Lily Adler Mysteries
by Katharine Schellman
Gosh, these were so good I read them one after the other. Lily Adler is a widow in 1815 London. in book one, she is not quite out of mourning so she can’t dance but she attends a ball where she overhears an argument in the garden and then a gunshot! After the magistrate drops the case, Lily MUST INVESTIGATE. There is a handsome navy captain (of course!) who was a friend of her late husband. As the mystery unfolds we meet some very interesting characters and discover the secrets people will kill to keep
Book two continues the intrigue as Lily’s hateful father arrives to act like an asshat as most men did in 1815. He asks Lily to pay a call on his old friends new (younger) wife. Naturally, there is a murder an Lily, along with Captain Hartley, stick their noses in and catch the killer. Very good plot and the way Lily must ‘work around’ her father and the way society was back then is interesting and well told.
Book three took a different turn with another love interest for Lily. She journeys to Hampshire to spent the autumn with friends and her Aunt Eliza. The twist here is, the neighbors have a ghost in their manor! Lily and her entourage go to see for themselves and, as per usual, murder ensues. This is a cracking locked door mystery that kept me guessing. If you figure it out right away don’t be “one of those people” and be all smug. I thought it was mysterious and it fooled me until the end. Very twisty and a look at village life that made sense and worked with the plot. The new love interest had a couple of weird turns that I guess make sense but still left me wondering what the heck the author is going to do with this part of the storyline as the series continues.
I really enjoyed all three of these books and award 3 stars all around.