Book review of Irina Shapiro’s Murder at the Mill…
Murder at the Mill. Irina Shapiro, author (Merlin Press). This is #3 in the “Redmond and Haze Mysteries.” Set after the US Civil War when war-weary Captain Redmond, a medical doctor who tended to wounded soldiers, finds he’s inherit property north of London (Oxfordshire?) and becomes an ex-pat and duke to enjoy it, Redmond enjoys an idyllic existence punctuated by crime-solving with young and newly minted Inspector Haze (Redmond has become the pathologist doctor in this novel), but that existence is sorely perturbed by the arrival of his ex-fiance. She tossed him aside when he was stuck in a CSA prison, but she’s now lost a husband and intends to get Redmond back at tll cost. Will he succumb to her advances? Not if his new love, the vicar’s daughter, has anything to say about it!
Of course, a murder occurs that calls Redmond and Haze back into action, complicating all the romantic intrigue. This is where the author creates a Poe-like dark tale of murder most fowl, where the victim is a lowlife who has done fowl deeds himself. The reader won’t know whom deserves their sympathies, the victim or his killers! In other words, the author explores the darkness in men’s souls, the universal evil that has haunted humanity since Cain and Abel.
Highly recommended. Although the author isn’t British, these novels are written like other British-style mysteries, and they’re historical fiction well worthy of the time-traveling trek back to 1860’s England. You can read all the novels independently. And, by the way, I read the first two books in the series—they’re also great reads—so you can binge-read the entire series. #4 is on pre-order now at Amazon.
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Comments are always welcome.
Origins: The Denisovan Trilogy, Book One. Kayla Jones has dreams she can’t understand. Her future seems determined as the brilliant STEM student looks forward to a research career, but her past gets in the way. As if the chaos afflicting the world and leading to her adopted father’s death wasn’t enough, killers begin to pursue her. With some friends who come to her aid, she begins to discover a conspiracy that can be traced to prehistoric battles between hominins bent on conquest of their world. Coming as soon as possible from A.B. Carolan!
And to tide you over until this new novel is published, please try A.B.’s other three YA novels, now on sale through December 31, 2020 at Smashwords. These three YA sci-fi mysteries, Secret Lab, The Secret of the Urns, and Mind Games will take you from the near to the far future, all set in my sci-fi universe mapped out in “The Chaos Chronicles Trilogy” and other stories. They will provide many hours of reading pleasure for young adult readers and those adult readers who are young at heart.
Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!
