The Case of the Missing Maid

The Case of the Missing Maid by Rob Osler, 320 pages

It's 1898 and Harriet Morrow has just left her secretarial job to become the first female detective at the prestigious Prescott Agency. Her first assignment is something of a throwaway: go visit the boss's batty neighbor, who seems to have misplaced her maid (much like she did with the jewelry and silver that was later found exactly where it belonged). But when Harriet arrives, she discovers the maid's room in disarray, and after conversations with other employees and the maid's family, it's clear that the she is indeed missing. Harriet is given one week to track her down, and puts her fledgling investigation skills to the test in what feels like a fruitless search.

Harriet is a lesbian who is still getting comfortable with herself and her desire to wear men's clothing instead of the elaborate dresses popular at the time (which make riding her trusty bicycle much more difficult), and that, more than anything else, is the most compelling part of this book. I loved seeing her become herself, which helped when the plot lagged or felt repetitive (which happened a lot when discussing Harriet's parents' political activism for women's rights and unions). The one thing that really bugged me was that Harriet has a 16-year-old brother who goes to high school and doesn't have a job to help contribute to household expenses, which seems really strange and unlikely given their reduced means and the era in which this book is set. However, the book was decent, and I'd recommend it for fans of Jacqueline Winspear or Amy Stewart.

The Paris Express

The Paris Express by Emma Donoghue, 288 pages

On October 22, 1895, a train left Granville, France, headed for Paris, with several stops along the way. With four railroad employees and a range of first, second, and third-class passengers — including the uber-wealthy man whose private car was attached during an unscheduled stop — the titular Paris Express was helping everyone from painters and fisherfolk to politicians and students and businessmen shorten a days-long commute into one that usually takes about eight hours. However, an angry young woman boarded the train in Granville with ulterior motives, determined to make a political statement with a spectacle of her own creation. As the train speeds toward Paris, tensions increase and it's clear that this is no ordinary journey.

Loosely based on an actual event, this book was a suspenseful trip to the late 19th Century in France, with a wide range of actual historical people riding the train. Now the "loosely" part is the fact that while the people are real, very few of them were actually on the train in question, something that is revealed in the author's note at the end of the book. Really, it was a fun read, reminiscent of The Great Train Robbery and even the non-fiction Dead Wake — until that author's note. So if you want historical accuracy, this might not be the best place to get it. However, if you just want a suspenseful historical train ride, this is a fun one.

Death in the Spires

Death in the Spires by KJ Charles, 272 pages

Almost a decade ago, the murder of gregarious Toby Feynsham tore apart a close-knit group of friends at Oxford. Why? Because one of them did it, but nobody ever was prosecuted for the crime. So when identical notes claiming each surviving friend a murderer arrive at their places of business, one of them, Jem Kite, loses his job due to the notoriety and decides to spend his suddenly free time tracking down not only the letter-writer, but also the murderer.

Told both in "present day" 1905 and flashbacks to the friends' time at Oxford in the 1890s, this historical mystery is complex and compelling, and a look at how privilege plays out in school, life, and even murder investigations. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this one. 

The Heiress Hunt

The Heiress Hunt by Joanna Shupe, 384 pages

When Harrison Archer's family tells him he must marry to secure the family fortune, he's reluctant to do so...until he learns that his lifelong friend, Maddie Webster, is still unmarried three years after her debut. But she's about to become engaged to a duke. Harrison comes up with a plot to ask Maddie for her assistance finding a bride, with the true goal being her hand in marriage. While Maddie's happy to see her old friend and help him with his quest (or what she thinks is his quest), she's surprised by the new feelings she has for him, after not seeing him for three years.

This is a classic friends-to-lovers story, and it's definitely a steamy one. I liked Maddie's directness, as well as her non-traditional penchant for competitive tennis (scandalous for a society lady to sweat like that in public!). The one thing that bugged me was the conflict between them — if they've been friends for so long and Maddie's so direct in her nature, couldn't they just talk this out? But then we wouldn't have the book... oh well. It was fun!

Mrs. Mohr Goes Missing

Mrs. Mohr Goes Missing by Maryla Mzymiczkowa, 349 pages

It's 1893 in Cracow, and Zofia Turbotynska is BORED. She's the wife of a university professor and the only thing to keep her occupied is a charity auction she's spearheading with the sole purpose of climbing the social ladder. It's in pursuit of prizes for this auction (and a countess to help sponsor the endeavor) that she ends up at Helcel House, a retirement home for both the very well-off and the destitute, where she learns that the titular Mrs. Mohr has gone missing. Zofia fancies herself a bit of a detective, and working on the correct assumption that Mrs. Mohr is dead, Zofia starts investigating...and filling her time.

This is a fun historical murder mystery, filled with observations about the social world of Poland in the 1890s, vibrant characters, and a heroine reminiscent of Miss Marple. I enjoyed the escape provided by this book.

The girl with ghost eyes

The girl with ghost eyes / M.H. Boroson, 280 p.

Set in San Francisco's Chinatown in 1898, the "girl" of the title is Li-Lin, a young widow whose father is a great exorcist who provides protection for one of the major Tongs. Li-Lin herself has both sorcerous and martial arts training, but her father is a master. One day a man comes to her father's temple and asks her to perform a task in her father's absence, but then he betrays her to set a trap for her father. Once she figures out how to escape from the spirit world, she must protect Chinatown against the planned attack by a sorcerer with a grudge against her father.

I enjoy reading about magic from other traditions, so that appealed to me about this story. Of course, the built-in social assumptions of 1890s immigrant Chinese society greatly differ from what I'm used to, and I appreciate that the author tried to balance explaining taboos, insults, and other assumptions without lecturing, but sometimes it wasn't terribly smooth--I kept thinking about the book's narrative rather than being caught up in it. The author provides some notes at the back about how he condensed various histories and traditions so that he could tell his story.

Alice + Freda Forever

Alice + Freda Forever: A Murder in Memphis by Alexis Coe, illustrations by Sally Klann, 223 pages

In 1892, Memphis was shaken by the murder of 17-year-old Freda Ward by her friend Alice Mitchell. The fact that a young woman (Alice was 19 at the time) could do something so horrible was, of course, scandalous, but the real shocker was the fact that Alice and Freda had been in love and intending to get married. Indeed, it was Freda's withdrawal from their engagement that sent Alice into a fit of despair so bad that she took her ex-fiancee's life. Alice's defense lawyers successfully used this same-sex love affair to get their client declared insane, avoiding a death sentence (though she spent the rest of her short life in an insane asylum).

This is a tragic tale that is definitely worth learning about. That said, Coe's writing could have used a bit more nuance and an evener hand. We don't learn much about Alice and Freda's lives before they met, at least beyond what's included in the trial transcripts. We're also bashed over the head with how shocking the insanity-because-she's-a-lesbian plea is, and we're repeatedly reminded that the "jury of peers" was 12 white men; while it's certainly unfortunate that these situations existed, anyone with a basic understanding of the context of the era would understand why both of these sad facts were considered acceptable at that time.

So yes, it's worth reading, if only to learn the story of Alice and Freda. But proceed with caution.

The Golem and the Djinni

The Golem and the Jinni by Helen Wecker  512 pp.

In 1899 a lonely Polish man enlists the help of a disgraced rabbi to make him a golem, a creature made of clay, to serve as his wife. On the journey to New York, the man dies on board the ship leaving the golem, Chava, to fend for herself in a new world. Only an old rabbi recognizes what she is and takes her in to teach her how to get along in the world. She lives in a boarding house on the Lower East Side and takes a job in a bakery. Meanwhile a Syrian jinni arrives in New York sealed in an olive oil flask. He is released but wears an iron cuff which means he is not truly free. Ahmad, the jinni, makes his home in Little Syria helping the tinsmith who accidentally freed him from the flask. A chance meeting between Chava and Ahmad leads to an unlikely friendship. Enter the villain who wants to control both magical creatures for his own nefarious purposes and the story takes a new turn. While this is a fantasy, strong historical fiction elements describe the immigrant experience of two divergent cultures making new homes in America. Different and enjoyable.

The American Heiress

The American Heiress by Daisy Goodwin  468 pp.

In the late nineteenth century, Cora Cash is the lone offspring of the wealthy Cash family whose fortune dwarfs many of the "old money" families. Her mother's ostentation knows no bounds. Cora and her mother travel to Europe in search of a titled husband as do many American heiresses of the time. A riding accident results in the chance meeting between Cora and Ivo, the Duke of Wareham. The meeting results in a romance and marriage. Cora has the money to renovate the decaying family castle and revive the Wareham's social standing. However, she must learn to navigate the tightly bound class traditions of her new country. There is romance, infidelity, snooty aristocrats, "shocking" breaches of etiquette, and everything a novel like this should have. Aside from a few historical inaccuracies such as Sherman burning plantations in Virginia and the Prince of Wales and Prince Edward at one point seeming to be two different people, this is an enjoyable novel.

Island of Vice

Island of Vice: Theodore Roosevelt's doomed quest to clean up sin-loving New York by Richard Zacks  431 pp.

In the 1890s New York was the place that had it all: financial empires, manufacturing, entertainment, the ultra-rich and the destitute poor, as well as crime, prostitution, casinos, corrupt politicians and police under the watchful and corrupt eye of Tammany Hall. Spurred on by the public denouncements of vice by the Rev. Charles Parkhurst, the people of New York wanted a reformation of the city's evil ways. Enter a young Theodore Roosevelt as a new police commissioner. This was a Roosevelt before San Juan Hill and his "big stick." Roosevelt is determined to clean up all that is evil in the city, especially the police who turn a blind eye to the criminal goings-on...for a price. TR does his job well, too well. The people wanted things cleaned up, just not too much. When they lost the right to a cold beer on Sundays, police stations where the homeless could sleep at night, and entertainment at private parties the rebellion against the reformers began in earnest. What started as an effort to clean up the crime problem became meddling in the lives of generally law abiding persons. Soon the people and Roosevelt's own Republican Party turn against his puritanical attitudes and ways are found to get off the Board of Police Commissioners--by getting him out of town and into Washington, D.C. as Assistant Secretary of the Navy. The puritanical zealot Theodore Roosevelt is quite different from the boisterous, outdoorsy, jovial man he is depicted as being during his years as President of the U.S.