Silvara
Written on Oct 16, 2015
I received this book for free from Berkley Prime Crime in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
I haven't read any of the other books in this series. But I wasn't lost at all while reading this one. I really liked Maeve. Some of the things she thought made me wonder what her life had been like before she became a nursemaid. But I'm guessing that was explained in one or more of the previous books. Her interactions with Una and Gino made me laugh more than once.
I didn't care for Una one bit. But I liked Gino and the Deckers. It amused me how Mrs. Decker poked her nose into various investigative things, and tried to hide the fact from her husband. It also made me laugh when Mr. Decker became intrigued enough to start helping out on his own without prompting.
It wasn't stated until later in the book, but at least one of Una's servants was black. I'm not sure if all 4 were. This wouldn't be an issue at all except that it startled me when I read it since up until that point the servants hadn't been described except by age and sex. I'm guessing it was because of the time period the story took place in. Which, not having read any other book in the series, I didn't know when it was supposed to be taking place until I read the Author's Note at the back.
I liked how the children in the book interacted with each other. Catherine learned sign language from her brother Brian, because Brian was deaf and went to a special school. Though again, not having read the other books, I had no idea how old the children were supposed to be. It was never stated, just that Brian went to school and Catherine did not.
The mystery was well written, and I loved the twists that popped up during the story. There were more than a few places where I had to laugh, and the story itself was engrossing enough that I read it all in one sitting. I will be looking for some of the earlier books in the series to see if they are equally as good.
If you like cozy mysteries, especially historical ones, with humor as well as a good twists, you need to try this book.
This review was originally posted on Fantasy of the Silver Dragon