I seen to be going through a mystery phase lately. When I was about nine years old I was all about mystery novels-Nancy Drew (of course) some Mary Higgins Clarke (I was precocious) even a little Lawrence Block. It was something I had common with my father, whose bookshelves are filled with nothing but mysteries and books on music. But like any evolving young reader I went through stages, mystery to old fashioned books, like Anne of Green Gables, to fantasy, to contemporary fiction (chick lit mostly) and then to historical fiction. Now, with the recent publishing boom of historical mysteries, I seem to have come full circle.
"A Poisoned Season" is the sequel to "And only to Deceive", in which we met the recently widowed Emily Ashton, who lives in London in the late Victorian age. Emily fell into the business of solving mysteries as she languished in mourning, and took the time to learn more about her deceased husband, who she barely knew in their short marriage. While reading his journal she stumbled across possibly stolen art ring and eventually, the truth of her husband's death. Along the way she found a love of Greek, especially the Iliad and ancient Greek art and began to know-and perhaps love-her husband's best friend Colin Hargreaves. She also develops an attitude towards society that could be described as unconventional at best, given the times.
In "A Poisoned Season" Emily returns, back from her villa in Greece, accompanied by her new friend Cecile de Lac to face the London society season. This season has some spice added to it not only with the introduction of Charles Berry, who claims (and is believed by society) to be the heir of Marie Antoinette, and if the monarchy still existed in France, the rightful king. With the appearance of Berry, who is a drunk, a womanizer, and a cruel and arrogant person, comes a cat burglar who only steals items that were once the possessions of the long dead queen of France. Emily's home is burgled but things don't get alarming until one of the men an item was stolen from is murdered-poisoned.
Emily winds up investigating this death in order to keep the police's prime suspect in the murder, a maid who the grieving widow insists is innocent, from being hanged. But as she investigates Emily discovers she is being followed; the Marie Antoinette thief leaves her love notes in Greek, things begin to disappear from her home and mysterious accidents start to happen. This, coupled with an attack on her reputation, makes for an increasingly treacherous society season...
I really, really enjoyed this book, much more than the first one in fact. While its predecessor had an excellent element of a tragic love story (Emily and her now dead husband), this novel has a romance with a breathing person-Coin Hargreaves, who is, in a sense, the perfect man. Charming, Handsome, a spy for the queen, and patient about Emily's reluctance to marry again (though not too patient-he refuses to kiss Emily until they are engaged and makes a bet concerning marriage with her.) The mystery in this novel is well planed out and hard to crack, the characters are believable and compelling. And it has a happy ending. This book is so good in fact, that I literally could not put it down and was up into the wee hours of the morning finishing it. I am quite sure that if you liked the first novel at all, you will love the second.
Five stars. I look forward with great anticipation to the third novel in this series and the event that will hopefully take place in it.
