Vancouver homicide detective Mallory Atkinson is in Edinburgh, Scotland, to be with her dying grandmother as she lives out her final days. The grieving 30-year-old goes on a jog one evening to clear her mind. She's lured into an alley where she is brutally strangled by a strange man.

The next thing Mallory knows, she's waking up in a world that has tilted completely. She's still in Edinburgh, but, as she soon discovers, she's traveled back in time 150 years to 1869. To further complicate matters, she's no longer Mallory, at least not on the outside. She's now inhabiting the body of Catriona Mitchell, a saucy 19-year-old. A semi-reformed thief rescued from the streets by her employer's sister, Catriona works for a handsome undertaker named Dr. Duncan Gray. The kicker? Catriona is recovering from being strangled and left for dead—in the exact same spot where Mallory was attacked a century and a half later. 

As Mallory struggles to make sense of her new life while also trying to figure out how to escape it and return to her own time, a curious corpse is delivered to Dr. Gray, who moonlights as a medical examiner. The young man has been strangled. Just like Mallory and Catriona. Mallory's detective brain kicks into high gear; even though she knows it's essential for her to act the part of Catriona—an uneducated servant who doesn't know what a germ is, let alone understand forensic science—she can't help but tap into her own expertise. Anything to catch the cold-blooded killer who is stalking prey in two separate timelines. Desperate to return to the side of her beloved nana, Mallory hopes that solving the case will catapult her back where she belongs. Can the detective put the killer behind bars before he strikes again? Or will his next attempt on her life be final, for both Mallory and Catriona?

When an elderly woman is hit by a train on an isolated piece of railroad track, Sheriff Lily Ross is called in to investigate.  While it's immediately clear that the woman is dead, it's not apparent just what she was doing out in the middle of nowhere in the dead of night, wearing only a flimsy nightgown.  Marks on her wrists indicate she had been restrained recently.  Was the death a tragic accident caused by a roaming senior citizen with dementia?  Suicide?  Or did something more sinister occur?  Lily doesn't believe the brakeman's tale about a ghost pushing the old lady off a cliff directly into the path of an oncoming train, but she can't shake the feeling that there's more to the incident than meets the eye.

Determined to figure out Jane Doe's identity and the truth behind her death, Lily starts digging.  Her probing leads her to a facility deep in the holler.  Hiding secrets both old and new, The Hollows asylum may be the key to solving Lily's current mystery as well as answering disturbing questions from the past.  In the midst of working the Jane Doe case, Lily's also dealing with the fallout from attempted integration at the mines, an upcoming election that could win her the sheriff's seat in her own right, and a shivery ghost story she's starting to believe in spite of herself.  Can Lily close the case?  Will she keep her job as sheriff, despite many thinking it's an unsuitable job for a lady?  And what about the ghost that haunts the holler?  Will it make a believer out of pragmatic Lily Ross?

I enjoyed The Widows—the first installment in Jess Montgomery's historical mystery series featuring Lily Ross—so I was eager to read its sequel, The Hollows.  Like its predecessor, the novel features an atmospheric Appalachian setting in an intriguing historical time period.  It discusses issues/groups I don't know much about, including prohibition, integration in the mining industry, women's issues in the 1920s, and the Women's Klu Klux Klan.  In addition, it brings together a cast of colorful characters, most of whom are likable and fun to read about.  Lily is no exception.  She's an understated heroine, which makes her all the more alluring.  To top it all off, Montgomery writes with assured, engrossing prose.  All of these elements come together to make The Hollows another winning historical mystery from Montgomery.  You better believe I'm eagerly awaiting the next installment in this enjoyable series.

(Readalikes:  The Widows by Jess Montgomery)

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Back in 2017, Lark mentioned her love of the Lady Darby mystery series by Anna Lee Huber.  She always gives out great recommendations, so I immediately bought a copy of The Anatomist's Wife, the series opener.  I enjoyed the book immensely and proceeded to read Mortal Arts.  Although I've got copies of the next five books in the series, I have not had a chance to read them yet.  So, unfortunately, I can't post a review of the newest Lady Darby novel, An Artless Demise, as I was supposed to do today.  Instead, I'm going to hit you with a spotlight and encourage you to give this fun series a go.  If you like historical mysteries that are well-written, not too graphic, set in intriguing locales, and peopled by likable, interesting characters, this series is right up your alley.  Give it a try.  You will not be disappointed.

Before I give you the plot summary, be warned that there is a spoiler in the first line.  It's a fairly obvious one, but one all the same.  Just so you know.

An Artless Demise: 

Lady Darby returns to London with her new husband, Sebastian Gage, but newlywed bliss won't last for long when her past comes back to haunt her in the latest exciting installment in this national bestselling series.

November 1831. After fleeing London in infamy more than two years prior, Lady Kiera Darby's return to the city is anything but mundane, though not for the reasons she expected. A gang of body snatchers is arrested on suspicion of imitating the notorious misdeeds of Edinburgh criminals, Burke and Hare—killing people from the streets and selling their bodies to medical schools. Then Kiera's past—a past she thought she'd finally made peace with—rises up to haunt her. 

All of London is horrified by the evidence that "burkers" are, indeed, at work in their city. The terrified populace hovers on a knife's edge, ready to take their enmity out on any likely suspect. And when Kiera receives a letter of blackmail, threatening to divulge details about her late anatomist husband's involvement with the body snatchers and wrongfully implicate her, she begins to apprehend just how precarious her situation is. Not only for herself, but also her new husband and investigative partner, Sebastian Gage, and their unborn child. 

Meanwhile, the young scion of a noble family has been found murdered a block from his home, and the man's family wants Kiera and Gage to investigate. Is it a failed attempt by the London burkers, having left the body behind, or the crime of someone much closer to home? Someone who stalks the privileged, using the uproar over the burkers to cover his own dark deeds?

Purchase your copy of An Artless Demise here or wherever books are sold:

Amazon
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Indiebound

Have any of you read the Lady Darby series?  What do you think?

With her increasingly complicated feelings for Revelstoke "Stoker" Templeton-Vane clouding her normally rational judgment, Veronica Speedwell feels the need for some time away from the close quarters she and Stoker share as they work together in London.  When Stoker's older brother, Tiberius, offers the lepidopterist an opportunity to travel to a remote island to study an almost extinct butterfly, she jumps at the chance.  Even if it means posing as Tiberius' fiancée for a two-week house party.  It's worth it to collect larvae for her vivarium—and get an up-close look at a regal Cornish castle that boasts its very own ghost.

Before long, it becomes apparent that their host, Malcolm Romilly, has ulterior motives for gathering guests to his home.  Everyone in attendance, save Veronica, is connected to Rosamund, Malcolm's bride, who disappeared on their wedding day three years ago.  Still tormented by grief, Malcolm is determined to find out what happened to his wife once and for all.  He enlists the help of all present to solve the mystery, even though all but Veronica are suspects. 

The shadowy castle, always the center of superstition and fairy tales, is the perfect setting for an intriguing ghost hunt.  Veronica will do anything to help the grieving groom end his torment, even putting her life on the line to discover Rosamund's fate.  As she fends off the attention of two ardent men, sorts idle village gossip from crucial clues, and scours the mysterious castle for answers, Veronica creeps ever closer to becoming the next victim of a cold-blooded murderer who will not hesitate to kill again.

The Veronica Speedwell mystery series by Deanna Raybourn is one of the most delightful I've ever read, so it's no surprise that I loved A Dangerous Collaboration.  In fact, I think this fourth installment is my favorite.  It's clever, it's fun, it's twisty, and it's entertaining.  Veronica is, as always, a refreshingly forthright narrator.  She's also a smart, spunky heroine who's brave, loyal, and compassionate.  With its Gothic setting, ghostly happenings, and a surprise guest who keeps Veronica on her toes, this novel is simply a whole lot of fun.  I adored it.

(Readalikes:  Other books in the Veronica Speedwell series, including A Curious Beginning, A Perilous Undertaking, and A Treacherous Curse.  Also reminds me a little of the Amelia Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters)

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