Classic novels and crime solving intertwine in Katherine Bolger Hyde’s charming series. Bloodstains with Bronte is the second in a series that will puzzle and please fans of mystery and masterpieces alike. Windy Corner is being remodeled into a writers’ retreat. Two of the young workers, Jake and Roman, are showing too much of the wrong kind of interest in Katie, Emily’s young single-mother … single-mother housekeeper.
It’s a stormy autumn and Emily is reading Wuthering Heights. Roman, a dark and brooding type, reminds her of Heathcliff. At a Halloween murder mystery fundraiser at Windy Corner, someone is found stabbed to death. Windy Corner’s very own detective, Luke, is reluctantly forced to investigate Katie.
Luke digs into the background of the contractor, Jeremiah Edwards, and Emily, now reading Jane Eyre, realizes Jeremiah resembles St. John Rivers in his obsessive, tormented piety. Will Luke figure out who the murderer is before Katie ends up in jail or someone else is killed?
more
“Bloodstains With Brontë” earns 5/5 Brooding Brontës…Murderous Fun!
My introduction to Katherine’s work came with the second book which was very entertaining for this newbie, and adding some contemporary issues made it very engaging. The story picks up with Emily Cavanaugh, having inherited a huge estate, deciding to renovate into a writer’s retreat, but the project is more demanding than she hoped. Matters are made worse when two of the workers have become very worrisome, and friction occurs as issues of an inappropriate nature makes Katie, Emily’s young housekeeper and unmarried mother, very uncomfortable. The ‘twist’? Emily agrees to host a murder mystery dinner knowing the estate is the perfect setting for such an event with all of its nooks and crannies and secret places. But the ‘turn of events’ has the scripted murder victim turning out to be authentic. The victim? One of the ‘jerk’ workers! And Katie seems the obvious one to be marked the main person of interest. Emily is not convinced, and she sets out to prove wrong local law enforcement, and her rekindled love interest, Sheriff Luke Richards. That could cost Emily her romance, but no matter what, she’s going to protect Katie!
Sit back and lounge through this second book. It is not an ‘on the edge of your seat’ journey, but a carefully construction mystery with moments to ponder the environment and the people who inhabit the small town. Katherine is very talented at creating a visual image that brings the story to life, the literary references throughout the story reveal fascinating connections to the characters, and although the change in perspective from one character to another took a bit to get used to, it was a clever literary technique. I enjoyed seeing events through Luke’s eyes, then Katie’s perspective which provided a look, difficult at times, into her background. The mystery was very clever with a few twists and definitely turns to keep me ‘turning’ the page, and although some themes are dark, like a Brontë novel, they are treated lightly. It is a cozy, not a tabloid exposé. Katherine’s characters may have some flaws, but are beginning to show depth…it’s only book two. Emily is a mature woman, warm, and a bit quirky, but I see a positive strength emerging. I greatly enjoyed the quotes selected from Brontë’s Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights novels at the beginning of each chapter. It added for me another layer of intrigue as I tried to determine the connection between the literary quote and the events in the story. I recommend this book, and for me, I am eager to read book one and curious as to what classic Katherine may have in mind for book three…
Bloodstain with Bronte by Katherine Bolger Hyde is the second book in the Crime with the Classics series and was a good follow up to the first book in the series.
This book starts shortly after the first book ended so readers are now immersed in Emily’s renovations of Windy Corners. Katie is the focus of this mystery has her past now come back into her life. The personal revelations lead to murder that Emily feels that she must solve to protect Katie and her daughter, Lizzie. I was perplexed by this plot as to who the murderer might be until the last few chapters.
A smoothly paced plot with well hidden clues that can keep readers turning the pages. The romance between Emily and Luke is also worked into the plot and they must negotiate their “dark moment” in order to reach the next milestone in their relationship. Katie also seems to have found love although that seemed to be more pushed in to the last chapter.
I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book from St. Martin’s Press/Minotaur Books via NetGalley. All of the above opinions are my own.