annieb123
Written on Jul 17, 2022
Dead Drop is the fourth Julia McAllister period mystery by Marilyn Todd. Released 29th Dec 2021 by Sapere Books, it's 230 pages and is available in paperback and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately. For Kindle Unlimited subscribers, this book is currently included in the KU subscription library to borrow and read for free (along with the rest of the series).
This is a very well written period murder mystery with a strong, intelligent, and sympathetic female protagonist. This is the fourth book in the series, but the mystery is self contained and all background info is written into the story. The plotting is spare and tightly controlled. The technical aspects of the writing are well done (dialogue, characterization, etc) and unobtrusive. It's an engrossing read. It's not a cozy, it's serious and in some places gritty. The crime scene descriptions which Julia photographs were so well described they raised goosebumps.
It's always fun to find a new to me author and series to read. I would recommend this one to fans of period mysteries. I'm looking forward to more from this author. This is the fourth book, and the series would make a good candidate for a rainy weekend binge read.
Four and a half stars. I really enjoyed this book.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.