Candace G. (Ogre) reviewed on 6/20/2010 + 1568 more book reviews

I just discovered this author, and What fun! Finally a Victorian mystery with a strong female protagonist! It probably would have been a bit easier to start at the beginning, since this is part of a series, but the writer actually does a pretty good job of embedding all the 'what has gone before' without confusion.
This lady has really done her homework on the times, places, names and customs of Victorian England. No superficial glossing over details. The reader feels that they are really present IN the story.

From back cover: Nothing is as it seems when would-be widow Susanna, Lady Appleton, finds her official period of mourning interrupted by a cryptic message from her supposedly dead spouse. Shockingly, Robert is alive--but not for long!
FACE DOWN BENEATH THE ELEANOR CROSS---Neither late nor lamented by his wife, Sir Robert Appleton summons a stunned Susanna to a furtive London meeting. Yet instead of a reluctantly anticipated marital reunion, the renowned herbalist finds her poisoned husband gasping his last breaths beneath the Eleanor Cross. Vowing to bring his killer to justice, Susanna embarks on a daring winter journey across the frigid English countryside. She swiftly discovers that there is no shortage of those who bore animosity toward Robert--most of them female. But which of the wealthy, wayward knight's mistresses is a murderess? His widow is determined to find out, aware that the gallows now awaits the most likely suspect; Susanna herself...

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