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An Ellie Stone Mystery

Ellie Stone and her father have barely spoken since the death of Ellie’s mother. But when Ellie receives word that her father has been attacked and is hanging on by a bare thread, she drops everything to return to him.

It’s 1960. Ellie’s father is a renowned scholar at Columbia, gruff and opinionated but certainly not a target for murder. When another professor in the same department is found dead just days later, Ellie is convinced that her father’s assault has to be more than a simple burglary gone wrong. Vowing to find her father’s attacker, Ellie embarks on her own investigation into the crime.

Who knew academia could be so deadly? Ziskin’s debut and first in the Ellie Stone series is a solid mystery but I found it to be much stronger in terms of character than in plot.

In setting the tone and scene of the times, Ziskin has made Ellie both stubborn and free spirited. (The stubbornness she no doubt inherited from her father.) Obviously 1960 is not the ideal time for an independent woman, much less one investigating an attempted murder, but Ellie is smart and formidable. She is able to tease out details and information even the police can’t.

Styx & Stone sets up Ellie as a series lead, explaining her background and her relationship with her family. The mystery does take a bit of a backseat to all of that, but is still well built and engrossing.

So far there are three books in the Ellie Stone series: Styx & Stone, No Stone Unturned (a 2015 Anthony Award nominee for Best Paperback Original), and Stone Cold Dead, which released just last month.

6/15 Becky LeJeune

STYX & STONE by James W. Ziskin.  Seventh Street Books (October 15, 2013).  ISBN 978-1616148195. 285p.

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If a girl looks into a well at midnight on the night of the half birthday between her fifteenth and sixteenth years, she’ll see the face of her intended.

Annie Holleran has always claimed she doesn’t put much stock in the ascension-day tradition, but that doesn’t mean she’s not going to try. Typically a girl would have her friends and family beside her as she looks into the well, and the well she’d be looking into is the one on Sherriff Fulkerson’s land. But Annie isn’t typical. No, Annie has long planned to sneak onto the nearby Baine property to peer into their well all by her lonesome. This in spite of the fact that Annie’s family has a longstanding hatred for anything and anyone Baine.

Unfortunately for Annie her intended is not the one she sees at all. Instead, Annie sees Cora Baine, dead in her garden. And Cora Baine’s death surely means the return of Annie’s Aunt Juna, the one who started all of the Baine trouble. The one who caused a Baine boy to hang for crimes some wonder if he even committed.

Let Me Die In His Footsteps is a dual narrative that alternates between 1952 and 1936. Annie, in 1952, lives with the knowledge that her birth mother is none other than the notorious Juna Crowley. It’s not something she’s ever been officially told, but it’s something she knows nonetheless. Annie’s mother, Sarah, narrates the story two decades prior, telling the terrible tale that led to Annie’s birth and the hanging of one of the town’s own.

At heart, Let Me Die In His Foosteps is a mystery – what happened to Juna, was the Baine boy really responsible, and why is everyone so scared of Juna’s return – but the book as a whole is so much more. It’s a story of secrets and tragedy, folklore and magic, community and – ultimately – family.

6/15 Becky LeJeune

LET ME DIE IN HIS FOOTSTEPS by Lori Roy.  Dutton (June 2, 2015).  ISBN 978-0525955078.  336p.

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While Alice’s mother is pressing her to find a man and settle down, she doesn’t know that her young daughter has indeed found someone. But that someone is married and Alice becomes pregnant after just one night together.

It’s 1933 and to avoid the inevitable scandal, Alice’s mother reaches out to her childhood friend, a maid at Fiercombe Manor. Lord Stanton and his wife live abroad and after the story Alice’s mother spins – a tragic tale a young husband struck down in an accident – they offer up their home as a place of rest and respite for the duration of Alice’s pregnancy.

Fiercombe Manor is an ominous place and Alice immediately begins to feel weighed down by the secrets of its past. But as she tries to learn more, the few remaining servants become very secretive, especially when Alice asks them about the previous Lady Stanton, a woman whose fate seems to be a mystery even to the locals.

Kate Riordan spins this tale with two narrators and two timelines – Alice in 1933 as she waits out her term and Elizabeth in 1898 who is expecting her second child. Strangely, in Alice’s timeline no one really talks about Elizabeth. Alice learns that Elizabeth’s husband died, leaving his brother to inherit both the estate and mounting debts. She also learns that Elizabeth’s home, built by the deceased Lord Stanton, and its contents were all auctioned off just ten years after being built. All that remains of that home – Stanton House – is an overgrown foundation, the garden wall, and a glasshouse Alice has been forbidden from entering.

As Alice finds more and more clues about Elizabeth, Elizabeth herself shares pieces of her story. We meet her in alternating chapters as well as diary entries that Alice discovers hidden on the estate. Both women are very well drawn and their stories are both captivating and suspense laden. Fiercombe Manor is a great atmospheric read and a nice blend of mystery and drama.

(Published as The Girl in the Photograph in the UK.)

3/15 Becky LeJeune

FIERCOMBE MANOR by Kate Riordan. Harper (February 17, 2015). ISBN: 978-0062332943. 416p.

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Eliza Doolittle and Henry Higgins Mystery

If you, like me, enjoyed every minute of My Fair Lady (or Pygmalion for the intellectuals), this is a must read.

Eliza Doolittle and Henry Higgins are still at odds and Liza goes to work for “that Hungarian” who was Higgins main competitor. Now Emil Nepommuck is dead and Eliza and Professor Higgins must work together to clear Higgins who is a prime suspect in the Hungarian’s death.

To say more would spoil the read, but suffice it to say everyone is there is one way or another. Enjoy.

2/15 Jack Quick

WOULDN’T IT BE DEADLY by D. E. Ireland. Minotaur Books (September 23, 2014). ISBN: 978-1250049353. 336p.