The New York Times bestseller from the acclaimed author of A Northern Light, Revolution, Stepsister, and Poisoned. This thrilling mystery is perfect for fans of The Cellar and Suicide Notes from Beautiful Girls. It's a story of dark secrets, dirty truths, and the lengths to which people will go for love and revenge.
Jo Montfort is beautiful and rich, and soon—like all the girls in her class—she’ll graduate from finishing school and be married off to a wealthy bachelor. Which is the last thing she wants. Jo dreams of becoming a writer—a newspaper reporter.
Wild aspirations aside, Jo’s life seems perfect until tragedy strikes: her father is found dead. The story is that Charles Montfort shot himself while cleaning his revolver, but the more Jo hears about her father’s death, the more something feels wrong. And then she meets Eddie—a young, smart, infuriatingly handsome reporter at her father’s newspaper—and it becomes all too clear how much she stands to lose if she keeps searching for the truth. But now it might be too late to stop.
The past never stays buried forever. Life is dirtier than Jo Montfort could ever have imagined, and this time the truth is the dirtiest part of all.
Praise for These Shallow Graves:
★ “Action-packed chapters propel this compelling mystery…[and] the injustices Donelly highlights remain all too relevant.”—Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
“Lovely prose, historical intrigue, unique characters and setting. I devoured this book!” —Ruta Sepetys,New York Times bestselling author of Between Shades of Gray and Salt to the Sea
“A splendidly hair-raising tour of the brightest and darkest corners of Victorian New York.” —Elizabeth Wein, New York Times bestselling author of Code Name Verity and Black Dove, White Raven
“A fast-paced Gilded Age crime thriller.” —Julie Berry, award-winning author of All the Truth That’s in Me
Initial thoughts: This is a book of starkly contrasting moods, which made These Shallow Graves such a varied read. Jo was so naïve at times (as many upper class girls in the late 19th century would've been), building up a fair amount of situational comedy. On the flip side, there were violent moments that veered into graphic descriptions. And then, just a few pages later, tender moments unfolded.
These Shallow Graves spans several genres — historical fiction, mystery, and romance. You'd think the threads of the plot would get awfully tangled with so much going on. They didn't. Everything fit together quite purposefully, all while keeping on track with the overarching plot.
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Note:I received a finished copy from a local distributor in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
