Props to the audio narrator for all those accents. Unfortunately this book felt WAY too long. Overstuffed with description and flashbacks and reminiscing and side characters and internal dithering and constant internal exclamations of "drat" and "blast" and "confound it". I knew who did the murder after the first related clue was mentioned, whereas the supposed detective flailed around for the remaining 75% of the story, while his wife kept trying to give him suggestions. Diana is a gem, Jim is a blundering fool, and he does not deserve her. I realize misogyny, including benevolent misogyny, was normal for the time, but the way he viewed her as a precious doll to protect, a delicate flower, was very annoying. And to have him compare her multiple times to the almost infantile young servant Dora because they were "close in age" gave me the creeps. Idk. This just isn't for me. I'd rather go watch the campy High Seas on Netflix instead.

Thanks anyway #Netgalley for an ARC of The Spanish Diplomat's Secret.

Love this author so much! This was a very good book that had it all. I especially enjoyed the husband and wife team! Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher

The Spanish Diplomat's Secret
A Mystery

By: Nev March

Publish Date: September 12,2023

Publisher: St. Martin's Press/Minotaur Books

Historical Fiction/Mystery and Thriller

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I would like to thank both NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for allowing me to read and review this book.

Book Review:

I really enjoyed this book. I gave it 4 stars. it is the third book in the series. The thing about this book is that you don't have to the other two books before this one, but you will miss out if you do. In this story they are on the way to England to meet up with her brother. They are on a ship and Jim is seasick. Diana has been a little distant from Jim and he can't figure out why. On this trip they meet up with some pretty interesting characters. There is a murder of a Spanish Diplomat and Jim is assigned to figure out who the killer is. There is a woman who jumps off the ship and another woman who is missing. Can he figure it out before they dock in Liverpool. There is a lot of events that take place and a lot of red herrings. just love how the author writes about Jim and Diana's relationship. They are close and truly love one another. I like how he includes her in the investigation and takes her view on things.

There's just something about a mystery taking place on a ship. It adds to the mystery and adventure aspects of a book, and I really enjoyed this book. Twists, turns, and great characters!

It’s 1894 and Jim and his wife, Diana, are sailing to England on a luxury liner for a vacation.

The second day at sea brings the murder of a Spanish gentleman and Jim is asked to conduct the investigation after being on the scene quickly after the discovery of the body.

This is the first cozy mystery I've read that is set in the 1800s and I found March did really set the scene in the period well. The Spanish Diplomat's Secret did move much slower than most cozy mysteries set in the modern day and that took a bit to get used to. As an investigator, Jim ruminates on each character that he or Diana talks to and then of course is surprised by some red herrings along the way.

The pacing was quite slow throughout and didn't pick up until about 76% in. That is a long time to commit to hoping the pace picks up.


March spends a fair amount of time fleshing out both Jim and Diana as individuals and a couple, but I also felt like their relationship was stale? Maybe that is just what relationships were like then? Many have said this is a third in the series that you can read on its own and I disagree. Throughout the book March sprinkles in relationship issues for the two that have obviously been discussed in the two previous books. I felt like I was missing foundational information.

If you want to pick this one up, pick up the first two before this one.

This is one of the ones where I wish I had done a bit more digging. It was the third book of the series - which is why it took me so long to get to this review in the first place - and they were okay. It was fun time had by all but I think I'm done with the series right now. I really liked the idea of one secret at a time that the author dived into while doing what is basically a locked room mystery setting a la Orient Express. I thought it was good and I didn't mind that it reminded of other things. The clock was fine and I thought the writing was good. Probably will not continue this series but I would recommend it to others.

Captain Jim and his wife Diana are on a trip to England when Spanish Diplomat Don Juan Nepomuceno is found dead. The captain of the ship asks Jim to solve the murder before they hit land.

Unfortunately, this book was not labeled as being part of a series, so I felt lost through the beginning, like I wasn’t in on an inside joke. I also struggled with his constant mention of “what did I do, why is she mad at me?”. It reminds me of when people ask that endlessly to only figure out you’re not a peppy morning person or you just want to sit down and read a book but there’s work to be done.

I do love whodunits but I think I would have appreciated this one more if I had the character development from the first book.

I will be withholding my review of this book in solidarity with the <a href="https://r4acollective.org/">St. Martin's Press boycott</a>.

📱 Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur Books

🎧 Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio

I tried so hard to get into this one, but I found the story telling so difficult to follow. I ended up not finishing it.

While I am new to this historical fiction mystery series, I found it easy to dive in and get acquainted with Captain Jim Agnihotri and Lady Diana Framji as they crossed the Atlantic and tried to discover the identity of a Spanish dignitary's murderer before reaching shore. This locked door mystery is chockfull of suspense and political intrigue, with a seemingly impossible number of possible suspects and a dearth of viable leads. While Jim is an able private investigator, he cannot help but feel that he has been tapped to solve the crime because he will be an easy scapegoat if the crime is not solved before the cruise ship reaches England. He is given an impossibly short timeline to solve the crime, but he is determined to do so.

I enjoyed the dynamic between Captain Jim and Lady Diana, who played a pivotal role in helping Jim investigate. They each bring strengths that complement each other and allow them to pursue different angles in different social circles. While the two worked well together as they used Sherlockian techniques, there is an underlying tension between them. Jim seems just as eager to solve this marital mystery as he is the crime. I really liked how much he seemed to respect his wife's abilities and his desire to be the husband he believes she deserves. They both seemed to be progressive for their time, which made it easy to connect to both of them.

If you enjoy historical mysteries that harken back to the Golden Age, this would be an excellent pick. The author played fair with the reader in this locked-cabin-room-mystery and incorporated historic elements in a way that transported me back to the 1890s.

Many thanks to Minotaur Books for providing this NetGalley copy and introducing me to this engaging series! I look forward to catching up with earlier installments soon and finding out how Captain Jim and Lady Diana made it from India to the U.S. and ultimately heading to England aboard that fateful cruise ship.

The Spanish Diplomat's Secret follows Peril at the Exposition and Murder in Old Bombay as the third in Nev March's historical mystery series starring Captain Jim O'Trey and his wife Lady Diana.

As this episode opens in the summer of 1894, the O'Treys are on a cruise from Boston to Liverpool. A Spanish grandee is found murdered in the ship's locked music room. Anglo-Indian Jim, an admirer of Sherlock Holmes, is asked to investigate.

With Diana's help, and many references to Holmes, Jim sets a trap and catches a killer.

After having immigrated to America, Captain Jim and his wife Diana are heading from Boston to Liverpool on one of 1894's elaborate Cunard ocean liners. Jim meets an elderly Spainard during a rough first evening as he attempts rather descriptively to find his sea legs. When the elderly man is found in the locked music room. tied to a chair and garroted, the Captain of the ship leans on Jim's past investigative experience to solve this locked room within a locked room mystery before they get to England. There is a ship full of suspects and Jim relies on Diana's capable instincts as well as his own to try to solve the crime.

The Spanish Diplomat’s Secret is the 3rd installment of the series but can easily be read as a stand alone. This particular murder mystery is set on an 1894 transatlantic voyage. There are plenty of twists and turns along the way. Will Jim find the murderer before the end of the voyage? I enjoyed the plot this historical mystery presented along with the glamour of being on a transatlantic voyage in the late 1800s.

A great mystery entwined with history in this transatlantic cozy. My interview with the author will be live on the History, Books and Wine podcast on February 27th!

Jim and Diana encounter murder on the high seas when a fellow passenger is killed and the captain asks Jim to solve the crime before their ocean liner docks. The clock’s ticking on a locked door mystery with international ramifications that has everyone baffled. I was so glad to see this third book in the series release since I’ve enjoyed seeing Jim sleuth like Sherlock and Diane show her brilliant wits, too.

The series works best in order because of the personal side of the story introduced and developed through the books.

The book starts with Jim and Diana preparing to enjoy the perks of a luxury cruise across the Atlantic. It isn’t long before metaphorical dark clouds drift in. Jim knows they’ll be meeting Diana’s brother Adi and needs to tell her about the situation meanwhile he senses an emotional distance in Diana. He’s still struggling with being the child of a British soldier father and an Indian poor woman and how it caused him so much misery growing up in British Colonial India and he still feels unworthy of Diana whose family are Indian aristocracy and Parsee Zoroastrian.

But, then a fellow passenger Jim encountered while dealing with his bout of seasickness is murdered. Jim’s investigation is a hard grind there in the middle and the story does drag a bit, but there is progress as Jim speaks with First Class passengers and their entourages and ship staff. I wanted to bop Jim for being overprotective of Diana and keeping her away during witness interviewing and the prime bits of investigating especially when he really needed her help. I felt she proved herself when by herself she came to Jim’s aid in the previous deadly Chicago situation. In truth, Jim is still mentally recovering from that previous case and I was glad to see the author didn’t brush over that or his sensibilities about race and social status. But, Jim learns and by the end, he’s encouraging Diana as his equal detecting partner.

Delving into the Spanish Cuban former governor’s life led to a part of Cuban history I didn’t know and was at the heart of this case. I appreciate how the author chooses lesser known historical incidents to mesh with her murder cases and I learn a great deal from them. And, it’s fun to see Jim employing what he learned from Sherlock Holmes’ stories.

While this one was slower in the middle, the end more than made up for it and left things set up nicely for book four. I encourage historical mystery lovers who enjoy a cultural and international historical emphasis to give Captain Jim and Lady Diana a go.

Thank you NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Spanish Diplomat's Secret is a historical mystery/thriller set on a cruise. During this cruise, someone is murdered and our main character, Jim Agnihotri, must figure out who did it and why, with the help of his wife Lady Diana Framji, before docking in order to not face international consequences.

I was initially drawn to this because I wanted to expand my horizons in terms of genre, but I was not really vibing with the book, so I DNF'd it.

Oh this was such a great book! It is a great Who-done-it and is historically accurate and based on the old time Sherlock stories. I was pulled into this adventure right away. I need to read the other in the series now.

Let me just say I love this series and the author's writing style. I've read all the book in this series so far and loved them. Diana and Jim are so likeable and relatable. I can't wait to find out what happens in book 4. I would really love for this series to get picked up by BBC. The mystery unravels slowly in the most satisfying way, the authors pacing is excellent. She teases you with clue and details to keep you interested without making the story slow. Each book is unique in it's setting and side characters as well. Jim and Diana are the only characters who show up in a each book. I can't wait to read book 4! In the meantime I'm telling everyone about this series again since I do whenever a new book comes out. Keep up the amazing work :) <3 .

This is the third entry in the historical mystery series that began with A Murder in Old Bombay. This new book can be read on its own but those who want to know more about how Captain Jim Agnihotri and his wife Lady Diana Framji met and came together as a couple (despite their rather different backgrounds), will I think want to read the first novel.

This story is really a very large, locked room mystery. Jim and Diana are on a ship bound for England when there is a murder. Given his background, the captain pleads for Jim’s help in solving the case before the cruise is over.

Who was the Spanish diplomat? Why was there a murder? Will Jim find the answers and the culprit (readers can be pretty certain that he will)? Furthermore, what has been troubling Diana?

This story will be enjoyed by those who gravitate toward historical mysteries. It is an interesting read albeit a bit slow at times.

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press/Minotaur Books for this title. All opinions are my own.

THE SPANISH DIPLOMAT'S SECRET by Nev March; (Murder in Old Bombay) is the latest in the Captain Jim and Lady Diana mysteries which are set in the 1890's, involve characters with East Indian heritage, and deal with the social mores and prejudices of the times. In this case, a mysterious death occurs on an ocean liner and, as a neutral but experienced investigator, Jim is drafted into solving the why and how of a potentially explosive diplomatic death. He is truly puzzled by a lack of motive and suspects which also lent a bit of frustration to my reading. I do wish the story had moved somewhat more quickly and that Diana had a larger role throughout. Still, March produced a puzzling case and kept me guessing, too. Earlier series entries (see also Peril at the Exposition, set in Chicago) are stronger, but THE SPANISH DIPLOMAT'S SECRET still offers an entertaining diversion. And readers who enjoy the shipboard setting, may also like watching High Seas (on Netflix) which involves a mystery on an ocean liner and is set in the 1940s.