Before I get into the theme for this year, let's look at the last title of last year from Frances Brody's Kate Shackleton detective series, Murder in the Afternoon. Set in post WWI England, Kate is a former military nurse and widow, who still holds out hope that her MIA husband may yet be alive.
She's settled into a life that allows her to pursue her love of photography and now with the help of a former policeman, Jim Sykes, Kate also does some detective work that mainly focuses on missing persons.
Getting a knock on her door in the early hours is becoming commonplace but when she opens up to find Mary Jane Armstrong, who is in need of someone to find her missing husband Ethan, what shocks Kate the most is being told that Mary Jane is her sister.
Kate has known for years about being adopted from her parents yet unaware of who her biological family was or that they knew anything about her. Despite her surprise, she is willing to do what she can here and perhaps learn something about her own past.
Mary Jane is desperate to find Ethan, who was last seen at his stone mason work by his children. Harriet, the oldest child, discovered what appeared to be his dead body but by the time she was able to get an adult to help, Ethan and his tool kit had completely disappeared. Those in authority are quick to claim that Harriet is making up stories ,however, her version of events doesn't waver.
She's not the only young girl being overlooked when it comes to telling the truth. During the investigation, Sykes comes across a child servant named Millie who works at the farm of Bob Conroy, Ethan's best friend, and may know much more about what's going on than she's given credit or intelligence for:
With Ethan being involving in union organizing and Mary Jane having an unusual connection with her former employers(who happen to be the local lord and lady of the manor), the list of suspects is getting longer by the minute.
When another mysterious death occurs and Mary Jane's freedom is threatened, Kate's determination to find the truth becomes firmly set in stone. Not only is Mary Jane's fate in jeopardy, the future of her new found niece and nephew are on the line as well.
I've read several of the Kate Shackleton books at this point and Brody's sturdy yet delicate portrayal of characters caught up in their own chain of events and hard to take back actions is lovely to behold. The added addition of personal stakes to this story make leading lady Kate all the more vivid as a person in her own right, not to mention a most thoughtful detective to boot.
Kate's continuing hopes about her husband Gerald possibly being alive are sadly compelling yet showcase the humanity of the character in a tenderly done fashion. Having not read all of the books(or read them entirely in order), I don't know when or if this dynamic changes but it does make Kate truly a wonder of a woman in that regard and one I do want to follow on her next adventure:
For this new year of Series-ous Reading, our theme is Cozy Culinary Feast and that means plenty of food related mysteries in the cozy section of the fictional pantry.
Many of the authors selected for this mystery menu are well known favorites such as Joanne Fluke and Diane Mott Davidson but I have a few fresh faces to add to the list.
To start, my first literary course will be State of the Onion by Julie Hyzy, which begins her White House Chef mystery series. An up and coming chef, Olivia "Ollie" Paras has enough on her plate as it is without taking down a potential threat to the Commander in Chief with a frying pan.
Despite her more pressing problems of competing for an open top spot in the White House kitchen staff and dealing with an obnoxious celebrity chef, Ollie finds herself doing some side work as a sleuth, which also threatens her romance with a Secret Service agent as well as the free world. Can she save the day and a state dinner in time?
Since we are thankfully heading into a brand new administration in Washington(despite what some might wish to think), I thought this particular series would be fun to explore. Don't worry, not planning on getting political here but a fictional foodie look at the White House might actually be worth checking out:
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