A Most Puzzling Murder

Title:  A Most Puzzling Murder: A quirky, humorous locked room murder mystery with riddles and puzzles for the reader to solve

Author:  Bianca Marais

Publication Information:  MIRA. 2025. 480 pages.

ISBN:  0778368602 / 9780778368601

Rating:   ★★★★

Book Source:  I received this book through NetGalley and a publisher's blog tourfree of cost in exchange for an honest review.

Opening Sentence:  "Destiny Whip warily eyes her bedside table, thinking how it could easily be mistaken for a miniature graveyard, what with all the little pills neatly lined in staggered rows, positioned upright like tiny headstones."

Favorite Quote:  "She wonders why finding your way to your truest self, and then fully embracing and accepting it, is always the most difficult journey of all."

***** BLOG TOUR ***

Review

The subtitle of this book reads, "A quirky, humorous locked room murder mystery with riddles and puzzles for the reader to solve." All things I love - quirkiness, humor, mystery, riddles, and puzzles. Add to that a reclusive, genius main character named Destiny Whip. Add to that a mysterious letter and an atmospheric remote island in a nebulous geographic location but with a family castle. This book has all the makings of a fun adventure.

This book reminds me of the children's books in which you "choose your own adventure." In fact, the reader's introduction to the book references that it is a choose your own adventure book. The fun of these books is their interactive nature and the choice - the thought that as the reader, you are perhaps driving the story. In reality, you know that all the eventualities have already been created by the author. Yet, that feeling of being in control of the story impacts the experience. Eventually, I go back and read all the possible combinations - all the choices. This adds the element of more choices and do overs - something many of us would wish for in real life. 

Given that some of the puzzles involve graphics, I am not sure how different formats for the book would work. The author's website provides a PDF of the puzzle, but have to do that would interrupt the flow of the book. I am not sure how an audiobook would even work especially to follow the different threats out of the puzzles. That being said, the Kindle version worked fine, linking back and forth between puzzle, solution, outcome, next chapter. It was fun. That being said, I am not sure the answers to any of the individual puzzles really impacted the outcome of the book at all. It goes back to the reality that the author has already created all the possibilities. Nevertheless, it was fun to travel along and a nostalgic nod to my childhood reads.

I have now read three books by the author, and each has been completely different. Hum if You Don't Know the Words was about the harsh reality of life in South Africa. The Witches of Moonshyne Manor is about five octogenarian witches whose lives and home is threatened. This one is about mystery and adventure. Each book features strong female characters but in completely different settings and situations. I look forward to seeing where Bianca Marais goes next.

About the Book

Interspersed with riddles and puzzles that both Destiny and the reader must solve, A Most Puzzling Murder is a one-of-a-kind mystery that will leave you guessing and gasping until the very last page!

Destiny Whip is a former child prodigy, world-renowned enigmatologist and very, very alone. A life filled with loss has made her a recluse, an existence she’s content to endure until a letter arrives inviting her to interview for the position of Scruffmore family historian. Not only does an internet search for the name yield almost nothing, it’s a role she never applied to in the first place!

She decodes the invitation's hidden message with ease, and its promise to reveal her family secrets proves too powerful a draw for the orphaned Destiny, who soon finds herself on Eerie Island. It’s a place whose inhabitants are almost as inhospitable as the tempestuous weather. The Scruffmores themselves turn out to be not much better, a snarled mess of secrets and motives connected by their mistrust for one another.

Their newly arrived guest proves to be just as much an enigma to them as they are to her. While Destiny slowly works to unravel the mysteries hidden throughout the ominous castle, she struggles to interpret disturbing nightly visions of what is to come. In the midst of cryptic ciphers, hidden passages, and the family’s magical line of succession, Destiny is certain of two things: one of the Scruffmores is going to die and she’s running out of time to stop it.

About the Author

BIANCA MARAIS cohosts the popular podcast The Shit No One Tells You About Writing, which is aimed at helping emerging writers get published. She teaches creative writing through the podcast and was named a winner of the Excellence in Teaching Award for Creative Writing at the University of Toronto’s School of Continuing Studies. She lives in Toronto, where she loves playing escape-room games and writing about strong female protagonists.

  

Excerpt

Excerpted from A Most Puzzling Murder by Bianca Marais, Copyright © 2025 by Bianca Marais. Published by MIRA Books.

CHAPTER 1
Destiny
Sunday, 9:57 a.m.

Destiny Whip warily eyes her bedside table, thinking how it could easily be mistaken for a miniature graveyard, what with all the little pills neatly lined in staggered rows, positioned upright like tiny headstones. It certainly feels as though she’s regarding the burial ground of her hopes and dreams, haunted by the specter of the enormous potential she’s so dismally failed to live up to.

When you’re declared a child prodigy, everyone expects you to go far in life, but all Destiny has managed today is a slow shuffle to and from the bathroom. Even that required Herculean reserves of energy.

Balancing her laptop on her knees, she reaches to the farthest side of the bed for her emotional-support urn, pulling it close and tucking it into her armpit as though cuddling a teddy bear. She kisses the top of the teardrop shape, the metal cold against her chapped lips.

Bex appears in Destiny’s doorway, leaning her head against the frame. “Good morning.”

Her best friend is still too scrawny, but not nearly as emaciated as she was a year ago when all she feasted on was beauty magazines and models’ Instagram pages rather than anything resembling food. Bex looks mostly healthy again, her long chestnut hair gleaming, the hollows of her cheeks no longer reminiscent of sinkholes.

“You okay?” Bex asks, the corners of her mouth turned down.

It’s the anniversary of the accident today, one year somehow crawling by on scraped knees.

Some people act like severe depression is a tarnish, one that can be polished off with the application of enough elbow grease. Luckily, Bex isn’t one of them.

Destiny tries to speak, but a knot of regret is so tangled up in her throat that the words don’t stand a chance.

Her laptop suddenly squawks with an incoming video call. In the months that Destiny has been seeing Dr. Shepherd, they’ve never once had a virtual consultation over a weekend. But today is going to be a tough one, which is why the psychiatrist insisted on the appointment.

As the ringing continues, Destiny gently places the urn beside her and instinctively reaches for her notebook before paging to the list of tasks the doctor assigned last month.

Bex sidles up next to her, reading over her shoulder.

1. Leave the apartment once a day to go for a walk or grab a coffee.

2. Reach out to an old friend or colleague to suggest a meetup.

3. Replace all the dead plants.

4. Keep a dream journal about the white-haired ghost woman.

5. Email the council expressing your wish to return.

6. Accept one of the consultancies that you’ve been offered (one that doesn’t require travel).

7. Work on forgiving Nate.

8. Limit your interactions with Bex.

Bex side-eyes the last item on the list. “Rude,” she huffs. “You’d think I was a bad inf luence or something.”

Rather than answering Bex or the incoming call, Destiny thinks of how she’s never f lunked an assignment in her entire life. Always top of her class, and despite being admitted to university as a twelve-year-old, Destiny cannot fathom this degree of failure.

She’s ticked nothing off the list, not even throwing away the plants whose shriveled corpses goad her, their untimely deaths undoubtedly due to the curtains constantly being drawn tight. That, and Destiny forgetting to water them.

The laptop’s ringing grates on Destiny’s nerves, but she can’t force herself to answer and face Dr. Shepherd’s disappointment. It will be carefully concealed, of course, with the psychiatrist gently pointing out there’s always next week, or the week after that, to achieve these seemingly simple goals. But it doesn’t matter how much of an extension Destiny is given.

It’s no use.

For how can she possibly cut ties with Bex, who’s her dearest, not to mention only, friend?

Plus, there’s no way the Council of Enigmatologists will take her back after she’s been AWOL for so long. Each time an envelope drops through the mail slot, Destiny fully expects it to be a letter informing her that they’ve completely revoked her membership. It hurts to remember how thrilled she was to be appointed president of the prestigious group just thirteen months ago, and how she, Bex, and Nate all splurged on a fancy dinner to celebrate.

When the call finally drops, Bex exhales, a long whoosh of defeat. “I know I shouldn’t enable you with all the talking, but it’s not like I can call anyone on your behalf.”

They both look down at the wallpaper on the home screen of Destiny’s laptop.

It’s a photo that was taken thirteen years ago when Destiny was eight. In it, her mother’s arm is f lung across Annie’s shoulders, happiness radiating from the two best friends in waves. Destiny’s eyes fill with tears as she studies her mother’s straight black hair and pale skin, and those enormous glasses obscuring most of her face.

Jutting her chin at Destiny’s mother, Bex murmurs, “I wish I’d known Liz.”

Destiny nods before turning her attention to Annie, with her striking Afro and beaded shoulder-duster earrings, and her smile as bright as the sun.

The image was captured two weeks before Liz died. A year later, the paperwork went through to officially make Annie Destiny’s second adoptive mother. Their deaths were a wrenching loss, a tearing in the fabric of Destiny’s being that she never quite stitched back together.

There were times in the before when Destiny experienced the sting of loneliness, that awful yearning of the one forever stuck outside, nose and palms pressed against the cold glass, gazing in at what belonging looked like: foreheads bent together, raucous laughter elicited by inside jokes, sentences finished by those who knew you best.

But this is not loneliness, in the same way that a drop of water is not a deluge, the way a sigh is not a hurricane.

“I’m so sorry that you’re having such a rough time of it,” Bex says, reaching out to tuck a f laming red curl behind Destiny’s ear. She freezes upon seeing Destiny’s expression, her hand hovering like a ghost between them. “A year is a long time, though, and Dr. Shepherd is right despite the fact that she clearly has it in for me. You need to move on.”

God, that Bex is apologizing to her, of all people, when everything that happened was Destiny’s fault.

“No, I’m sorry,” Destiny says, her voice pulled so taut that it snaps. Seeing the pills all standing to attention—no longer a cemetery full of headstones, but rather an army ready to fight the last battle—Destiny reaches for the urn again, stroking it like a security blanket. “If you stop talking to me, Bex, I don’t know what I’d do.”

“Not gonna happen,” Bex replies breezily. And then more firmly she says, “Okay, it’s tough love time. You seriously need to shower because you’re stinking up the place. Plus, the kitchen needs cleaning. Those take-out containers have grown thumbs. I swear I caught them trying to hitch a ride to the nearest primordial swamp.”

Destiny laughs at how incredibly bossy Bex is.

Especially for a dead person.

Still, it’s reassuring that no matter how much has changed, some things stay exactly the same.

Buy Links

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Most-Puzzling-Murder-humorous-mystery/dp/0778387690
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-most-puzzling-murder-bianca-marais/1146847363
Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/p/books/a-most-peculiar-tale-indeed-original-bianca-marais/21435438 
Books-A-Million: https://www.booksamillion.com/p/9780778368601 
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/a-most-puzzling-murder 
AppleBooks: https://books.apple.com/us/book/a-most-puzzling-murder/id6501987778 
Google Play: https://books.google.com/books/about/A_Most_Puzzling_Murder.html?id=rbs7EQAAQBAJ 
Libro.FM: https://libro.fm/audiobooks/9781488233814-a-most-puzzling-murder 
Indigo: https://www.indigo.ca/en-ca/a-most-puzzling-murder-a-quirky-humorous-locked-room-murder-mystery-with-riddles-and-puzzles-for-the-reader-to-solve/9780778368601.html 
Target: https://www.target.com/p/a-most-puzzling-murder-by-bianca-marais/-/A-93112360 
Walmart: https://www.walmart.com/ip/A-Most-Puzzling-Murder-A-Quirky-Humorous-Locked-Room-Murder-Mystery-with-Riddles-and-Puzzles-for-the-Reader-to-Solve-Paperback-9780778368601/5560832578?classType=REGULAR&from=/search

Social Links

Author website: https://www.biancamarais.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/biancamaraisauthor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/biancam_author/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/biancamarais_author/

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The American Daughters

Title:  The American Daughters

Author:  Maurice Carlos Ruffin

Publication Information:  One World. 2024. 304 pages.

ISBN:  0593729390 / 978-0593729397

Rating:   ★★★

Book Source:  I received this book through NetGalley free of cost in exchange for an honest review.

Opening Sentence:  "... in grasping my pen and putting my hand to page, I felt as though I existed for the first time."

Favorite Quote:  "I was the property of no one save myself. Therefore, I could freely give of myself to those I loved, no?"

The title reminds me of the organization Daughters of the American Revolution. I am not sure the author intended for the connection to be made, but nevertheless it comes to my mind. Much has been written and researched about the Daughters of the American Revolution. The group is still active. The only qualification is to be able to trace lineage back to the patriots of the American Revolution.

The American Daughters of this book are similar in a fight for freedom. They are the revolutionaries rather than descendants of revolutionaries. Other than a similarity in name, they couldn't otherwise be more different. The book is based on a history of resistance amongst slaved and free women of color in pre-Civil War New Orleans. The book puts forth a secret group of spies with a character at the heart of it who was the author's ancestor.

One of the reasons I love historical fiction is that it introduces me to history I may not otherwise have learned or read about. However, when I go to research this history, very little is to be found. Basic research states that no such organization existed. So, this fiction may be taking the actual passive and active acts of resistance and put them into this fictional context. I won't say embellishing history because the resistance was and is real. However, perhaps, it is history with more of an artistic license that other historical fiction may take.

In that, this book is a great reminder that historical fiction is fiction first. It is important to not take it as history but to do your own research to separate fact from fiction.

History aside, the story is an interesting one with one main repeating theme. The phrases "slave labor camp also called a plantation" and "open-air prison also called a plantation" and other similar monikers repeat throughout the book. The vision is a brutal one and perhaps more true to the history than anything else in the book. However, the repetition of the entire phrase over and over again becomes somewhat stilted.

This is what I will remember from this book, more than the characters or even the plot. Perhaps, that is the intent successfully accomplished. Unfortunately, it makes the reading of the book challenging at times. I am reminded of the elementary school reminder of "show don't tell" in a story. This story does show as well, but the "tell" repeats as a refrain overshadowing everything else.

Please share your thoughts and leave a comment. I would love to "talk" to you.

Supercommunicators

Title:  Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection

Author:  Charles Duhigg

Publication Information:  Random House. 2024. 320 pages.

ISBN:  0593243919 / 978-0593243916

Rating:   ★★★

Book Source:  I received this book through NetGalley free of cost in exchange for an honest review.

Opening Sentence:  "If there was one thing everyone knew about Felix Signal, it was that he was easy to talk to."

Favorite Quote:  "... listening means letting someone else tell their story and then, even if you don't agree with them, trying to understand why they feel that way."

Reading a book on communication is a double edged sword. On the one hand, many of us read and receive training on the topic - in school, on the job, through self-education, and through experience. Thus, reading another book about the ideas can sometimes feel like it rehashes the same thoughts and skills. On the other hand, our modes of communication may have changed, but human nature has not. Individual needs to be heard and understood remain constant. As such, even though the concepts of such a book may not be new, reading another's interpretation of it and another packaging of it can sometimes teach me something new - a new way of looking at the same thing. For that nugget of truth, a book such as this proves its value.

This book is structured around three kinds of conversations:

• "What's this really about conversation?"
• How do we feel conversation?"
• Who are we conversation?"

The first may be practical. The second is emotional. The third is about identity. The concern with this structure is that is any conversation truly about only one of these facets or is it always a mix of all three? Likely the latter. However, perhaps, it can be understood that the primary focus of the conversation may just be one.

The book set out four conversation rules:

• Rule one:  Pay attention to what kind of conversation is occurring.
• Rule two:  Share your goals, and ask what others are seeking.
• Rule three:  Ask about others' feelings, and share your own.
• Rule four:  Explore if identities are important to this discussion.

Again, the ideas are not new. Think listening triangle. Think Stephen Covey's "Seek first to understand, then to be understood." Think about many other books and articles that have been written about this topic.

Beyond the ideas are the stories the author uses to anchor the framework to situations. As may be expected, some I relate to. Some I do not.

What I love best about this book is actually captured in its subtitle. Communication is about connection. Particularly, as communication shifts to media that are remote and electronic, connection remains at the heart of it. That reminder is the lesson I will take.

As with other books such as this, I will take what works for me and leave the rest. Your value will vary based on what you bring to it.

Please share your thoughts and leave a comment. I would love to "talk" to you.

The Book of Doors

Title:  The Book of Doors

Author:  Gareth Brown

Publication Information:  William Morrow. 2024. 416 pages.

ISBN:  0063323982 / 978-0063323988

Rating:   ★★★

Book Source:  I received this book through NetGalley free of cost in exchange for an honest review.

Opening Sentence:  "In Kellner Books on the Upper East Side of New York City, a few minutes before his death, John Webber was reading The Count of Monte Cristo."

Favorite Quote:  "Happiness is not something you sit and wait for. you have to choose it and pursue it in spite of everything else. It's not going to be given to you."

A bookstore. A librarian. A magical book. Those who, at first, do not understand the power of the books. Those who wish to use the magic of the books for their own purposes. A main characters whose life seems to be passing by. "Don't waste your life hidden away in your own mind. Make the most of the time you have, otherwise before you know it, you'll have no time left."  Until now.

This book has a setup that has been done before. This book has so many characteristics that appeal to a bibliophile reader. I love books about books and am predisposed to picking a book with a description such as this one. Add to that the intriguing promise of this magical book. "any door is every door. You just need to know how to open them." The story then goes even further with the idea that there is not just one book but a whole series of them. Each one grants its owner a special ability, and yet, this one surpasses them all. I open the door to this book and walk right in.

Cassie Andrews lives a quiet, humdrum life. She is a bookseller in a local shop. She shares an apartment with her friend Izzy. Then, a customer - one of Cassie's favorites - dies in the shop. He leaves behind a book. Not just any book. A magical book. At first, the book is a joy - the ability to open a door or reopen a door considered forever lost in our lives is an appealing one. However, doing so comes at a price.

Cassie and Izzy are thrown into the world of intrigue and are now in the sights of those who want this book. As this is an old conflict, there are sides. Drummond Fox appears as a librarian, educating Cassie on the provenance of the book and what happens if it falls into the wrong hands.

There are skirmishes, adventures, and escapes as Cassie attempts to keep the book safe. I go right along, enjoying the ride. That being said, be warned that the ride gets violent at times, and at times, I feel like I have been on this ride before. Magical book, time travel, good guys, bad guys, and so on. I nevertheless love the premise.

The Book of Doors is a debut novel. I look forward to seeing what the author does next.

Please share your thoughts and leave a comment. I would love to "talk" to you.

The Backyard Bird Chronicles

Title:  The Backyard Bird Chronicles

Author & Illustrator:  Amy Tan

Publication Information:  Knopf. 2024. 320 pages.

ISBN:  0593536134 / 978-0593536131

Rating:   ★★★★

Book Source:  I received this book through NetGalley free of cost in exchange for an honest review.

Opening Sentence:  "These pages are a record of my obsession with birds."

Favorite Quote:  "For birds, each day is a chance to survive."

Amy Tan is an award winning author. This book is a departure from her prior work. From the author's website... "In 2016, Amy began taking nature journaling classes with John Muir Laws. During the pandemic shutdown, she spent long hours observing the behavior of wild birds in her backyard. Her editor, Dan Halpern, suggested she turn those pencil sketches, colored portraits and journal notes into an illustrated book, The Backyard Bird Chronicles, published in April 2024 by Knopf."

From interviews with the author about why this project came about when it did: Amy Tan is of Chinese American heritage, born to immigrant parents. In her words, in 2016, racism in our nation was rampant, and she was the target of that racism because of her heritage. "The world was ugly, and I needed to find beauty again."

The idea of nature providing beauty, comfort, and solace is one that resonates with me. Although I am not a birder per se, the idea of retreating into nature for calm and peace resonates with me. The lesson and reminder to us to be good stewards of our world resonates with me.

For me, long walks and discovery of all our local parks became a survival mechanism during the pandemic. The author's birding adventures continued during the pandemic. That being said, she has the luxury of a home in the San Francisco hills with a view of the bay, a large garden, a wall of windows, and the means to create a green roof. That is not most people's reality, but it is a lovely reality to share.

As the title suggests, this book - the words and the images - are all about birds. If that is not your thing, you may not be the reader for this book. The book is structured into short, date and time stamped entries, each focused on a particular sighting.

The goal of this book is not to relate the descriptions and illustrations to humans. It is not to anthropomorphize the birds. Nevertheless, the journal entries do ponder bird behavior - the adult birds and the caretaking of young, the competition amongst like birds and between species, the impact of environmental changes on the lives of birds, the communal reaction to a bird in distress, the lifecycle of birds, and so much more. Each one of these ideas has relevance to the human world.

Of course, fiction or nonfiction, Amy Tan's writing and her ability to draw me into this world of birds and keep turning pages makes this a memorable book.

Please share your thoughts and leave a comment. I would love to "talk" to you.

Acts of Forgiveness

Title:  Acts of Forgiveness

Author:  Maura Cheeks

Publication Information:  Ballantine Books. 2024. 320 pages.

ISBN:  0593598296 / 978-0593598290

Rating:   ★★★★

Book Source:  I received this book through NetGalley free of cost in exchange for an honest review.

Opening Sentence:  "Marcus Revel was willing to trade the illusion of his sanity to keep his home."

Favorite Quote:  "Because sometimes you have to go where you're not wanted in order to change people's minds."

Philadelphia - the original capital of our nation.

Change has come. A woman serves as the United States president. The Forgiveness Act is being considered. If passed and signed. If signed, the legislation would provide up to $175,000 in reparations is a family can prove that they are descended from slaves. The nation is watching.

The author anchors this discussion in the life of Willa Revel. Long ago, she gave up a career to help the family business. She is a single parent to a daughter. She has always put her family before herself. "It was one thing to feel like your sacrifices were worth it but another to feel like you sacrificed for nothing. Was it possible to be a good person if you were always resenting the sacrifices you made to be good." The passage of the act would mean acknowledgement. The money could mean staying out of bankruptcy.

The questions this book raises are important ones that go well beyond this book:

• Can reparations ever compensate for the horrors of slavery?
• Is the thought of reparations merely to assuage the guilt of those who consider themselves representative of the enslavers?
• Can trauma inherited through the generations be remedied by monetary reparations?
• From a pieces of legislation called the "Forgiveness" Act, is forgiveness possible?
• What does forgiveness means?
• How do you put a value on the loss?
• How do you prove a family line?
• How do you prove a family line when
• people were bought and sold?
• birth records were not kept?
• a child's birth was recorded as property rather than parental lineage?
• ownership rights extended into rape and fathering of unacknowledged children?

And so many more.

What grounds this book and makes it work for me is that it is not a philosophical essay on these topics. In fact, many of these questions are not and, I don't think, can be resolved in a book such as this. To me, a packaged fictional resolution would undermine the questions. 

Instead, this is very much the story of one woman and one family. It is about a search for the past and the complicated history it reveals. It is about learning where we come from and separating it from where we are going. It is about understanding. The questions and the search will stay with me for a long time.

This book is a debut novel. I look forward to reading more from the author.

Please share your thoughts and leave a comment. I would love to "talk" to you.

The Phoenix Crown

Title:  The Phoenix Crown

Author:  Kate Quinn & Janie Chang

Publication Information:  William Morrow Paperbacks. 2024. 400 pages.

ISBN:  0063304732 / 978-0063304734

Rating:   ★★★

Book Source:  I received this book through NetGalley free of cost in exchange for an honest review.

Opening Sentence:  "'A rose by any other name,' someone quote, and Alice Eastwood was hard-pressed not to roll her eyes."

Favorite Quote:  "Well, maybe she was tired of being good. Maybe she wanted to play the game for once, and play it for all she could get."

On Wednesday, April 18, 1906, Northern California including the San Francisco bay area was hit by a 7.9 magnitude earthquake. In the aftermath of the earthquake, massive fires broke out all over the city and lasted for days. Over eighty percent of the city was destroyed, and over 3,000 people died.

This story begins about 2 weeks before the earthquake.

Four women:

• Suling - a young woman in the city's Chinatown trying to avoid a forced marriage.
• Gemma - an opera singer looking for her friend and a new start.
• Nelli - Gemma's friend who seems to have disappeared.
• Alice Eastwood - a botanist. This character is based on an actual historical figure. The real Alice Eastwood was a botanist and is credited with saving part of the plant collection of the California Academy of Sciences during the 1906 earthquake and the ensuing fires. Nothing much survived beyond what she saved. 

One man - Henry Thornton.

One legendary artifact - The Phoenix Crown, an antique from Beijing's summer palace. The phoenix crown actually are called fengguan, and they historically are "hats" or crowns worn by Chinese brides and noblewomen. 

These lives meet and intersect. Plans are made. Alliances are forged. Betrayals happen. There is an incidental love story. It seems there for the sake of being there, not central to the main story of the book.

Then, the earthquake happens, and Henry Thornton disappears along with the crowns.

Five years later, in 1911, the crown reappears. The mystery and the dresire for revenge, retribution, and more brings these characters to a finale crash.

The story introduces each characters and their backstory. It takes a while for the connections to form and for the reader to see the threads come together. The historical setting - the city before, during, and after the earthquake - really comes to life. I can "see" it and feel as though I am walking those streets. 

This book is part historical fiction and part thriller and mystery. The history give the book its vivid color. The female characters draw attention to the challenges faced by women at that time and in that place. The mystery and the chase give the book its pace. The pace definitely picks up more later in the book as the story fast forwards five years. 

Overall, a fun read. This is my first book by these authors. I will likely look for more.

Please share your thoughts and leave a comment. I would love to "talk" to you.