She is a very good writer and an expert in delivering atmosphere and period correct stories but they can be dark and after reading them for a while I needed a break.

Until the last few chapters, I was thinking that this was the best of the Charlotte & Thomas Pitt novels so far, despite the fact that it’s heavy on repetitious sexist ranting from the aged Victorian patriarch. It’s too bad that the book’s ending is so weak.

Charlotte’s sister Emily is Lady Ashworth - having married as far above herself as Charlotte married beneath. Emily’s husband is murdered just after an embarrassing episode where he was flirting with another woman, and Emily falls under suspicion.

So Detective Inspector Thomas Pitt does his police thing, and Charlotte does her behind-the-scenes, I-used-to-be-rich-and-privileged-too thing. The mystery is fairly intriguing at first and I was hoping for a clever twist, but alas, the ending is weak sauce.

A bunch of summer reading mystery novels together. Sue Grafton is always dependable, always good. John Maddox Roberts is a new discovery for me. A private eye in ancient Rome is a great idea -- the historical stuff is excellent, the characters and the writing good too. Very readable. I could have used one more plot twist in each of them.

This one is terrible. I'm frankly not all that impressed with Anne Perry's Victorian backgrounds, though they're not bad. But when I was about two thirds through, I realized -- nothing has happened in the last hundred pages. She shows up at the mansion, realizes any one of seven people could have done it, but she has no clue which one. Then he shows up, and realizes any one of seven people could have done it, but he has no clue which one. Then back to her, realizing...

and so on.

The Mystery that Stayed a Mystery

Nobody understood the ending to this book. Everyone had theories- George was gay, George was a girl, George was illegitimate. Who knows? Apparently only the author. Ended on page 76 with no explanation.