This is an interesting historical mystery, made more compelling by the inclusion of real historical figures with real relationships. The story felt a bit long at times, but overall it's solid and takes a fair view of its subjects.

The concept here caught my attention. For me, the pacing dragged too much to really ever get into it, but the character building redeemed it enough that I think that might be a first-in-the-series problem and I'm willing to give the next book another go.

Who is not obsessed with Mary Shelley and her life? Her marriage and younger sister along with Mary provide the backdrop of an alluring mystery. It held my attention well.

Book 1 in the Mary Shelley Mystery series and it's a blend between Pride and Prejudice and Agatha Christie.

Poetic writing which very much fits with the era. An intriguing whodunit alongside romance and reality. I felt for Mary and wished Jane would have more sense - don't get me started on Mamma.

I feel it slowed in the middle, but overall an enjoyable read with many twists and turns.

*I received a complimentary copy of the e-book from Partners In Crime Tours and am voluntarily leaving an honest review.

I loved the cover and the story was entertaining with a very good mystery. It was a little confusing at times when switching POV but I figured it out and eased back into the story. I look forward to the next installment and further development of the characters.
Many thanks to Kensington and to Netgalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Thank you Netgalley, author, and the publishers for allowing me the opportunity to read this e-arc. I look forward to reading more.

In this book, readers are transported to a vivid world of unconventional young ladies, renowned poets, and a web of secrets waiting to unravel. Mary Godwin, spurred by her mother's advocacy for women's rights, rejects societal expectations for an ordinary life, setting the stage for a tale of intrigue and forbidden desires. When Percy Bysshe Shelley enters their lives, the Godwin sisters find themselves entangled in a murder mystery that uncovers personal and professional rivalries.

The narrative cleverly weaves together elements of historical fiction, mystery, and romance, creating a captivating blend that keeps readers eagerly turning pages. The enthralling dynamics between the characters, especially the developing attraction between Mary and Shelley, add depth to the story, making it a compelling read for those seeking a journey into the fascinating world of 19th-century London.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an arc. All opinions expressed are my own.

Thank you Netgalley for the advance reader copy of Death and the Sisters by Heather Redmond in exchange for an honest review. I love how Mary Shelley is finally getting more attention. Frankenstein has had such a huge impact on horror and she has been ignored as one of the first creators. This story is a fun murder mystery with Mary, her sisters and Shelley the poet. I really enjoyed this book.

I really wanted to like this book but it sadly wasn't for me. I liked the idea of the book, but the character depth was lacking for me. I had trouble following the POV switches, because the characters were missing their own voice. The pacing for me was also off and I had to DNF, even though I only had about 70 pages left. I wish this story would have grabbed my interest more.

This was very interesting, written in detail, and had engaging characters. Jane and Mary, stepsisters, sometimes rivals, work together to solve a murder. A murder they stumbled upon in their parents' bookshop. The suspects are many, their alibis questionable. It is a very intricate mystery. Shelley pays a big part in it, though married, but separated, flirts with Mary. Mary and Jane aspire to be writers one day and escape their humdrum life. I can't wait to see what they are up to next.

Death and the Sisters, by Heather Redmond
Rating: 4/5
Published: NOW
A unique novel! It is 1814, and Mary Godwin and her stepsister, Jane Clairmont, are introduced to Percy Bysshe Shelley over dinner. Mary (eventually Shelley) is already a talented poet, and she finds Percy both fascinating and handsome. However, she emerges in the morning to find a dead man on the floor, with a knife sticking out of his back. It is a unique and utterly compelling mystery, and one that seems closely intertwined with Mary’s own social circle. Her romantic interest in Shelley causes tension between her and her sisters too. It is an interesting insight into the life of the young woman who eventually goes on to write Frankenstein, and her amateur sleuthing certainly seems to lay the groundwork for the writer that she becomes. The author has obviously done her research too, because the details are wonderfully rich. It has a large and complex cast though, so be prepared to be kept on your toes!

This was a very compelling book. The history is rich in this novel as real-life characters are set in the heart of London in 1814. Mary and her stepsister Jane find the body of a dead man in their father's bookshop. The story is them, with the help of poet Percy Shelley, trying to find the killer. There were many details to gather and pull together, to only have them shot in another direction in the next chapter. The list of probable killers was very long. It was interesting as the two 16-year-old sisters became detectives. There was a little of a love triangle as the sisters became rivals for Shelley's attention.

So much of this novel shows how Mary Shelley became the person to eventually grow up and write the book, Frankenstein. There were some surprising events that weren't revealed until the end. Fans of mysteries will enjoy Death and the Sisters and readers can also immerse themselves into the world of poets and writers.
3.5-4 Stars

Death and the Sisters by Heather Redmon is the story of a man whom Mary found deceased in the family's business. Mary discovered him in the bookshop and feared it was Percy Shelly. The time is 1814 so at this time Mary and Jane do what many would call unconventional, women did not solve murders.

Mary is the daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft. Mary's mother died when Mary was only a few days old. Her father remarried soon after and Mary ended up with step sisters.

Mary and her siblings often worked at the bookshop and after Mary discovered the murdered man, they at first thought it was Percy Bysshe Percy who Mary later became Mary Shelley and author of Frankenstein among other works.

This story is a murder mystery in which Mary, her step-sister Jane, and Percy Shelly become amateur sleuths and want to solve the death of the young man. It turns out that the dead man was Cecil Campbell, also a poet, who strongly resembled Percy. Now they need to find out the why.

The search for the killer brings Mary and Percy closer together. A young man, Peter Corn also a poet, is arrested for the murder. They truly believe that Peter was actually innocent of the crime.

The dead man as it turns out was a former classmate of Percy so it made his death more personal. But they are all trying to figure out just what Cecil was doing in the bookshop to begin with. They persevere and eventually solve the crime.

This book kind of reminded me of Pride and Prejudice and other novels of that time frame, 19th Century England where women were prim and proper and were only allowed to do so much in society. The females in Death and the Sisters were amateur sleuths and with the help of Percy, they did figure out the mystery.

I love that Heather portrayed these young ladies to be above the norm for young women. Love is a story that portrays young women not only as strong women but also as maintaining their femininity. Definitely a character-driven novel with good guys and the proverbial bad guy/s.

The story moved swiftly to it final conclusion and appears to be well-researched for the nuances of the time, the reign of Queen Victoria. I enjoyed it and give it 5 stars!

Welcome to London in 1814, where sixteen-year-old Mary Goodwin and her stepsister Jane Clairmont are assistants in their family's struggling bookshop. Thanks to their unconventional upbringing, they both yearn for a more adventurous future than what appears to be unfolding before them.

One evening, renowned poet and radical, Percy Bysshe Shelley, joins the Goodwins for dinner. Mary is quickly intrigued by their handsome and compelling guest. Later that evening, in search of a book, Mary finds one of Shelley's former classmates face down on the floor of the bookshop with a knife in his back.

Mary, Jane, and Shelley combine forces to learn all they can about the tragedy to befall the man, but each twist and turn hints at a tangled web involving the married poet's inner circle. And as the attraction between Mary and Shelley intensifies, sparking a rivalry between Mary and Jane, the sisters find themselves in a precarious situation.

Wow! Having read Redmond's A Christmas Carol Murder, I expected a well-plotted story filled with engaging characters. The author definitely succeeded. The author's glimpse into a teenage storyteller is fascinating. It definitely made me Google Mary and Percy Shelley. Knowing little about Mary Goodwin, the future Mary Shelley who would go on to write Frankenstein, I found the cast of characters at the beginning helpful.

This engaging novel is told from Mary's and Jane's points of view. I'm hoping this will continue throughout the series, as the companionship and rivalry is one of the enjoyable aspects of the storyline. As the plot unfolds, the reader is treated to a glimpse into the Goodwin's household dynamics, the life in which they lived, Shelley and his inner circle, and other residents of London--real and imagined.

If you are looking for a well-crafted, fascinating historical mystery, pick up the first in Redmond's new Mary Shelley Mystery series, Death and the Sisters.

#NetGalleyARC As a fan of Shelley I was really intrigued by this book. I love a good and well-written historical fiction book and this one did not disappoint. This was full of mystery and thrills and was a perfect October read.

The tangled relationships between poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, his eventual wife Mary and her step-sister Jane Clairmont have fascinated gossips for centuries, in large part due to Mary’s enduring legacy, the seminal horror novel Frankenstein. Written when she was only nineteen during an infamous summer the trio spent in Switzerland, the book continues to inspire countless reinterpretations, often leading readers to the complicated story, too, behind its conception.

Heather Redmond goes even further than that, reimagining Mary and Jane’s lives as teenage girls just getting to know and fall in love with the larger than life poet whose patronage was essential to their household. Percy ran in the same atheist circles as William Godwin, Mary’s publisher father, and had a substantial estate behind him. His promises of funds made him a welcome figure at the Godwin’s table, in their apartments over the bookstore where Mary and Jane (and their older sister Fanny) often toiled for their parents. He was not, alas, the best guest, taking liberties in many ways, including in his descriptions of his valiant struggles against being murdered in his own home. As Jane narrates:

QUOTE
Shelley pulled a pencil from his pocket and drew a dreadful demonic figure on the tablecloth, ignoring Mamma’s look of horror. “I advised all to retire in the end, thinking it impossible a wounded man would revisit the house that night. I had some notion he had, however temporarily, lost the use of his arm.”

“He had a gun, not a knife,” Mary said. “Unlike Mr Campbell’s killer.”

I laced my fingers together over my heaving chest. “How likely is it that there are two murderers in Shelley’s life, Mary? I ask you. This was last year. Surely the man could have obtained knives by now.”
END QUOTE

Murder is not usually the conversational topic of choice in many early 19th century English households, but the Godwins and their guest can be forgiven their macabre preoccupation. Only a short while earlier, a man was found violently stabbed in their bookstore. The girls, finding him in the night, had feared that it was actually their beloved Percy who had been murdered. Once that misconception was allayed, their thoughts turned quickly to whether someone had actually wanted him and not the unfortunate Mr Campbell dead. A much more cynical Bow Street thinks Percy might have had a hand in the murder himself, leading Mary and Jane to investigate in an effort to save not only this man they’re obsessed with, but also the funding their father desperately needs to keep their household afloat.

There are twists and turns aplenty in this well-researched book about the teenage years of two women who would have an outsized impact on modern fiction. Both girls are honestly pretty terrible – there’s a lot of pettiness and fatphobia and just downright immaturity in these pages – but Ms Redmond takes pains to remind readers that our heroines are only sixteen and living in difficult, if not outright unhappy, circumstances. Her greater trick is in laying a thoughtful psychological foundation for the facts we know to be true as the girls get older and find their lives even more entangled with Shelley’s than either ever imagined.

But perhaps Ms Redmond’s most impressive feat with this book is in making Jane such a sympathetic character. Often considered hysterical and headstrong, the Jane of these pages is utterly justified in her choices:

QUOTE
My feet started north without me really deciding my path. I wanted as far away from the prisons as I could manage, this perious, stinking, death-dealing neighborhood. How could Mamma have brought us here, tied our fates so completely to the Godwins and Skinner Street? Was our life before them really so bad? I scarcely remembered a time before Mary, but I wished I could. Something separate, something mine. She had Shelley’s regard; I could see it. What did I have?

“I am me,” I said, my own little war cry. I would follow my own drum. Even if it had to take me down paths all by myself.
END QUOTE

The real life story of Mary Shelley and Jane Clairmont is turbulent and thrilling, as is Ms Redmond’s depiction of their youth, with a (fictional) murder mystery thrown into the mix for good measure. The bonds of sisterhood that would last throughout the lives of these very different young women are exceptionally showcased. I’m very much looking forward to seeing how those bonds continue to grow and be tested in future novels, as the characters they inspired sleuth together to bring more killers to justice.

I really enjoyed this! The suspense buildup is done very well. The characters were well developed and I'm excited to see how they continue to develop throughout the series. I can't wait to read the rest of the series! I would recommend this! Special Thank You to Heather Redmond, Kensington Books and NetGalley for allowing me to read a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.

Death and her sisters is the first in the Mary Shelley series and I can’t wait to read more. I love historical fiction and this is a mystery set in the 1800’s with the Mary Shelley as the main character. It was an intriguing story and I could not put it down.

This novel was a hard one for me to follow. There are many characters and I really appreciate a list of the at the beginning of the book. I read a digital edition and it was hard to access that character list. It was the second marriage for the Mr. Godwin so there are step-children and step-parent relationships, some rather harsh. The plot concentrates more on relationships, especially involving those with Shelley, than the murder. The murder investigation is quite convoluted and meandering and is not your typical amateur sleuth style.

The main characters are the step-sisters Mary and Jane. The narrative changes focus with Jane's section in first person and Mary's in third person. I appreciate the difference as it was easier to recognize. I was very surprised when Jane revealed some activities near the end, a complete surprise to me, even though much of the novel was from her personal viewpoint.

This is a novel that would appeal to readers interested in a possible teen life of Mary before she was married and before she wrote her novel, Frankenstein. A future novel from Redmond may well shed more light on Mary and her adventures with Percy Shelley.

I received a complimentary egalley of this book through Partner in Crime Book Tours. My comments are an independent and honest review.

From the moment I heard about this book, I knew I had to read Heather Redmond’s Death and the Sisters, a Mary Shelley Mystery. (Yes, that Mary Shelley.) I’m so glad I did.

We first meet the 16-year-old future Frankenstein author and her also 16-year-old stepsister Jane after Mary trades a story in exchange for her 20-year-old half-sister Fanny’s hemming of her shift. I was hooked.

The following evening Percy Bysshe Shelley comes to dinner in the family’s rooms above their bookshop across the street from Newgate Prison, where Mary’s father hopes to persuade Shelley to pledge his financial support to his publishing enterprise. While the sisters are all smitten with the dashing looks of the young, albeit married, radical poet, Mary appreciated his mind the most. Mary Shelley, her sisters, Percy Bysshe Shelley and a bookshop…even better.

After their guest has left and the family has retired for the night, Mary heads down to the bookshop in search of research for a ghost story idea. There in the dark shop, she discovers an open door and a dead body that resembles the handsome dinner guest, just before Jane arrives on the scene. Mary Shelley, sister Jane, Percy Bysshe Shelley, a bookshop and murder. And that’s just in the first eighteen pages!

While this marks the trio’s first fictional adventure, in reality the three shared a lifetime of them together.
Heather Redmond, who has also written the Dickens of a Crime series, has done a phenomenal job dropping possible Frankenstein inspirations for Mary and interspersing lines from classic works throughout the captivating plot. This is the first in Redmond’s Mary Shelley series. I can’t wait to read the next one and will be sure to check out her Dickens, as well.

I highly recommend Death and the Sisters to mystery fans, historical mystery fans, poetry, science fiction and horror fans. I received this advance reader’s copy from Kensington Books, courtesy of NetGalley.

Order online or buy now at your favorite independent bookstore. Mine is Sellers Books and Art in Jim Thorpe, PA.