Nev March brings more intrigue in The Spanish Diplomat's Secret, the third installment of the Captain Jim Agnihotri and Lady Diana Mysteries. This time the couple have to unravel a murder on a transatlantic journey.

Compared to the first two novels, The Spanish Diplomat's Secret lends itself more so to a set-up akin to an Agatha Christie mystery: a 'locked-in' location, with the clock ticking to solve the crime. Of course, it also has some of the flavor of Jim's hero, Sherlock Holmes.

One thing that initially grabbed me in the first novel is the relationship between Jim and Diana, and while the second book had them apart to make the plot work, here there was an emotional distance. While understandably so when revealed, I do wish Diana's secret came to light a little earlier in the book, so that her and Jim could have each other in that aspect, and not just to solve the case.

As always, March paints a wonderful picture of the world Jim and Diana live in, and I did enjoy it overall! I continue to recommend this series to historical mystery lovers.

4 stars

Thanks to St. Martin's Press, Minotaur Books, and NetGalley for providing this copy, in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Another very good historical novel by Nev March. This is the third book in the series that follows the protagonists retired British Captain James Agnihotri and his wife Diana at the cusp of the 20th century. The first book takes place in India where we learn that Jim is Anglo-Indian and his wife is a high born Parsee. It is interesting to learn the history of these two groups of people and the challenges they face navigating society. Jim has since left the British army and is a private detective in Boston. In this book a transatlantic voyage to England is the setting for a locked cabin type murder investigation. Again we see Diana's ability to navigate the society of the first class passenger, the challenges Jim faces because of his lower class birth and get a good feel for the world of transatlantic voyage. This is a very solid series and based on a few hanging story lines I anticipate further books.

For the third in this series, March switches back to the perspective of Captain Agnihotri. The Captain and his wife, Diana, are on a trans-Atlantic cruise when someone is murdered and our detectives are on the case.

I enjoyed immersing myself in the world of Victorian cruising, but the plot of this one is leisurely, to put it lightly. I was some ways into the book and thought, "Ok, we're up to the denouement, now right?" When I turned on book location, I found I was at 40%. Also, the plot was strung out needlessly by the detective being as dumb as a brick and not immediately following up on the very early, obvious clue (with a capital C) that was thrown at him. When the plot finally got going, I enjoyed this, but I feel like about 100 pages should have been cut out of this book.

As a fan of the Jim and Diana Agnihotri series, I’ve been looking forward to reading this book since I heard it was set to be released. In this adventure Jim and Diana are on a luxury cruise liner on their way to Liverpool for a job that Jim has been hired for. The first night out Jim gets hit with a bad case of sea sickness and finds himself at the ships railing giving back his dinner. Fortunately for him, an older and elegant gentleman helps lead him back to some deck chairs, where he can recover. Jim and the gentleman exchange a few pleasantries and find that both have served in the military and share some of the same issues soldiers face after after seeing combat.

The next afternoon Jim receives a note from the man asking that Jim come see him immediately. As Jim nears the gentleman’s cabin he finds crew members bustling around as well as some fellow passengers milling about. Jim arrives at the cabin to find the gentleman has been murdered. The ships captain ask Jim to help find the killer since the mans death on a British ship could cause trouble between Britain and Spain since the gentleman was a Spanish diplomat on an urgent assignment. Jim has only the the eight days remaining on the voyage to find the culprit,,and keep this from becoming a possible military entanglement between the two countries. Jim will need to use all his skills and knowledge, as well as those of his wife Diana’s if they are to catch the murderer.

Author Nev March does a wonderful job of letting the reader get a feeling for the time when transatlantic voyages were the norm. Her ability to immerse the reader in this bygone era is part of what makes her books a pleasure to read. If the author decides to write a fourth installment in the series I hope to be one of the first in line to read it.

Jim and Diana Agnihotri have left their new home in Boston for an ocean journey to England. Jim finds it difficult to adjust to life on board the HMS Etruria, given his seasickness, but after the first night he finds his sea legs, just in time to be summoned by a Spanish nobleman -- the older gentleman who helped him in his worst moments. Unfortunately, Jim arrives too late and enters the ship's music room to find Don Juan Nepomuceno murdered. And as he begins to investigate, the ship's captain asks him to solve the murder before they dock in Liverpool in a week.

Thus begins the third book in the Captain Jim Agnihotri mysteries. This one felt a little slower to get going, perhaps because Jim and Diana start off focused on their personal lives and have a far too large cast of characters to learn as they investigate. There were so many questions at the start that I found it difficult to get pulled into the story. Once it got going, of course, the mystery built up gradually, with multiple suspects and red herrings, and the final reveal held a nice bit of drama, though the resolution was a little unsatisfying. All told, not the strongest entry in this series, though still a pleasant read.

Thank you, Minotaur Books and NetGalley, for providing an eARC of this book. Opinions expressed here are solely my own.