Gone for Good by Joanna Schaffhausen and The Merchant and the Rogue by Sarah M. Eden

The first in a new series by Joanna Schaffhausen, Gone for Good is Detective Annalisa Vega #1.  Like the Ellery Hathaway/Reed Markham series by Schaffhausen, Gone for Good has a twisty conundrum of a plot.

Twenty years have passed since the Lovelorn Killer murders, and now Annalisa Vega is wondering why the murders have started again.  She has a personal connection to the last of killer's victims.

The most interesting part to me was the online "detective" group called the Grave Diggers, who investigate cold cases.

I didn't want to put it down, but I still had a lot of quibbles. The reviews are extremely positive, and although I'll certainly need the next Annalisa Vega book, this one wasn't a stand-out for me.  

I'm looking forward to the next Ellery Hathaway/Reed Markham book, though.

Read in February; blog review scheduled for Aug. 1.

NetGalley/St. Martin's Press

Mystery/Thriller.  Aug. 10, 2021.  Print length:  304 pages.

The Dread Penny Society series is light fun with interesting characters.  I like the concept, but it must be hard-going to keep it fresh.

The Merchant and the Rogue is the third book in the series and contains the sweet little romance of the main characters.  There's a hint of which secondary characters will take the stage in the next book.

Each book contains  a Penny Dreadful story by one or two of the characters.  Brogan's Penny Dreadful, "The Dead Zoo" had an interesting concept, but I found it ...not terribly interesting.  King's story was better.  Then, of course, there is the main plot in which Brogan goes undercover and falls for the bookseller and confronts corruption.

I loved the first book The Lady and the Highwayman because if its originality.  The second and third books are OK, but all of them have terrific covers. :)

Read in February; blog review scheduled for Aug. 1.

NetGalley/Shadow Mountain Publishing

Historical/Mystery/Romance.  Aug. 17, 2021.  print length:  368 pages.

The Gentleman and the Thief by Sarah M. Eden

Last year I read The Lady and the Highwayman by Sarah M. Eden and enjoyed it thoroughly.   It was such fun!  After a little doubt at the beginning, I fell into the whole idea.  The authors of Penny Dreadfuls formed the secret Dread Penny Society whose primary goal, aside from writing in the genre, was rescuing street children.  

The Gentleman and the Thief includes the previous characters, but focuses on Hollis Darby and Ana Newport.

from description:  A gentleman scribes penny dreadful novels by night and falls in love with a woman who is a music teacher by day and a thief at night.

The penny dreadful stories didn't work quite as well in this one, but it was still a fun read.

Read in April.  Blog review scheduled for Oct. 19, 2020.

NetGalley/Shadow Mountain Publishing
Historical mystery/Romance.  Nov. 3, 2020.  Print length:  368 pages.

Heh, heh.  I couldn't resist adding this meme to the post.

The Lady and the Highwayman by Sarah M. Eden

The cover, description,  and title intrigued me, but when I started it, I wasn't sure if I'd like it.  After a chapter or two, my doubts were relieved, and I entered into the spirit of the book about two writers of penny dreadfuls in the form of a penny dreadful and had a great time!

Below are a couple of interesting sources on the topic of the Penny Dreadful.

In the 1830s, increasing literacy and improving technology saw a boom in cheap fiction for the working classes. ‘Penny bloods’ was the original name for the booklets that, in the 1860s, were renamed penny dreadfuls and told stories of adventure, initially of pirates and highwaymen, later concentrating on crime and detection. Issued weekly, each ‘number’, or episode, was eight (occasionally 16) pages, with a black-and-white illustration on the top half of the front page. Double columns of text filled the rest, breaking off at the bottom of the final page, even if it was the middle of a sentence.
(source)

Of note, many famous authors contributed to the serials, Bram Stoker and Wilkie Collins to name a couple, and it was in “The String of Pearls” that Sweeney Todd made his first appearance, 1846 to 1847, by J.M. Rymer and T.P. Prest.  (source)

Elizabeth Black, prim and proper headmistress of a girls' school in 1830 London writes acceptable novels for the more staid Victorian audience, but secretly, she also writes romantic and adventurous penny dreadfuls.  Since the writing she most enjoys could undermine her role as genteel and respectable headmistress,  Elizabeth writes her penny dreadfuls under a pseudonym.

Fletcher Walker, former street urchin and one of the most popular writers of dreadfuls, finds that his role as the most successful author in the genre is threatened by a Mr. King, whose stories have recently become wildly fashionable.  Fletcher is also a member of the Dreadful Penny Society, a group of men who write dreadfuls and are intent on saving street children and fighting for the rights of the poor.  (I thought I knew the Dread Master, whose identity is kept secret, but maybe not.)  At any rate, the society is concerned for social justice.

Written with many of the stylistic elements of the penny dreadfuls, including illustrations (which my ARC copy from NetGalley doesn't include), a little sweet romance, dangerous rescues of children, good and evil characters, and class distinctions of the period.  There are also two short stories, one by each author that have connections to the larger narrative.

What fun!  I ended up thoroughly enjoying Sarah M. Eden's The Lady and the Highwayman. 

Read in May; blog review scheduled for ??

NetGalley/Shadow Mountain Publishing
Historical fiction/Romance.  Sept. 3, 2019.  Print length:  352 pages.