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Murder in the Mist The Gaslight Mysteries

Murder in the Mist

Tis the season of goodwill, and Dickens extends the hand of friendship to a stranded stranger and his nephews for Christmas, with deadly consequences . . .

“The ingenious solution to the mystery makes this the series’ best entry yet. Victorian whodunit fans are in for a treat” Publishers Weekly Starred Review

Wilkie Collins is looking forward to spending Christmas at Gads Hill, Charles Dickens’ Kentish country home, but the festivities are cut short when a body is found on the snowy marshland. Timmy O’Connor was invited to the gathering with his four nephews after a chance encounter with Dickens, but is now dead.

Dickens is convinced the murderer is one of the convicts from a nearby prison ship, but Collins is not so sure. Who was this mysterious and unpleasant stranger from Cork who turned Christmas cheer to fear? With the convicts, guests and even Timmy’s nephews under suspicion, there is no shortage of suspects for such a violent act, but which one of them is a cold-blooded killer?

Read the starred review from Publishers Weekly

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Murder in the Mist The Gaslight Mysteries

Murder in the Mist review

Publishers Review

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With the excellent fifth outing for amateur detectives Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins (after 2021’s Spring of Hope), Harrison approaches the level of ingenuity that’s been a hallmark of her Reverend Mother and Burren series.

Collins, who feels his best-known works have been eclipsed by Dickens’s literary success, is still delighted to get an invitation to spend Christmas with the Tale of Two Cities author’s family at their country home in Kent.

The other guests include Timmy O’Connor, an Irish raconteur whom Dickens met in Cork on a recent reading tour, and three of O’Connor’s nephews.

Collins’s hopes for a stress-free holiday are dashed when a guest is found beaten to death near the local church.

The violent nature of the murder leads Dickens to suspect the killer is a convict from the prison ship docked near his home, but Collins wonders if a less obvious suspect is responsible for the fatal bludgeoning. He eventually turns the inquiry toward Dickens’s guests.

Harrison never lets her cheeky premise distract from her heroes’ exhilarating detective work, and the ingenious solution to the mystery makes this the series’ best entry yet.

Victorian whodunit fans are in for a treat.

Cora Harrison. Severn House, $31.99 (240p) ISBN 978-1-4483-1134-7

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The Gaslight Mysteries Spring of Hope

Booklist review of Spring of Hope

Cleverly plotted, deftly written, with vivid characters, rich period ambience, and gentle humor, Harrison’s latest is sure to please fans of historical mysteries.

Booklist

Harrison again pairs Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins as amateur sleuths (following Summer of Secrets, 2021).

London is recovering from the 1858 “Summer of the Great Stink,” which has resulted from human waste flowing into the Thames. The government is determined to find a solution, with the pollution growing deadlier with each passing month.

A prize is established for the scientist who can solve the problem, and the competition is fierce. Collins is heading home one night when he hears a woman’s screams coming from a nearby house.

Without thinking, he breaks into the house and rescues the woman and her little girl. When he learns their lives are in danger, he takes them to his home to keep them safe. The woman is terrified but refuses to tell Collins why.

It’s only after a terrible accident at a demonstration of one scientist’s plan to stop the stink that Collins and Dickens begin to comprehend the truth behind the byzantine story.

Cleverly plotted, deftly written, with vivid characters, rich period ambience, and gentle humor, Harrison’s latest is sure to please fans of historical mysteries.

— Emily Melton

Booklist

The Gaslight Mysteries