The author did nothing wrong it was totally me. I was not able to connect with the characters since I had not read the previous book in the series.

I was originally given a copy from Netgalley in 2015, discovered in 2021 that I hadn't read or reviewed the book, and, in fact, forgotten to download the book. Feeling guilty, I found a copy at my local library, so this review is based on the published version.

My first thought when I started was that it felt like a mystery written about the time the story takes place. After that, the story sort of lost any detail that made it seem set in the 30's. It also had way more romance than any of my mother's mysteries (I first got into mysteries when I was 9 by reading her Agatha Christie and Rex Stout books) that were written in the 30's and 40's. It's not detailed or salacious, but there was none that I recall from my mother's books. Neither really put me off.

The author did a good job of providing an assortment of suspects with credible motives and the story chugged along.

This was a thrilling and interesting murder mystery fiction. I did get a bit confused with when it was supposed to be set as the historical tone felt all over the place and it was only checking the blurb that i found out when i was meant to be set. The murder mystery aspect was good and the detecting was done well. The plot holes were generally wrapped up well but i found that the relationship portion of the book was the weakest part and i could have done without that.

I just couldn't get into this one. Very flat writing. It almost felt like you were supposed to have read previous novels to know who the characters were and what they were talking about?