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Anyone a Historical Mystery fan?

50K views 480 replies 41 participants last post by  stansmithattorney 
#1 ·
I did do a search, but it might be my search fu is broken as I can't find a specific thread for HM.

Besides historical romance, historical mysteries are my other love. I got hooked on a few, but I always look for more.

My favorite must be CS Harris St. Cyr series. I know I am not alone in that and its probably a tough one to ask for more series in that quality.
I do also really love Ashley Gardners Captain Lacey series. On both of them I now have to pace myself as I only have 3 books left before I am caught up. Then what.  :eek:

I started the Victoria Thompson series, although its set a bit later than I like in time period. I think the reason I love the CS Harris series so much is because the investigating is done around regency time and there are no modern things like electricity and all that. Its the same for me when I read HR. I just don't want to be to modern. But I did like the first Thompson, Murder in Astor Place. Not as much as the others, but its early yet.

I already started the Amelia Peabody one and its a bit tougher for me to get into the characters to be honest. Although I do love the setting in Egypt.

Course I love the Lady Grey series by Deanna Raybourn.

Another I am also totally loving and awaiting the next in series is Anna Lee Hubers series. Wonderful.

Also exited about Sherry Thomas new series with A Study in Sherlock women is the first. Will be a loooooooooooooooong time for the next though. It was really really good though.

For standalone I read a couple of Simone St. James that I liked, they are on the gothic side, also set a bit more modern.

I read a Tracy Grant, but didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I should. Same with the Anne Perry Thomas Pitt where I read the first one.

And now I am panicking that I am running out of the good historical mysteries. Series especially, although I am not opposed to standalones of course if they are good.

Can we clone CS Harris?  ;D Every single one of those books has been a 5 star read for me. I am going to pout the day I am caught up with that series.

Allright, lets have it. What HM did you like, or wanted to like, or are wanting to read, have heard of.

I feel like needing a thread also for mysteries that are not cozy. Or maybe not as I always get confused at what cozy is or isn't.
 
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#128 ·
I am not amused. I just had a long post typed up and got wiped out by a power blip during thunderstorm. My batter backup on that main computer is apparently out of battery. Hmpf.

Now on laptop.

I finished

17th in that series. Its fast losing its luster for me. Started a few books back. Its more and more like cozy now, but with not so great mystery anymore. They used to be much better in the early books. This was so obvious. Also lots of repetition that feels like filler. Characters tell the next character something and then they tell the next and on and on. So as the reader, I hear the same thing like 5 times, over and over. Got tedious.
I'll still finish the series, 4 more to go, so at least I get caught up with something. But I am not rushing to the next one. Oh well. It wasn't really my favorite to start with, but certainly it was much better early on. Characters seem all a bit muted. Not sure how to put it. They are less complete now, just seems not as carefully written. I am no good with terms. More fluff I guess and especially Frank isn't the same person anymore as he used to be. All seem a bit more shallow and not as fleshed out.
 
#129 ·
Reading the, what is it now, 10th in the CS Harris series.

I just love this series so much I am going to curl up in a ball when I am caught up. I am not even kidding. I have not find a HM that comes even close to this one.

There are lots of heads so far. Really old heads. Decomposed heads. Heads everywhere. Heads abound. :p
 
#130 ·
Atunah said:
Reading the, what is it now, 10th in the CS Harris series.

I just love this series so much I am going to curl up in a ball when I am caught up. I am not even kidding. I have not find a HM that comes even close to this one.

There are lots of heads so far. Really old heads. Decomposed heads. Heads everywhere. Heads abound. :p
I bought the first one of those back in 2014. Guess I should get started . . . . . :D
 
#131 ·
Ann in Arlington said:
I bought the first one of those back in 2014. Guess I should get started . . . . . :D
Oh yes you should. And then you start panicking because you can't find anything else as good as that series out there. ;D
Its why I kept reading them so sloooooooooooooooooow. And now I will read the last 4 in a row as its otherwise so hard to keep up with some of the details that happen in older books. :-X
 
#132 ·
Agree with you in spades on both Harris and Thompson, Atunah. Sorry the Victoria Thompson's finally wore thin for you. As you know, I abandoned them quite a while back. Whether it's the stable lad turning into a duke in Regencies or the Irish cop turning into a millionaire in books like Thompson's, it doesn't work for me.
 
#133 ·
ellenoc said:
Agree with you in spades on both Harris and Thompson, Atunah. Sorry the Victoria Thompson's finally wore thin for you. As you know, I abandoned them quite a while back. Whether it's the stable lad turning into a duke in Regencies or the Irish cop turning into a millionaire in books like Thompson's, it doesn't work for me.
Sometimes I let a lot of stuff slide. It depends on what else is going on. But I guess in a series that keeps going, you notice changes in characters and stuff that just isn't what it was anymore. I am probably still going further in some stuff than I should. In a standalone HR, I can buy some stuff, knowing its eyerolling if I like the overall story, or emotion. A series is a bit harder to take.

I am just desperate to find other series, especially long ones. Cause once I am done with Harris, I don't know what I'll do. :-X
 
#134 ·
Atunah said:
Sometimes I let a lot of stuff slide. It depends on what else is going on.
If I didn't let some stupid stuff slide, I'd never have anything to read - and that's only counting what I know is stupid, which is mostly horse and dog stuff. I did give up on a mystery series recently when after ignoring a lot already, it said dogs had no eyelids. Enough!

Long ago I read something that said traditional publishing houses had editors who checked manuscripts for accuracy. If an author described a certain uniform as blue with brass buttons, the editor would check and make sure that uniform was really like that. Obviously that kind of checking fell by the wayside long ago. I even know of a successful author who on his blog recommends that if authors don't know something, they just make it up and keep writing. His theory is that not enough people will know the truth and be upset to matter. Sadly he's probably right and his way is obviously the modern way, but you'd think if you didn't know squat about dogs, you'd either (a) not write a book featuring a police dog, or (b) get someone who does know dogs to read your draft. And do the same for other things you have no knowledge about.
 
#135 ·
Make stuff up and keep writing. Groans. If it was about horses, I wouldn't know anything so they could make up stuff, if its believable, and I wouldn't know the difference. I guess that is what they are counting on. But I like to be able to trust what I read and that it has at least a respectable level of research. Eyes on it that know of a subject even if the author doesn't. Is that really too much to ask? Maybe I just need to stick with older stuff from publishers when they still checked that stuff?  :p

Thing is, it takes quite a bit to get me off a book. I mean I might look something up after reading it in a book because I want to know more, but I wouldn't know all the details, or maybe even bigger events otherwise. So I do have to trust the books and the authors and the publishers in that way. But overall I can still enjoy a lot even with things like that. If something is a page turner and I really like the characters and I get all the feels, I guess its done its job with me in the end. As long as I don't find out about the big booboos.
 
#136 ·
Atunah said:
But I like to be able to trust what I read and that it has at least a respectable level of research.
That's the problem, at least for me. Once my trust is blown on a subject I know about, I don't trust anything from that source on subjects I don't know about. Some years back when the Amazon forums were still flourishing I saw a post by a reader who said she learned her history from historical romances, and I shuddered. It's sad that history is no longer taught, at least in U.S. schools, and even sadder that people rely on such unreliable sources.

I've long known, Atunah, from posts here that you are a more - hmm not sure the word - constant? loyal? reader than I am. The older I get, the less it takes to put me off a book, a series, an author. I'll forgive a lot for a good story, but too many stories are borderline for me, so anything at all and I'm off to something else. I've forgiven C.S. Harris for some really stupid stuff like dogs sweating, but as you say, very few are in her class.
 
#137 ·
ellenoc said:
That's the problem, at least for me. Once my trust is blown on a subject I know about, I don't trust anything from that source on subjects I don't know about. Some years back when the Amazon forums were still flourishing I saw a post by a reader who said she learned her history from historical romances, and I shuddered. It's sad that history is no longer taught, at least in U.S. schools, and even sadder that people rely on such unreliable sources.

I've long known, Atunah, from posts here that you are a more - hmm not sure the word - constant? loyal? reader than I am. The older I get, the less it takes to put me off a book, a series, an author. I'll forgive a lot for a good story, but too many stories are borderline for me, so anything at all and I'm off to something else. I've forgiven C.S. Harris for some really stupid stuff like dogs sweating, but as you say, very few are in her class.
I think the word is stubborn. ;D. I have changed a bit though too on that front. I have more dnf books that I ever had. Even though its not many, there used to be pretty much none. I think as times goes on it will get more and more. Although I have read more "older" stuff overall, rather than try new HR authors and books. I think that saves me some grumbling. With historial mysteries, there isn't as much so i have to take what I can get. Maybe we can clone Harris so she can write a few other series like that, maybe set in different periods. 8)
 
#138 ·
Atunah said:
I think the word is stubborn. ;D. I have changed a bit though too on that front. I have more dnf books that I ever had. Even though its not many, there used to be pretty much none. I think as times goes on it will get more and more. Although I have read more "older" stuff overall, rather than try new HR authors and books. I think that saves me some grumbling. With historial mysteries, there isn't as much so i have to take what I can get. Maybe we can clone Harris so she can write a few other series like that, maybe set in different periods. 8)
Ellenoc and Atunah, you both have hit a chord with me. I have gone from never, ever not finishing a book to deleting it from my kindle (unfinished) the minute I realize I've become bored or find myself disliking the main characters. I feel a little bad that I've spent money on a book and am not reading it, but not bad enough to force myself to finish. I think it is a combination of being older and realizing time is too precious to waste, and having several hundred books on my TBR list that I could be reading instead of reading something I am not enjoying. I have even (horrors!) not finished a couple of new books by some of my very favorite 'automatic buy' authors whose quality of writing seems to be seriously slipping....maybe because they are trying too hard to crank out a new title several times a year. I have almost stopped automatically buying new titles now from authors I have loved. Instead I read the blurb and a few reviews and if the plot is an old trope that turns me off, I take a pass. I guess I am becoming harder to please in my old age.
 
#139 ·
If these have already been mentioned in this thread, just ignore me, but I don't remember them and found them in a different way.

I just finished a pretty good historical mystery by D.M. Quincy, Murder in Mayfair. It has a romantic thread to the story, but wouldn't qualify as a romance. It's one of two in the series available currently (haven't read the second, so maybe it wraps things up, but somehow I doubt it). Set in 1810, London and close by. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MRZ3V3F/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

Before that I read Edinburgh Twilight by Carole Lawrence. Set in Edinburgh in 1880s. It was okay. I'll try the 2d one of these when it comes out (only on pre-order now), but how I feel about the 2d will determine whether I'll read any more. It's mystery only, nothing romantic. In fact the hero avoids women. He's my problem with the book. He's kind of a jerk, so will have to see if he improves.

https://www.amazon.com/Edinburgh-Twilight-Hamilton-Mysteries-Book-ebook/dp/B06X3V28MX/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1528248989&sr=1-1&keywords=edinburgh+twilight
 
#141 ·
ellenoc said:
If these have already been mentioned in this thread, just ignore me, but I don't remember them and found them in a different way.

I just finished a pretty good historical mystery by D.M. Quincy, Murder in Mayfair. It has a romantic thread to the story, but wouldn't qualify as a romance. It's one of two in the series available currently (haven't read the second, so maybe it wraps things up, but somehow I doubt it). Set in 1810, London and close by. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MRZ3V3F/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

Before that I read Edinburgh Twilight by Carole Lawrence. Set in Edinburgh in 1880s. It was okay. I'll try the 2d one of these when it comes out (only on pre-order now), but how I feel about the 2d will determine whether I'll read any more. It's mystery only, nothing romantic. In fact the hero avoids women. He's my problem with the book. He's kind of a jerk, so will have to see if he improves.

https://www.amazon.com/Edinburgh-Twilight-Hamilton-Mysteries-Book-ebook/dp/B06X3V28MX/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1528248989&sr=1-1&keywords=edinburgh+twilight
Always happy to hear your recs on HM. I think I put the Quincy one on a wishlist some time back and then promptly it fell out of my brain. Sigh. Never heard of the other one, I'll wait until you read the 2nd to see.

I am reading the 2nd in the Andrea Penrose series right now.

Liking them, liked the first. Not sure if they'll ever go to a romance here, maybe. Nothing at the moment though other than friendship and working together. Well, maybe a few slight signs of something further down. But he's a lord and she's who knows what. Still lots of seeeeecrets. ;D

Ann in Arlington said:
Ellen . . . I have both of those; read the first and enjoyed it but haven't gotten to the other one yet.

sigh! so many books, so little time! :eek:
Don't we all have that tshirt by now? ;D
 
#144 ·
Ann in Arlington said:
As the Penrose books looked quite good, but I wasn't sure I wanted to spend $10 to try the first one, I asked if my local library could get them in their eBook collection. And they did! So I'm now on the wait list for . Woo Hoo!
Yay. My library is pretty good with getting recs I make. More so if they are historical mysteries. They don't get me everything when it comes to HR.
 
#147 ·
Atunah said:
Always happy to hear your recs on HM. I think I put the Quincy one on a wishlist some time back and then promptly it fell out of my brain. Sigh. Never heard of the other one, I'll wait until you read the 2nd to see.

I am reading the 2nd in the Andrea Penrose series right now.
...
Not sure if they'll ever go to a romance
...
she's who knows what
...
Hey! Is that a spoiler? ;)

There's too many vibes in this book for it not to have a HEA. OK, so maybe by book #3? Looking forward to more of her misteerious background because you know she has one.

Almost done the first book, will have to wait to put the second one on hold when a hold opens up!

Thanks for the rec (I hadn't visited this thread)!
 
#150 ·
Trophywife007 said:
I started:



and was hooked from the duel scene at the start. It's been a while since that happened. Thanks for the rec.
OMG I want to start again, but without memory of the first reading. :p My absolute favorite of historical mysteries. I am pacing myself at this point, I only have like 3 to go I think. Or 2. Have to check. Sublime.

Here is a sale on the 2nd in the Lady Sherlock series. I love this series also. Its 1.99 for the 2nd. First is still 9.99. There is a 3rd coming out at some point. Sorry, I can't pull up the kindle version for some reason. Just audible.

 
#151 ·
The next Lady Sherlock comes out on Oct. 2.  I'm on the waiting list at OverDrive... really enjoying this series.

I'm in love with St. Cyr.  Captain Lacey is good, too, although I wasn't as fond of the first in the series for some reason.  The next two really sold me on him.  I'm now reading the first in the Victoria Thompson series..  I prefer a UK setting but the story has been engaging so far.

Thanks for starting this thread, Atunah.

 
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