back story of abuse, neglect, and loss which makes him determined to be the success he is but also makes him believe he cannot be more personally. The two of them together was a great demonstration of showing love and possibilities. I loved Keeley, Mabel’s daughter, she is a sweet and mature character for her age, and she has the right amount of emotional interaction between Mabel and Paul to move them forward. I also enjoyed Sylvie’s dream and spectral interactions with Mabel and Keeley. The overarching conspiracy plot from book #1, Exposed, continues and while some things were discovered, there are still many questions left for future books featuring the other inhabitants of Temple House.
I highly recommend this romantic suspense in the Circle of the Red Lily series and am looking forward to discovering more answers and following more romances with the others in Temple House!
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About the Author
Award-winning, USA Today and national bestselling author Anna J Stewart writes sweet to sexy romances for Harlequin and ARC Manor’s CAEZIK (Kay-Zehk) Romance. Her sweet Harlequin Heartwarming books include the Butterfly Harbor series as well as the ongoing Blackwell continuity series. She also writes the Honor Bound series for Harlequin Romantic Suspense and has contributed to the bestselling Coltons. Her Circle of the Red Lily romantic suspense series, published by CAEZIK, will launch with EXPOSED in November of 2022.
A Holt Medallion winner (BRIDE ON THE RUN), as well as a Golden Heart, Daphne DuMaurier, and National Reader’s Choice finalist, Anna loves writing big community stories where family found is always the theme. Since her first published novella with Harlequin in 2014, Anna has released more than fifty novels and novellas and hopes to branch out even more (horror romance, anyone?). Anna lives in Northern California where (at the best times) she loves going to the movies, attending fan conventions, and heading to Disneyland, her favorite place on earth. When she’s not writing, she is usually binge-watching her newest TV addiction, re-watching her all-time favorite show, Supernatural, and wrangling two monstrous cats named Rosie and Sherlock.
Today I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for SKYLARK (The SEAL Saga Book #1) by Megan Michelle on this blog tour.
Below you will find a book summary, my book review, an about the author section, and the author’s social media links. Enjoy!
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Book Summary
Being the first female Navy SEAL is no easy job, but someone’s got to dismantle the patriarchy. Rachel Ryker, call sign ‘Skylark,’ can out run and out gun just about anybody, and with her second in command, Christopher Williams, by her side, she’s practically unstoppable. Christopher would follow Rachel to hell and back… or maybe just to the Middle East. When a top-secret malware code is stolen from the CIA, Rachel and Christopher lead their SEAL team through the Middle East in an attempt to recover it.
They both have their own reasons for fighting, but as the team gets closer to finding the stolen malware, Rachel discovers that the man they’re looking for may be closer to her than she thinks. Will Rachel’s obsession with completing their mission override her common sense and causes her to lose sight of what is really important- keeping women and children safe from the oppressive patriarchy they are all living in?
With secrets, pride, and a strict no fraternization policy keeping them apart, falling in love would mean sacrificing everything Rachel and Christopher have worked for. But when Rachel gets injured in combat, everything changes. Now Rachel will have to choose: does her devotion to the Navy outweigh her love for Christopher?
SKYLARK (The SEAL Saga Book #1) by Megan Michelle is a Special Units Navy SEAL action war thriller/romance mash-up featuring the first female SEAL and her team. This is the first book in the proposed series, and I was surprised that it is this author’s debut book.
Navy Commander Rachel Ryker and her ten-man team are exceptional at their jobs and every man on her team respects their female leader. She is especially close with her second in command Lt. Commander Christopher Williams who attended BUDs with her ten years previously, and while there is plenty of sexual tension and chemistry, neither is willing to break the regulation against fraternization.
Rachel and her SEAL team are assigned an undercover mission in Afghanistan to recover a USB with top secret malware in the possession of an Al Qaeda leader. Rachel always hates returning to Afghanistan due to her hatred of the extreme patriarchal system under the Taliban, but to find her quarry, she must blend in and befriend the women of the local mosque. What Rachel does not know is that there is more going on regarding their mission, and they are about to uncover an international plot that could get them all killed.
This is an exciting, fast-paced military action story that kept me turning the pages as Rachel and her team fight their way through terrorists in the Middle East and at home. The descriptions of operations and combat were well plotted and contained vivid descriptions. Rachel’s steadfast belief in women’s rights and equality was front and center in this story. Her family life was sad, and it made it even more important for her to have her chosen family in her team and to help others in bad situations. The slow burn romance between Rachel and Christopher was believable and hot. There are plenty of twists, turns, and surprises throughout.
I highly recommend this gripping genre mash-up and look forward to the next book in the series!
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About the Author
Megan Michelle writes dark romance for the fearless women who are ready to reclaim their power and confront the shadows of their past. Her stories blend the raw emotions of military life, the strength of feminism, and the passion of forbidden love, all while guiding readers on a journey of self-discovery and healing. Through dark romance, she explores the complexity of love, power, and identity. Her stories invite you to dive deep into the hearts of women who don’t just survive—they thrive, reclaiming their power and rewriting their stories on their own terms.
In the shadow of a threatening volcano, long-haul trucker Kit Garrido wakes up in her crashed big rig, unable to recall what happened or why she’s suddenly in possession of someone’s baby. Fiercely independent, she has to admit that perhaps this time she could use a little help.
As the threat of eruption grows, former cop Cullen Landry refuses to leave his cabin in the evacuation area, which is why he’s the only one left who can help Kit escape the crumpled cab of her truck. He doesn’t want to get tangled up in the mystery of the beautiful woman with an abandoned infant, but when he sees the bullet hole in the windshield and the bloody handprint on the interior, he realizes that he’s in this thing, like it or not.
When two armed men with ill intent approach, the race is on to stay alive, discover the truth, and find the baby’s missing mother–all while a deadly mountain rains fire from above.
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Elise’s Thoughts
Fire Mountain by Dana Mentink is a story that pits survival against impossible odds. It has nonstop action, adventure, some tender moments, and a bit of romance.
The story opens with Cullen Landry wakening a long-haul trucker in her crashed rig. Cullen did not flee after being warned of the imminent eruption of Mount Ember where he lives in his cabin. While making sure everything was secure, he sees the crash from his cabin and decides to check to see if there are any survivors. Landry finds Kit, a female trucker who appears to have memory loss, and realizes she is in immediate danger because of a bloody handprint on the window and bullet holes in the windshield. They also find an infant buckled into the back of the truck and because of the amnesia, Kit has no clue where the baby came from. In addition, very evil people are after Kit and the baby. The race begins as they try to save themselves from the villains and the volcano, which is also a character.
Besides the action-packed story there is a budding romance. As their trust grows, walls are broken down and a closeness develops that includes sharing some of their backstory. They realize that to survive they must support each other.
This is a gripping story filled with tension that will quickly hook readers.
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Author Interview
Elise Cooper: Idea for the story?
Dana Mentink: Mt St. Helens erupted in 1980, and it made a big imprint on my mind. Now as a suspense writer I ask myself what it would be like to survive that even though my story takes place in the present? An eruption is such a rare occurrence yet we cannot take those for granted. The predictions have gotten a lot better so people can relocate if necessary.
EC: What is the theme of the book?
DM: It is an adventure story where the characters become tired, scared, hungry, and lost. It is a running for their life type of plot. After all the extraneous stuff is stripped away it is a good place to confront issues of forgiveness, and the interaction with others.
EC: Why all the natural disasters?
DM: Besides the volcanic eruptions the story had avalanches, boulder slides, storms, and landslides. Never a dull moment. Everything is volcano related and would have taken place in a volcanic eruption. It is what people would encounter. Natural disasters show how people can dive into their own skill set and survive. I enjoy writing stories of people versus natural disasters.
EC: Why the profession of the heroine a truck driver?
DM: I have a fascination with female truck drivers because it is a male dominated profession. What would it be like to live one’s life on the road with a constant mobile situation? They live out of truck stops yet maintain relationships. It is about a road trip but having to do it for a living. I got some good clarification from someone whose husband was a truck driver.
EC: How would you describe Kit?
DM: Vulnerable, bossy, witty, has a slight temper, tough, and a planner. She likes her quiet times and is a loner. She must be tough to compete in being an independent contractor truck driver. There is an element of safety that is risky for a woman truck driver. She has had to do things on her own since she was a young woman. It is her against the world.
EC: How would you describe Cullen?
DM: Sarcastic, a know it all, stubborn, a fixer, leader, kind, and sometimes sympathetic. He has a soft side that he does not like to show people but is able to handle the little baby in his care. He has a sense of purpose, a good family man.
EC: How about the relationship?
DM: She likes to hide her emotions, introverted, wants to be businesslike, and is against forming roots. She is a rolling stone. He is tender, and he wants to establish a relationship.
EC: What is the role of the baby Tot?
DM: She is innocent, spirited, and helpless. Through her Kit is learning responsibility and both Kit and Cullen are bonding through the baby. She is only ten months old, so she is a little one very dependent on others. I wanted to put humor within their banter. They are stuck in tough situations, so I felt a little laughter is a good thing.
EC: Why the sex trafficking angle?
DM: It is an enormous issue for our country, states, and I wanted an evil villain. There is not much someone eviler than someone who treats people as property.
EC: What do you want to say about Cullen’s former job, as a policeman?
DM: It is rough job. I went to the Citizen’s Police Academy. It takes such a mental toll on individuals. Police see the worst of humanity, and it does affect them. I wanted to consider how this would play out over the course of someone’s life. My husband was a police officer very briefly and then moved to fire prevention. Those in the police do not get that appreciation as much as they deserve.
EC: What did the stuffed bear symbolize?
DM: It was a connection to what Kit viewed as a happy childhood given to her by her dad. It is important throughout the story. I still have my favorite stuffed animal I had as a child.
EC: Next book?
DM: It is titled Raging Waters, coming out March 2026 this time. It features Gideon, Cullen’s brother. He is trapped in a town where this dam is failing.
THANK YOU!!
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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.
Haunted by her family’s unsolved murder sixteen years ago, Leonora Spencer is familiar with death. As an assistant in her elderly uncle’s London morgue, she uses her photographic memory to catalogue details for his coroner reports. She also isn’t opposed to helping during postmortems, when his skilled hands begin to shake. After a thief breaks into the morgue and steals a locket from a corpse, Leo is determined to understand why, even if it means going against Detective Inspector Jasper Reid’s express orders to keep her nose out of it.
A closely guarded past
Born and bred in the East End slums, Jasper Reid’s recent promotion to the detective’s branch at Scotland Yard is a long step up from his murky past…a past he can’t afford to reveal to anyone. The last thing he needs is a muddled case connecting to the criminals he once associated with—and to the well-known eccentric Leo Spencer. Her stubborn resolve to undermine Jasper’s investigation tests his patience and the complicated history they share.
A murderer closing in
When the missing locket and a handful of suspicious deaths point to a mysterious buried object, Jasper grudgingly accepts Leo’s help to locate it. But someone is watching, and the more they uncover about a deadly blackmail plot, the closer Leo and Jasper get to becoming the killer’s next targets.
SHADOW AT THE MORGUE (Spencer & Reid Mysteries Book #1) by Cara Devlin is an exciting start to a new historical mystery series set in Victorian London in the 1880’s and featuring a young woman who does not conform to society’s rules and a newly promoted Detective Inspector. This is a story that starts off strong and continually kept me turning the pages with each new clue and twist in the case.
Fifteen years ago, Leonora ‘Leo’ Spenser was the sole surviving member of her family who were all brutally murdered. Now living with her uncle and aunt, she is an unofficial assistant to her uncle in a London morgue. With her photographic memory and her curiosity, she catalogues details for his coroner’s reports. Her best friend is a young female matron in the women and children’s side of the city jail while all others find her work in the morgue strange and unladylike.
Leo’s uncle is called away one evening and a man with a knife threatens Leo and locks her in a back room and then leaves after stealing a dead man’s case. Detective Inspector Jasper Reid is called and discovers Leo in the back room. While Jasper is wondering what was so important in the case, with Leo’s memory she knows nothing important was in it, but a dead woman in the morgue is missing a locket.
As Leo and Jasper follow the clues, more dead bodies are discovered and tied to the case. Then they uncover a blackmail plot that ties all the missing pieces together, but it also places them in the killer’s path and makes them disposable.
This is a great introduction to these new protagonists, and the mystery plot was full of red herrings and twists that continually surprised me. I love intelligent characters like Leo who buck convention and are ahead of the times they live in, but she also has a mystery in her past that can play out in future books. Jasper also has a past that was only touched on and I am sure will play into future stories. The dialogue between the two is snappy and while it can seem as if they are fighting like siblings, their feelings are a little more involved than that. The emotional ties between Leo and Jasper will be interesting to follow and see how they progress in future books. The author does an excellent job with her descriptions of atmosphere and historical depictions of London.
I highly recommend this new historical mystery and am looking forward to reading many more in this series!
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About the Author
Cara is an author, reader, and history lover. She reads and writes across genres, but her heart is reserved for romantic historical fiction and mystery. Her Bow Street Duchess books are fast-paced historical mysteries featuring a slow-burn romance taking place in Regency London. The series begins with Murder at the Seven Dials. Cara lives in rural New England with her family, where she is at work on her next series, the Spencer & Reid Mysteries.
