Summer of Secrets

May 1, 2020
Harrison's latest once again features the shrewd and empathetic Reverend Mother, a nun who's become a bit of a legend for solving crimes in her home city of Cork, Ireland. She and six of her relatives are invited to dinner at the home of their cousin, Charlotte Hendrick, one of Cork's wealthiest citizens, to discuss Charlotte's will. The seven have been promised part of Charlotte's considerable fortune when she dies, but now Charlotte has changed her mind and plans to leave everything to just one person. Her former beneficiaries are outraged. When the body of an unknown person is found the next morning in Charlotte's house, suspicion immediately falls on those who were at the dinner. The police are baffled, but the Reverend Mother senses the story behind the murder is complex, and she must use her knowledge of the Hendrick family and her deep knowledge of Cork to solve the case. The intriguing plot, the keen insights into the sociopolitical situation in 1920s Ireland, and the clever heroine make this a fine read for the historical-mystery crowd.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

February 1, 2021
Author Wilkie Collins and his friend and mentor, Charles Dickens, are invited to the country estate of Dickens' friend Lord Edward Bulwer-Lytton to stage a play for the local gentry. The visit is tedious for Collins, who much prefers boisterous London, but he's entranced when Lord Edward's flamboyant wife, Lady Rosina, appears one evening, brandishing a pistol and accusing Lord Edward of unfairly committing her to an insane asylum after the breakdown of their marriage. Then, during a performance of the play, a dreadful murder takes place. It seems Lord Edward may have been the intended victim, but, instead, his personal secretary dies. All eyes turn to Lady Rosina, who seemed to have the means, motive, and opportunity to kill her husband, but Collins, who's quite bewitched by Rosina, is sure she's not the killer and vows to find the real culprit. An entertaining new entry in Harrison's enjoyable series starring fictional re-creations of the two famous authors, with subtle humor, period ambience, skulduggery, larger-than-life characters, a clever plot, and a satisfying ending.

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January 11, 2021
Harrison’s middling third whodunit featuring Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins (after 2020’s Winter of Despair) takes the two Victorian authors to Knebworth House, the Hertfordshire castle that’s home to Lord Edward Bulwer-Lytton, an MP and fellow writer. Along with a magazine editor, a journalist, and several artists, Bulwer-Lytton has invited the two close friends to perform one of his own plays at a charitable benefit for the family of a recently deceased actor. The atmosphere at Knebworth is fraught, in large part because Bulwer-Lytton’s mentally unstable wife, whom he once had confined to an asylum, is in attendance. And Collins is disgusted by his host’s secretary, the unctuous Tom Maguire, who later harasses a young woman with whom Dickens’s son Charley is enamored. The tensions come to a head when one of the cast members is fatally shot during the play’s performance. Neither Dickens nor Collins is effectively brought to life, and their sleuthing is unremarkable. The final reveal doesn’t redeem a lackluster plot. This installment falls far short of Harrison’s best work, which is very good indeed. Agent: Peter Buckman, Ampersand Agency (U.K.).

December 15, 2020
Harrison continues the Victorian adventures of unlikely sleuths Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins. The more celebrated Dickens has taken Collins under his wing and procured an invitation for him to a house party at the estate of Lord Edward Bulwer-Lytton, whose literary work leaves Collins cold. The staid party is shaken up when Lady Rosina Bulwer-Lytton arrives after a long separation, part of which she's spent in one of those posh lunatic asylums where unhappy men hide their troublesome wives. Collins finds Rosina charming and takes her part against Bulwer-Lytton and his loathsome secretary, Tom Maguire, whom Rosina easily bests when he tries to get rid of her. Meanwhile, Dickens' son Charley has fallen for Nelly, the lovely young actress who's been hired along with her mother, the well-known actress Frances Jarman, to help stage one of Bulwer-Lytton's plays, with guests playing the other parts. Taking Bulwer-Lytton's place at the dress rehearsal, Maguire is shot dead. Was he the intended victim, or was it a case of mistaken identity? Dickens and an estate dog he befriended saved Nelly from an attempted rape by Maguire that gives Nelly one motive and Rosina another. Resolved to protect them both for different reasons, Dickens and Collins cleverly misdirect the police as they seek a satisfactory solution. An inspired premise and compelling characters make the third in this series the best to date.

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