The timeline in the book was picking up fairly soon after the last one, and now it was time for Kate to propose her idea for a Victorian Village to the town council and town gathered that night. She knew she'd have her work cut out for her, but she didn't expect to find another dead body so soon. Kate and her friend Nell's grad student Carroll found a young guy dead in the library. Later in the book, they found out what if any, his connection was to the Barton papers that Carroll had rescued from the Barton Mansion attic.

I enjoyed this trip back to Asheboro, MD and could just picture the town, even though it's not supposed to be much to picture at this point. I had a suspicion about who the killer was, but I had no idea why. Kate and Josh seemed to be growing a little closer, her ex-boyfriend Ryan who owned the B&B where she was staying was just a good friend now (he came in handy as an attorney for their project), and Kate's bestie Lisbeth was involved in the project too. Kate, Josh and Lisbeth did the main sleuthing though, and they do make a great team. I hope that Josh decides not to cut ties with Asheboro when his caretaker's position is over. It'll be interesting to see how they pull off the Victorian Village project in the time frame that Kate was hoping for, so I'm anxious to read on in the series!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an ARC of this book provided by the publisher via NetGalley, and my opinions are my own.

Sheila Connolly’s Killer in the Carriage House is the second book in the Victorian Village Mysteries. I had not read the first book but had no problems or confusions because I haven’t. That is not to say that I wouldn’t like to, it is on my TBR list but for now this one reads well as a stand-alone.

The story is well-written with a solid plot, which was no surprise. The characters are interesting and engaging with a female protagonist, which was also no surprise. Then the setting of a small historic Victorian town is detailed and vivid, no surprise here either until the location. I had only read Sheila Connolly’s Cork County Mysteries so Asheboro, Maryland was surprising. No matter it is a wonderful murder in the mist of a small-town revitalization which is part of a series I now plan to follow.

Killer in the Carriage House is the second book in A Victorian Village Mystery series. It can be read alone for those who are new to this series. Kate Hamilton lost her job when a big conglomerate took over the hotel where she worked. Her friend, Lisbeth Scott asks her to return to Asheboro and come up with a plan to save the dying town. Kate’s idea is to turn the town into a Victorian village after seeing the Henry Barton mansion. However, it will take a massive amount of planning, money and help to pull it off. Money is something that is in short supply after the banker embezzled the town funds. Kate is hoping Henry Barton’s papers will be a help and gets assistance from Josh Wainwright and Carroll Peterson. I like that we are introduced to some of the townspeople like Mayor Skip Bentley, Frances who owns the newspaper, Ted the diner owner, and Mr. MacDonald with his hardware store. Killer in the Carriage House is a slow starter with a sluggish pace. I thought the mystery was light. The dead body is found after I was a quarter of the way through the book and is barely addressed after that point. Identifying the killer is a piece of cake and the resolution was lacking. Kate has great ideas for the town with no idea on how to execute them. She is also a procrastinator. Kate keeps putting off things she needs to accomplish (even going to the grocery store). She should be looking into funding, building codes, talking to towns people and doing research. Instead, Kate devotes her time to the Barton papers. Henry Barton does sound like a fascinating man and I am sure there is more to discover about him. I like the inclusion of Nell Pratt in the story from A Museum Mystery series. A Victorian Village Mystery series is a concept that I think is charming and I enjoyed Murder at the Mansion. Killer in the Carriage House, though, was lacking which is unusual for Sheila Connolly. I am curious to see what Kate and her friends uncover in the next A Victorian Village Mystery.

Cozy Mystery Full of History
This cozy murder mystery takes place in a small old town in Maryland. It is full of eastern seaboard history circa 1900. The back story is great and very realistic. The murder mystery almost takes a backseat to the historical story. It melds together very well and is a good and fascinating read. This should be a wonderful series. I received this ARC book for free from Net Galley and this is my honest review.

I really like this series, and having read the first book, this is a great second entry. I feel like this could be read as a stand-alone for anyone who hasn't read the first book, with the author explaining enough of the background to understand what's happening but not so much that it gives everything away from the first story. The mysteries are really intriguing, including protagonist Kate trying to find out more about one of the town's most notable historical residents, his home, and his business. I like getting to know the characters a little better, like Kate and Josh. I love books that have layers of themes like this one. It really keeps me hooked to the book and it's hard to put it down! I really hope this series continues awhile so I can read more about what happens with Asheboro, Kate, Josh, and the other characters.

I received an advance copy of this book. This review contains my honest thoughts and opinions.

While I really enjoyed the first book in this series, this book fell rather flat for me, which is a disappointment to be sure.
If you are going to use the same premise in two books back to back, you need to make the second book MUCH more eventful than this one was. And you have to make the killer not so obvious [from the beginning it was going to be one of two people and it never varied from that] AND when you have the reveal, it would actually be nice if we got the whole story and not just "I want my lawyer" and nothing else.

The story of Henry Barton and his letters from Clara Barton from the first book made for a very interesting story and I really enjoyed that, but this addition of MORE papers by him and what they contained was just a little too much to believe and that is where the mystery bogged down - in fact, there really wasn't that much of a mystery at all. It was all a paper-chase until the reveal at the end.

This book was about 10 chapters too long and needed to be wrapped up a lot quicker than it was [given the way the story was going] and I just felt it dragged on too long for what little you got in the end.

One big quibble [that I hope was addressed before the publishing, which is tomorrow] - in chapter 15, Kate and Carroll are in the main part of town and decide they need to eat. They find a place, which is described as nondescript and close to unpalatable. They finish, go outside and have a conversation about what to do that afternoon and then head out. Start chapter 16 and you find Kate and Carroll, in the main part of town, trying to decide where to have lunch. They decide on the lunch counter [where lunch was delicious] and they talk briefly to the owner, and then leave and go stand on the sidewalk and talk about what they are going to do that afternoon. First, how many lunches do two girls need in a day? And WHY would they have the same conversation [word-for-word] both times? Clearly, this was a mistake of the editor and I sure hope they caught it before publishing because this is a pretty big gaffe. It doesn't change the story, but it DOES cause a bit of confusion when you go from chapter 15 to 16.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin Press/Minotaur Books for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Killer in the Carriage House by Shelia Connolly is the 2nd book in the Victorian Village mystery series, and another enjoyable addition. Katherine Hamilton is contacted by her high school friend to help with their home town of Asheford, Maryland. The town spent all their resources on a mansion, and the town is now broke. Kate has her hands full convincing the town that her, and historian Joshua Wainwright have a plan that could work. Hoping that the Barton mansion has some hidden valued papers, they arrange to move them to the library. Before they can be moved, a body is found in the library. Kate is determined to get to the truth behind the killing. I really enjoyed this story, and am looking forward to reading about how the town digs out of their hole.  I highly recommend this book for any one who enjoys history and mystery.

I reviewed an arc from Netgalley and St. Martin's Press. Thank you.

Killer In The Carriage House is the second book in the Victorian Village Mystery series.

Kate Hamilton is still concerned if she can turn her hometown of Asheboro, MD into a Victorian village, in hopes of attracting enough tourists, thereby, preventing the town from becoming a complete ghost town. The finding of letters from Clara Barton to her cousin, Henry Barton an industrialist in Asheboro, is one big step in getting the project headed in the right direction. Kate has contacted her friend in Philadelphia, Nell Pratt, about getting somebody to help sort the remaining items found in the attic of Henry Barton’s mansion. Nell arranges for Carroll Peterson to come help with the sorting.

Kate stops by the library, where she plans to store the papers and where Carroll will be working, to plan where everything will be placed to facilitate the sorting. As she is about to head to the Barton mansion, a young man comes to the door telling Kate that he wants to do some family research. When she explains that the library is closed due to the fact that they are without a librarian, he leaves.

The next day Kate and Carroll arrive at the library to go over where they will store the items and find that a window has been broken and a set of bookshelves has been turned over and under the bookshelves is the body of the young man that Kate had met the day before. The sorting has to be shelved for a couple of days while Detective Reynolds and his crime scene crew search for clues to verify if it was murder or an accident. This gives Kate and Carroll a chance to walk around town, wanting to confirm that will be viable to restore the buildings to their Victorian-era appearance. Also, they are also considering what can be done to restore the building that had housed Barton’s shovel factory. Josh is especially keen on this project. Josh has been acting as a caretaker at the Barton mansion while he is on sabbatical from Johns Hopkins University where his area of specialty is nineteenth-century industrialization studies.

There are two people that arrive in town around the time that the victim had and Kate, Carroll, and Josh all begin to wonder whether this is a coincidence or not. The first is Alison. Josh is acquainted with Alison having met her at a few conferences they both had attended. Alison claims to be researching urban history and needs Josh’s help with this. The other is Eric, who is a college friend of Ryan and claims to be interested in the Civil War and is visiting various battle sites in the area.

Hopefully, they will be able to find the killer before any more deaths occur and Kate will be able to get the citizens to embrace her project and contribute their own or their families memories when it was a viable community. Kate visited the publisher of the newspaper, Frances, and found an interesting article that may solve many mysteries if they can only find the original papers before anyone else does.

I found this book to be a very well-written and interesting story and very interesting and believable characters. There were enough red herrings that I was kept guessing until the end of the book.

I am anxiously awaiting the next book in this great series.

This is the second in the Victorian Village mystery series and works as a stand alone but my advice is to read them in order to really get to know Kate Hamilton. She didn't just decide one day to return to her childhood home town and help it prevent its demise. She had her ducks all in a row, managing an upscale hotel and Asheboro, MD was not on her radar. Well, those little ducks decided to break ranks and Kate found herself without a job when the hotel is sold. Just as that bombshell lands in her lap, her childhood friend, Lisbeth, contacts her and asks her to come back to see the town. It is in dire straights, in danger of vanishing off the map as there is no reason for tourists to come their way and residents are leaving for greener pastures in the big city. One thing leads to another and Kate takes on the huge challenge of breathing new life into the town. Can she get everybody working together to bring new life into Asheboro?
In the first mystery, Murder at the Mansion, Kate becomes reacquainted with the townspeople and solves a murder just as ideas are forming in her mind for rescuing the town. Now, in the second mystery, the idea has formed, the plan only needs to have everybody on board. It won't be easy as there is no money for the project and a storm has wrecked havoc on the very buildings that were to be the basis of the recovery. Will the insurance settlement money be enough to save the day? All of the stores on the main street had modern siding, etc. on them, covering the Victorian fronts that were to be the focal point of town - a true Victorian Village and the Barton mansion, a Victorian gem, was to be part of the draw for tourists. Barton was a relative of Clara Barton and there is hope that that will be a draw for tourists interested in history.
Kate and Joshua, a college professor/historian, are in search of documents that will act as that tourist draw with the Barton family. They have some but not enough so they keep searching. Also searching is a young man who shows up one day, asking to look at their library research archives. He is informed that, with no librarian, he will have to contact the people who manage the town business. When Kate goes to the library later, she finds his corpse - he returned to do his own after hours snooping. What did he hope to find and why was it so important that he would end up killed because of it?
This is a series that builds with each book so the pace is not as fast as some would like. No body in the first chapter, etc. and it is a very small town. The story is threefold - the first is the challenge Kate has to rescue the town, the second is the history of the town and last, but certainly not least, is the unmasking of a killer. Each book leads to the next as we wait to see what will happen with Kate's plans. I hope she and Joshua build up their relationship, too.
All in all, I like the characters and the location and the mystery was enough of a puzzle to satisfy me. Now that I have gotten to know Kate, Lisbeth, Joshua and the rest of the town, I know I will be reading more in the series.
My thanks to the publisher, Minotaur and to NetGalley for giving me an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

Kate is trying to convince the residents of her hometown that the only way to save the town is to recreate it as a Victorian village and tourist attraction. Her plan is ambitious, and she has help from her best friend and a historian who is on sabbatical from a local university, but they need some kind of 'hook' to get the townspeople – and potential tourists – on board. When they discover a body in the town library, Kate is convinced the death is related to her project, and she is determined to discover how the two events are connected.

This is the second book in Ms. Connolly's newest series, and I enjoyed it as much as I did the first one. I liked getting to know some of the secondary characters that I hope will show up in future books, and had fun trying to imagine the town as Kate hopes it will be should her project succeed. I'm rooting for her, and for the town, but I have to wonder how many more stashes of important documents she and her friends will stumble upon as the series progresses. Once was fun, but using the same circumstance in two consecutive books seems like an easy way out. I look forward to reading the next book in the series, but I hope Kate finds another way to finance and create interest in her project.

This is book 2 in the series. Although I presume some references given to prior activities are probably in book 1, it isn't necessary to read book 1 in order to follow book 2.

Kate Hamilton has returned to Asheboro, MD, the town in which she grew up, to try to help the town financially by the center into a Victorian Village (after childhood friend Lisbeth has asked for her help). The large Barton house on the side of town is an example of Victorian architecture. Her new friend Josh, visiting caretaker of the Barton house and helping Kate, is a professor at Johns Hopkins specializing in nineteenth-century industrialization in the mid-Atlantic. He is interested in finding the Barton's papers about his shovel factory while on sabbatical. They had already found papers about Clara Barton.

Other important characters include Alison (who claimed to be doing research on urban history and wanted help from Josh), Ryan (who was briefly Kate's boyfriend in high school, but married and divorced her enemy Cordy and now owns the B&B where Kate, Carroll, and Eric are staying), Carroll (who is helping Kate with research on the papers found in Barton's attic), and Eric (a college friend of Ryan). Since the town library is closed (the librarian is in prison), the town is allowing Kate and Caroll to research the papers they find in the library.

When Carroll arrives, Kate brings her to the library to check out the space. They go in the locked door and find a body lying under a fallen bookcase with broken glass from a window. Kate immediately calls State Detective Reynolds, who solved her last murder). Although set up to look accidental, it looks suspicious to all three of them. Kate recognized the man as someone who tried to come in to do some genealogy research the night before, but Kate wouldn't let him in. They are now worried that there is something hidden in the Barton papers that is very valuable, and someone will kill to find them. Kate and her friends need to find the valuable papers before someone else dies! Meanwhile, Kate and Detective Reynolds need to find the killer.

I can hardly believe that this is only the second book in the series. The first book, Murder At The Mansion, did such a phenomenal job of setting up the characters and the backstory that you feel as if, in this book, you are coming home and visiting with old friends and places. The overarching background story concerns Asheboro, Maryland – a very small town that has gotten lost in the migration to larger cities. The only industry has closed down and the younger people are all moving to the larger cities for work. This leaves the town with few residents and no money to sustain itself. In a desperate, last-ditch effort to save the town, they are looking are re-making the town into a Victorian Village in the vein of colonial Williamsburg, VA.

Kate Hamilton is busily trying to figure out how to convince the town merchants to rip out all of the modernization in their storefronts and change them back to their original Victorian configuration. Most of the changes from the last hundred years has been superficial and left the original structures intact. She also needs to find another tourist draw to the village and is hoping to find that in the remainder of the Henry Barton papers. In the last book, they found valuable and historic letters to Henry from Clara Barton, but that won’t be enough to draw tourists to their town. So, they are hoping that there will be additional historical documents of significance in Henry’s papers. Those things are very, very important because the town doesn’t have the money for any of the projects and if something of importance and value isn’t found, the town will just wither and die. So Kate has her hands full.

As Kate, Josh and Carroll ready the documents from the Barton mansion to the town library, Kate has a young man drop in at the closed library asking to visit the family section of the library. Kate tells him that the library is temporarily closed because they don’t have a librarian and that he’ll have to ask permission from the town leaders before he can come in. The young man leaves and Kate soon locks up and leaves the library. When she returns the following day with her friend Carroll, it is to discover the body of the young man who had just visited the day before.

Kate calls Detective Reynolds of the State Police and tells him what has happened. Nobody knows who the young man is – and his death wasn’t natural or accidental. Kate and company try to leave the murder investigation to Detective Reynolds while they focus on the documents – but – things keep happening that lead them to believe that the murder is somehow associated with the documents and they begin to wonder if there aren’t more documents stored somewhere else. What other secrets could there be? Is there something that would garner the town the money it needs to save itself? What was the young man looking for? Who could have killed him and why?

This is a fun read with excellent mysteries – murder and other. I also liked the introduction of the historical and research information included because it made the scenarios very believable. All-in-all, it was a thoroughly enjoyable read and I can’t wait for the next book.

I’ve read other series by the author and she seems to bring any romance elements into it very slowly – much to my dismay. I love a good mystery, but it also needs to have a good, strong romance element in it for me. So far, the romance in this series is tenuous and I’m getting antsy about it. Is Josh the one? The real, strong connection doesn’t seem to be there so far. Is it Ryan? Unlikely, but possible. Someone else? Who knows. I’m ready for it to be settled.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an Advanced Reader Copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Until I had read a few pages., I had no idea this was part of a series. It can be read as a stand alone,but to get full effect having read the first book in the series would have been beneficial. Since I hadn't read the first book, the characters seemed to be all known to each other and no real detail was provided. Overall , the book is pretty fast paced and holds your interest. The ending seemed rather abrupt and disjointed even though the story was ''all tied up'' by then.
I would suggest reading the first book in the series before reading this one so that you might have a clearer understanding of the characters and how they all for into the story.
I received this book as a complimentary copy for an honest review. The opinions expressed are my own.

This is the second book in this series. The historical aspects of the story in this latest offering were interesting. Kate’s plans for her hometown and the ensuing whodunit was a bit dry to me. I do not particularly enjoy the character of Kate, which is disappointing but I’m hoping she grows on me.
I voluntarily reviewed an advance reader copy of this book.

In this second book of the series Kate has come up with an idea on how to make her hometown a place that people may want to visit. She thinks turning it into a Victorian Village is the way to go and hopes that she will be able to get the whole town involved on making the changes needed for this to happen. The mayor has basically given her the keys to all of the city so that she can do the research she needs in turning the town around. Having found the Barton papers on her return to the town she is hoping that by emptying out the attic of Barton mansion more important papers can be found. They need something big and catchy to help make her ideas for the town take it to another level. While checking out the library to see if they have enough space for the papers to be catalogued there she meets a young man who says he needs to use the library to do some family research. She turns him away because for the moment the library is closed to the public. The next day when returning to the library it looks as if someone has broken in, but she soon realizes that there is a body inside, it turns out to be the young man she met the previous day. With so much on the line with her project for the town a murder isn't something that she really needs to have to worry with. Follow along as Kate tries to figure out who the young man was, what he was really doing in town, and why someone would want him dead. She needs to find answers so that she can move forward with plans for the town. This was a fun read that had me looking every which way for a killer. I'm enjoying the concept that Kate has for the town and can't wait to see what all the town will go along with.

The Second in the Victorian Village Mystery Series

Kate Hamilton is back in her hometown of Asheboro, Maryland. Staying at the dead Cordelia's B and B. Trying to save the town and its history from going under. The only thing that ever made money in the town was a shovel factory that has long closed. It as well as the fantastic Barton Mansion were left to the city to be sold.

As Kate gets ready to get down to business and find out where Barton's money came from and go through all of his documents, people start popping up asking questions, about the research and what she has found. And when one of them turns up dead in the library things get dicey.

I have enjoyed this author's works before however, this one was pretty flat. Kate isn't a likable character.  All of the characters seemed flat. Although the historical parts were interesting the people were not.

NetGalley/ July 9th, 2019 by Minotaur Books

This wasn't my favorite book by this author. The main character seemed kind of one dimensional and devoid of emotion. A lot of talking and not a lot of action in this book. Ending was a little anticlimactic.

The second Victorian Village Mystery begins with a town hall meeting where Kate Hamilton shares her strategy to save Asheboro by transforming the small town into a Victorian Village and successful tourist destination.

Kate promises that she is working on a detailed plan and proposed budget. She enlists Carroll Peterson to help go through the Barton papers to see if any more treasures like the Clara Barton letters may be among the remaining documents. After getting permission from Mayor Skip to use the temporarily closed library to sift through the papers, Carroll and Kate check out the space to see how much room is available. While there, a young man knocks on the door, asking if he can access the library’s genealogical archives. Kate refers him to the Mayor to obtain permission.

The next day Kate and Carroll discover the library has been broken into and a dead body is trapped beneath a fallen bookcase. The dead body is Zach Mitchell, the young man who spoke with Kate the day before at the library.

Josh Wainwright, professor on sabbatical from Johns Hopkins and interim caretaker at the Barton Mansion, agrees to help Kate and Carroll move the boxes of documents and go through the papers. In the meantime, Kate is doing a little sleuthing, trying to figure out what Zach was looking for and who would want to kill him.

Sheila Connolly crafts a smart multi-layered mystery. Investigating the murder of a young man no one in the small town knows is intriguing enough. But the most fascinating mystery in this series is one that continues to be open ended: will Asheboro be able to pull off transformation into an authentic Victorian Village? The suspense Ms. Connolly creates through Kate’s journey to produce a plan is unique and captivating. You know the murder will be solved but how will Kate and Asheboro overcome the challenges to save this small town..

I enjoyed this book. I found the story line to be unusually and interesting. I enjoyed reading about all the history. #Killer in the Carriage House #NetGalley

I have been a fan of Sheila Connolly’s County Cork mysteries and looked forward to reading Killer in the Carriage House, the second of her Victorian Village Mysteries. This series takes place in Asheboro, Maryland, a small town in rapid decline.

Kate Hamilton left Asheboro after graduating high school and never imagined returning. After being laid off from her position in Baltimore, she found herself back in Asheboro working to restore a mansion that the town had purchased. They were hoping to bolster tourism, but the town is dying and Kate is determined to save it.. With its’ proximity to Civil War battlefields and a number of older buildings in the town center, she is hoping to turn Asheboro into a Victorian village. The major problem is funding.

When letters written by Clara Barton to her relative Henry Barton were found at the mansion, Kate hoped that there might be something more in Henry’s correspondence to help with the funding. She enlists the help of Carroll, a historian, to sort through Henry’s papers. From the attic at the mansion the papers are to be moved to the town library for sorting and evaluation. When Kate and Carroll arrive to check the library, they find a broken window and the body of a young man, a stranger to the town.

While the murder is mentioned on occasion throughout the book, it takes second place to Kate’s project. As she surveys the town, she becomes increasingly aware of the obstacles she faces. Setting up a non-profit, finding a lawyer, providing facilities for the tourists, providing horse drawn transportation to the mansion from town and the care of horses are just a few of her problems. She must also convince the townspeople to accept the plan and find the money to finance it.

Connolly concentrates her story on Kate’s project and it is not until the final scenes of the tale that she reveals the reason that the victim was in town and who had reason to kill him. This is not Connolly’s strongest story, but her look at the history of Asheboro and some of the residents make this an entertaining one. I do look forward to another Victorian Village story to see how Kate’s transformation of the town progresses.,