1895 On his death bed Sir Reginald informs his son, Sir Finley Lowther, that he is adopted and tells him to trace his birth mother. The case is given to his brother-in-law policeman Lynch. On his death his wife Mrs Imogene Lynch takes over the case.
For me even for a cozy historical mystery there is not much of an investigation or even a mystery. For some reason Imogene is deemed by those who know her as a wonderful detective though this was not shown in this story.
An ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

tl;dr
Less of a mystery and more of a story about a widow living with grief and finding healing by following her late husband's last case. Stream of consciousness style narration is intimate, but might not be for everyone.

Thoughts
There's a mystery in this book, but I struggle to classify this story as a mystery proper. Very little investigation is done, large portions of time pass with no progress, and most solutions are the result of Imogene being very easy to speak to rather than any deductive reasoning on her part. I think it'd more accurately be considered a story about Imogene's first year alone after the death of her husband Thaddeus. Narration is marked by frequent flashbacks to Thaddeus, bursts of grief, and a determination to solve the mystery rooted firmly in his last wishes. Even the ending is more focused on how she's taken the steps towards healing by solving the case, with less fanfare spent on the actual case. There's definitely a mystery at hand along with some serious reveals by the end, but don't come in expecting detective legwork and the unravelling of a web of clues.

Narration is done in first person present tense. As usual, present tense is really difficult for me, but I can understand the purpose here - The writing comes off as very stream of consciousness, as if Imogene is confiding the events of her day to a close friend over tea. There's a warmth to the confidentiality of it, but sometimes her own personal distractions distracted me as well. No one else seems to be bothered by this, so I'm going to assume that once again it's just the present tense problem coming for me.

**This Review Contains Spoilers**


2 Stars
One Liner: Interesting premise but painful execution
The Cotswolds, England, December 1895
Imogene Lynch moves to Dartmond to solve a case her recently dead husband, Thaddeus Lynch, was working on. He was a chief constable working on an adoption case from the family. Sir Finley Lowther’s father tells him that he was adopted as a child but doesn’t give any other information. Though Finley is not particularly interested in finding his real mother, his brother-in-law, Thaddeus Lynch, takes up the case to assist his sister Anna (Finley’s wife).
With Thaddeus dead, it’s up to Imogene to get to the root of the matter. However, an old baby’s skull ends up in a fishing net, and Miss Eloise Platt confesses to the crime. Imogene has no choice but to solve this new case as Miss Platt is a possible candidate to be Finley’s real mother.
Can Imogene follow in her dead husband’s footsteps and solve the cases?
The story comes in the first-person rambling from Imogene, addressing the readers.

What I Like:
There’s a list of characters at the beginning of the book. This was helpful as the story had loads of characters.
The cover is rather pretty and has Christmas-y vibes. The book can be sped-read with ease.
Timothy is an adorable kid. I hope he becomes a recurring character in the series.
For a change, the story has an aged and overweight dog instead of an excited furball. Older dogs need love too!
Dartmond gets a (half) Indian mayor, Mr. Rahul Banerjee. It’s rather surprising to see such little resistance from the folk. Also, remember, India was still under British rule at that period. A part of me is glad about this modern take. He does have a decent role, which makes me happy. But I’m not fully convinced.

What Didn’t Work for Me:
Unfortunately, a lot of it didn’t work for me. I’ll try to keep it brief.
Imogene is described as ‘a willy-nilly detective who talks too much and eats too little’.
Her talking is more to herself and the reader than to other characters. Her POV is certainly willy-nilly and could do with strict editing.
The book cannot be called a cozy mystery as such. Imogene doesn’t really ‘solve’ anything. She sits in the rented house, goes through the files, rambles, mops, falls sick, and tells us how she should be solving the case. The final solution comes from a couple of conversations. She just had to have them 100 pages earlier and be done with it.
Almost everyone who knows Imogene praises her and recalls how she helped her dead constable husband solve cases. Here, we see none of that attitude, approach, or impact. The initial reluctance can be justified as she is mourning, but there is hardly any proactive step from her side.
A guy who doesn’t talk for years talks long sentences after a couple of broken dialogues. Wouldn’t he need more time to articulate, especially when his condition is because of past trauma and even his wife didn’t hear him speak?
The story has some important themes, but they are all underexplored. The book can be cozy and still handle dark topics. That doesn’t happen here.
This book is more about introducing characters and Imogene sharing her opinions of them rather than having a real mystery. Maybe it should have been a novella. Imogene should really, really (yeah, two adverbs) step up.

To summarize, The Unsolved Case of the Secret Christmas Baby could have been a lot better if the execution was compact and well-planned. The book would work for some readers. Sadly, I’m not one of them.
Thank you, NetGalley, Hannah Byron Books, and Xpresso Book Tours, for the eARC. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.
#NetGalley #TheUnsolvedCaseoftheSecretChristmasBaby
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P.S.: I hate to do this with an indie book. I read indie cozies and know some real good ones. My best wishes to the author.
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I marked the review as a spoiler on GR and Story Graph. I won't be posting it on my blog until after the book is released.

Set mostly in 1895 fictitious Dartmond in the glorious Cotswolds, The Unsolved Case of The Secret Christmas Baby is the first in the refreshingly wholesome Mrs. Imogene Lynch Series. Imogene has recently become widowed and is grieving deeply. Her roly poly dog Jasper keeps her company in her temporary home across from the haberdashery but she also misses Honeydew Mansion. Her beloved Thaddeus who was a constable leaves her a brown folder with notes on disappearances, an adoption and a murder. She promises to investigate and at first does it to honour him. But her perspective changes as she becomes involved in ways she would have never dreamed. The past is sneaky and holds many secrets and answers come from unexpected places. From her ideally-located home Imogene observes and puzzle pieces zip into place, a little too neatly.

For me the story is beyond the mystery but also an introduction to quirky yet likeable Imogene and the varied cast of Dartmonders (listed in the front, too). It is also about grief, loss, family, friendship, hope and love. My favourite aspect is the witty and original writing style, fun and playful yet substantive with Victorian-era vernacular, values and details. I like that the protagonist is middle aged and has loads of life experience.

Historical Fiction readers will be pulled in, especially those intrigued by dollops of mystery and underpinnings of enduring love.

My sincere thank you to Hannah Byron Books and NetGalley for providing me with an early digital copy of this charmer. I enjoyed it immensely and look forward to the next in the series, The Peculiar Vanishing Act of Mr. Ralph Herriot.

This is the beginning of a new series of code mysteries. As such it is warm, welcoming and there isn’t too much blood or violence. It was rather predictable but depict hsi I really enjoyed it and am looking forward to the next one. A perfect winter read.

A charming start to a new mystery series about a Victorian widow with a talent for sleuthing. Imogene Lynch recently lost her beloved husband, Thaddeus, the Chief Constable in the Cotswolds. Imogene’s uncle Sir Reginald told her cousin, Sir Findlay, that he was adopted at his birth on Christmas day 50 years ago but gave no additional information. Reginald died leaving a cryptic will and lots of questions. Reginald asked Thaddeus to investigate but he was quite ill and near the end of his life. On his deathbed, Imogene promised Thaddeus that she would solve the mystery of Findlay’s birth…the Christmas baby.

I was really excited to see a Christmas-themed historical mystery on NetGalley but I ended up being a bit disappointed in this. The plot was fairly interesting, but for some reason the first-person narration really didn't work for me. I found the protagonist slightly annoying which might have been why I struggled with it. I found the story a bit slow to start for a mystery, but when it kicked into gear the pacing was pretty good. Content warning for (past) death of a baby and discovery of its corpse and references to sexual abuse of children. Those two things kind of came out of nowhere and they definitely disrupted the coziness of the mystery.

If I were to pick a quote from this book to adequately summarize its contents, it would be thus:

“As the trees are casting off their leaves, and the swallows are migrating southwards, I’m feeling as useless as a gun without a trigger, time-passing and ruminating.”

In my opinion, a cozy mystery truly shines through its main character’s amateur detectivism. How do they use their unique skills/job/relationships/etc to solve a crime the bumbling (or sexy ;) ) police force could not? Well let me tell you how the main character of this book, Imogene Lynch, does it: she has 1 conversation with her aunt who just reveals everything. No interrogation, sneaking, or general detective work required. One look at this woman and everyone is just falling over themselves to confess their secrets to her. For the vast majority of the book, she just sits in her shitty apartment, thinking about her dead husband or her porky dog, and looking out her window — making apparently zero unique observations or deductions. Seriously, she’s absolutely useless in this book. Things just happen, she has almost no part in moving the plot along. And yet everyone around her acts as if she’s the Hercule Poirot of the Victorian-era widows. Then, to top it all off, the “mystery” that is “solved” by Imogene isn’t even a crime. Literally it’s just someone’s tragic backstory. Oh, and the damn similes. ENOUGH WITH THE SIMILES. I can’t think of much to say in favor of this book except that it was a quick read.

Shades of Dickens! The newly-bereaved of an English constable promises her late husband on his deathbed to bring to a satisfactory conclusion the one case that has plagued his conscience for fifty years, a case that may impinge directly on his brother-in-law, a squire of some standing. Strong, independent, female protagonist and a finely-detailed perception into Victorian culture.