I reviewed the first in this series Death And The Sisters in September 2023.
We return to the Godfrey family bookshop where they are dining with members of the Russian aristocracy and who also much admired Mary and Fanny’s mother, Mary Wollstonecraft. As usual Mary’s fictions fly out of her head and into the conversation, and Jane cannot stop pointing out the deficiencies in the dinner. Their mother spends a lot of time trying to pinch them into good behavior.
The family fortunes have not improved since the last murder. They’re so bad that when Jane finds a gold ring possibly left behind by the Russian princess, she can’t help but tuck it away for selling after the visitors are gone. Things get even worse when the diamond Mr. Godfrey had been depending on to save the bookshop and educational library disappears. When the body of the man suspected of stealing it is found in the river, but not the diamond, Jane and Mary know they have to investigate deeper in order to save their father from debtor’s prison. They again enlist Shelley to help them, though his own problems have multiplied. This is a very satisfying historical mystery, highly recommended second installment in the series. I’m looking forward to reading the next one.

Thank you NetGalley for a copy of this book to review.

What a treat to get to spend time with a young Mary Shelley and her family! That time isn't delightful in that the family is hitting what one hopes will be a nadir they can begin to rise from. But being with Mary Shelley is delightful, even during hard times. Redmond's Mary is a blend of youth, precocity, observation, anger—and constant longing for more time to write. She's falling for Shelley, but preparing for a marriage that will be helpful for her family, despite being personally unsatisfying.

The book takes place in London just before the Conference of Vienna, when European powers will meet to develop a peace plan following the downfall of Napoleon. A Russian noble family, deeply interested in the work of Wollstonecraft has visited the Godwins, and one of them has promised diamonds in support of the Juvenile Library, Godwin's publishing house. But then, that man is killed, there appear to be no diamonds forthcoming, and Mary, her half-sister Jane, and Shelley find themselves investigating.

The central mystery grows increasingly complex as the three investigate. While it's the Godwins' financial wows that shape the plot of this novel, that first murder, and subsequent crimes, provide momentum to the plot.

Now that I've finished reading a review copy of Death and the Visitors, which is the second volume in this series, I'm taking an immediate step backward to read the series starter, Death and the Sisters. But what I'm really waiting for is whatever future volume includes Mary and Shelley's flight to Europe. I want to see how Redmond plays this scandal out.

I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley; the opinions are my own.

This is book 2 in the Mary Shelley Mystery series. I chose it because I liked the idea of Mary Shelley solving mysteries. I did find it was a little confusing with there being so many Mary's been talked about in the story itself and this turned out to be Mary before she married so perhaps more of a young adult story. There is a lot of family drama and not quite enough mystery in it for me but it was a fun read but I prefer the Charles Dickens mysteries from this author. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This book should have a content warning for child abuse. That and the struggles with poverty occupy the bulk of the content of the novel, rather than the mystery. The story is dark and harrowing, more like horror than mystery.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC.

Bestselling author Heather Redmond’s Death and the Visitors is the much anticipated sequel to her Mary Shelley Mystery series debut of Death and the Sisters. Now I eagerly await the third book in the series.

Once again, I loved getting to be a fly on the wall to the fictional goings on of the almost 17-year-old Frankenstein author, her months younger step-sister Jane (later known as Claire) Clairmont, acclaimed poet and Mary’s future husband Percy Bysshe Shelley.

This installment set in 1814, London where royals and diplomats have descended on the city after Napoleon’s death and in advance of the Congress of Vienna, finds the trio as they seek to find missing diamonds, solve two murders, and keep Mary’s father out of debtor’s prison.

As enthusiastic followers of Mary’s late philosopher mother Mary Wollstonecraft, members of the advance team of the Russian contingent, which included the mesmerizing Polish Princess Maria, her Russian husband and his brother, visited the family home above the bookshop.

After a lively discussion at dinner, the Russians pledged diamonds in support of Mary’s father William Godwin and stepmother’s publishing venture, the Juvenile Library. However noble the work, it was failing financially with creditors leaning hard for payment.

When Godwin, sans diamonds, learns a Russian was pulled from the Thames, Mary, Jane and Shelley must try to remove suspicion from the family and keep the moneylenders at bay.

While the light-fingered, favored daughter Jane is off at singing lessons, where she meets the romantic poet Lord Byron – the future father of her daughter, Mary’s cruel stepmother sent the cook to prison for taking a dress belonging to sister, Fanny, and had Mary play Cinderella of sorts toiling away in the kitchen.

Toss in a Scottish suitor for Mary, as well as her attempted human trafficking kidnapping, you’ll find a well rounded mystery with twists and turns that will keep you guessing, not to mention allusions to Mary’s thinking that would one day be part of her iconic work.

I highly recommend Death and the Visitors 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.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Heather Redmond for providing me with a complimentary digital ARC for Death and the Visitors coming out August 20, 2024. The honest opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I love this series and author! I was excited to receive the second book. I think Mary Shelley solving mysteries is awesome! There was a little more backstory in this book. The two Marys was a little confusing. But overall, I loved the dialogue and mystery. I think Mary and Jane have to put away their differences to solve the case. I think the plot was really interesting. I’m excited for the next book!

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys Mary Shelley!

I admit to having struggled with the first book because I found myself spending more time sorting through the characters and reading about their real lives than enjoying the novel. This second, however, was more engaging albeit, perhaps, more for a YA audience, given that this features Mary in her teen years. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. Over to others.

Unfortunately, the book was not for me.

The biggest problem for me was the way this book was written - every chapter jumps between first-person narrative and a third-person narrative, it was really distracting and annoying.
The characters (except Mary) weren't very likable.
The mystery wasn't so bad, just a little bland.

But I still think younger readers could enjoy this. It's a bit like Enola Holmes movies - not great, but could entertain you.

"The ties between a young Mary Shelley, her stepsister Jane "Claire" Clairmont, poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, and the already-infamous Lord Byron grow increasingly tangled as they're drawn into a dangerous investigation in this vivid historical mystery exploring the birth of teenaged Mary's creative genius and the roots of a real-life trio who would later scandalize 19th century England even as they transformed the literary world.

1814, London Foreign diplomats are descending on London in advance of the Congress of Vienna meetings to formulate a new peace plan for Europe following Napoleon's downfall. Mary and Jane's father, political philosopher William Godwin, is hosting a gathering with an advance party of Russian royal staff. The Russians are enthusiastic followers of Mary's late mother, philosopher and women's rights advocate Mary Wollstonecraft, which leads to a lively dinner discussion.

Following their visit, Jane overhears her father reassuring his pushiest creditor that the Russians have pledged diamonds to support his publishing venture, the Juvenile Library, relieving his financial burden. But when Godwin is told the man who promised the diamonds was pulled from the River Thames, his dire financial problems are further complicated by the suspicion that the family may have been involved in the murder.

Stepsisters Mary and Jane resolve to find the real killer to clear the family name. Coming to their aid is Godwin's disciple, the dashing poet Percy Shelley, who seems increasingly devoted to Mary, despite the fact that he is married. And a young woman Jane befriends turns out to be the mistress of the celebrated poet - and infamous lover - Lord Byron.

As both sisters find themselves perhaps dangerously captivated by the poets, their proximity to the truth of the Russian's murder puts them in far greater peril..."

As great a peril as falling in love and having sex on your mother's grave?

This is book 2 in the Mary Shelley Mystery series and while I didn’t read book 1 I could follow this story (but it was a little confusing at first, especially since there were so many Marys). I love the idea of a teenaged Mary Shelley (before she married), but I struggled with this book. It read like Cinderella with a mystery and without the evil stepsisters. It was tiring to read that and I found I didn’t really care what happened to the Godwin family. I am curious to how Shelley and Mary get together since he is married (but clearly they do, I’ve seen Frankenstein). The Godwin family has fallen on harsh times, but Mr. Godwin has secured from some Russians a promise of a bag of diamonds that should clear all of his debts. Until the man didn’t who and a Russian man was found dead in the river. Mary and her stepsister Jane are determined to figure out what happened and to save their family. There is a lot of family drama and not quite enough mystery, but overall I did enjoy it. I’ll definitely find the first book and be on the lookout for the third. Overall I gave this one 3.5 stars which I rounded up because I really love the idea of seeing Mary Shelley before her book was published.

A very good follow up to Death and The Sisters, and I'm glad that I read them in order as you get a better flow to the stories. I do love the way that Heather Redmond takes historical figures and gives them another (related) life. It gives great depth to the characters. An enjoyable book.

This is my first read by Heather Redmond

At first I felt a little lost. A lot of talk about Fanny, and Mary. There was Mary the step mother. Mary the advocate for woman's rights who was Mary Godwin's mother. So many Mary's to keep up with. It was great that when they talked about the first Mrs. Godwin they mentioned how brilliant she was and used her maiden name.
You see Mary, Jane and Shelley joined together again solving a murder. Not only 1 but 3 it seems.
The mention of diamonds as payment set a lot of things in motion. As debt collectors calling and wanting their money from Mr. Godwin right there and now.
Jane finding some jewelry and debating on what to do with it. Give it to her papa, or try and sell it?
I couldn't get over how this almost made me feel like I was reading a Cinderella story. Mary the step daughter was treated like Cinderella just about by the step mom. The talk about Fanny, and I was lost. I also felt like I was reading a Sherlock Holmes story as well. Jane, Mary and Shelley acting like detectives to find out what really happened with the Russian's and the diamonds.
It picked up really well for me towards the end. There were times it was slow. All in all it was a good read. I will have to pick up the first book and read about Shelley and just how close he came to death.

I was able to read Death and the Visitors by Heather Redmond, the second book in the Mary Shelley Death series, courtesy Net Galley and Kensington Publishing. In this book, Mary and her half-sister Jane find themselves involved in murder mysteries involving Russians, nutty fans of Mary's late mother, the famous author and philosopher Mary Wollstonecraft, and missing diamonds that could keep Mary and Jane's father, the continuously distracted William, and their (step)mother, Mary Jane (not distracted and someone who gives real meaning to the term "evil stepmother"), out of debtors' prison. The first book had our heroine working hard to live up to her mother's memory, while this book sees her continuing to do so, and coming to realize that life with William and Mary Jane is getting to be more and more tenuous. The murder mystery is twisted and I had no idea whodunnit until the end. Kudos! Mary is going "into her futurity," as she puts it, and we see, bit by bit, some of the images and concepts that lead to her eventual masterpiece.

In this second Regency-era mystery featuring Mary Godwin Shelley, the author of “Frankenstein,” the sixteen-year-old heroine (still Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin at this point in her life) and her stepsister and close lifetime companion, Jane Clairmont, are facing even greater penury and discomfort as a result of their parents’ profligacy and the absence of Mary’s older half-sister, banished to Wales because of her excessive attachment to the married poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and thus unable to help Jane and Mary with their chores.

The girls live in a run-down house in a disreputable London neighborhood not far from Newgate Prison and the Smithfield meat market, where they spend their days watching their parents’ bookshop. Their father, an illustrious political thinker and writer, doesn’t earn enough to support five children and a wife. As a result, he has fallen into the grip of moneylenders, and creditors show up on his doorstep with some regularity, embarrassing him in public and causing the entire family distress. When the girls’ mother/stepmother has the family cook arrested for a perceived infraction, things go from bad to worse.

Then a group of rich Russians show up on the doorstep, determined to meet the daughter of the renowned Mary Wollstonecraft. Seeing the opportunity to repair his fortunes, Mary’s father persuades one of the Russians to support the Godwin publishing enterprise with a gift of diamonds. The day after their scheduled meeting, the Russian is discovered face-down in the Thames River, the diamonds nowhere to be found. Meanwhile, Robert Baxter, Mary’s young suitor from Scotland, arrives with the dual goal of wedding Mary and finding himself a position in a London lawyer’s office. But Mary yearns for Shelley and for a career as a writer; her parents raised her not to believe in marriage. While pondering her choices, she sets out with her sister and Shelley to solve the mystery of the Russian’s murder, hoping to retrieve the diamonds and buy herself and her family some time.

This is the Regency as we have come to know it from the novels of C.S. Harris and Andrea Penrose, among others: opulent on the surface but full of grit and poverty behind the glittering façade. How closely Shelley, Jane, and Mary resemble their historical selves is uncertain, but it’s a rollicking good tale and deserves to be enjoyed on its own terms.

I am scheduled to interview Heather Redmond about both this book and its predecessor on the New Books Network in August 2024.

This is book two in Mary Shelley Mystery series. Things get even more interesting in this book when Mary and Jane get tangled in the mystery of drowned russians and missing diamonds. Their father organise for russian royals but things go terribly wrong. They must find the person behind all the unfortunate happenings or their family will have to deal with unforeseen consequences.

I loved reading more about the characters. The twists and turns were unpredictable. The writing is so good. And plot is interesting with interesting characters.

Many Thanks to the Publisher and Author