The first three volumes of the acclaimed Northminster Mysteries.“I will be very sad when these novels come to an end. I love everything about them. Everything! They are just that good.” Amazon reviewer“Add together an atypical historical setting that gives the author scope for solving mysteries in unusual ways, compelling characters with fascinating back stories, and excellent plotting with a … with a depth that promises equally intriguing stories to come, and what you have is a first book of a series that promises to offer many hours of reading pleasure.” Amazon reviewer
Northminster, 1840: a once-picturesque cathedral city, where dirty smoke stacks now rival ancient spires. Here, young Scottish surgeon Felix Carswell and Chief Constable Major Giles Vernon are tasked to uncover the truth in three complex tales of murder and detection set in Early Victorian England.
The Butchered Man
When workmen make the shocking discovery of a mutilated corpse in a ditch outside the ancient walls, Giles Vernon and Felix Carswell are charged with solving the case.
Intelligent and practical, Chief Constable Major Vernon has transformed the old city watch into a modern police force, and he throws himself into the investigation with the same energy. But as he probes a murky world of professional gamblers and jilted lovers, he is drawn into a dangerous emotional game that threatens to undermine his authority.
Newly-qualified police surgeon Felix Carswell is determined to make his way in the world on his own terms despite being the bastard son of prominent local grandee Lord Rothborough. Called to treat a girl in an asylum for reformed prostitutes, what he uncovers there brings him into conflict with his new employer, Vernon, and throws the case into disarray.
Together they must overcome their differences and find the brutal truth behind the mystery of The Butchered Man.
The Dead Songbird
“Death is too good for a whore like you. But He may show you mercy yet. BE PREPARED”
Celebrated singer Anna Morgan has come to Northminster to escape a troubled past and sing at the city’s Handel Festival. But when she continues to receive the poisonous letters that have been plaguing her, she turns to Chief Constable Major Giles Vernon and Police Surgeon Felix Carswell to find her persecutor, drawing the two men into her charismatic orbit.
At the same time a talented young tenor is found dead in curious circumstances in a locked chapel, and the hunt for a murderer is on. Together, Vernon and Carswell must untangle the web of secrets that surround the dead man, uncovering a Northminster that throbs with clandestine passions and thwarted desires, a world of illegal pornographic books and risqué theatricals.
The Shadowcutter
Police surgeon Felix Carswell has joined Major Giles Vernon and his convalescent wife, Laura, for a few days in the elegant spa town of Stanegate – it’s a welcome holiday from the summer stench of Northminster. But no sooner has he arrived than a Spanish colonial gentleman, dying of consumption, requires his urgent care, while Major Vernon is called away to Lord Rothborough’s country house, where a lady’s maid has been found drowned in a secluded pool.
Major Vernon investigates above and below stairs in the great house, assisted by Lord Rothborough’s eldest daughter, Lady Charlotte. When a quantity of valuable jewellery is found missing, the cause of the dead maid’s death only becomes more mysterious.
Meanwhile, when his patient dies in his arms after confiding a secret, Carswell is drawn into baffling intrigues involving the government-in-exile of the dead man’s homeland, the Caribbean island of Santa Magdalena. And strangest of all, Dona Blanca, the widow of the president, seems to know exactly who Felix is.
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Good read, kept attention with tri-interest plot
& attention to integrity of historical era.
Too many graphic images and inappropriate language to make it truly enjoyable. The mysterious, however, were fun.
I enjoyed the first three so much that I’m now on the 4th. Great series/period mysteries with very human and believable characters and situations.
Not my type of book.
Great historical mystery series
I really enjoyed these three books. The story line continued from the first to the last. It was like I was right there with the characters .
A step in the story view of 19th century England. I enjoyed it a lot.
The author has researched and held true to the time period and locale of the novels.
I’ve read this entire British series to date. The two men (main characters) are well done, much better portrayed than the women (who I often find annoying). Still worth reading.
I’m hoping the rest of the series shows up on Bookbub!
The Northminster Mysteries written by Harriet Smart create a world where Mr. Darcy meets Sherlock Holmes, Very creative page tuners with hooks to the next book in the series.
I was really satisfied with the authors style. Very well read and emotional , in a dry British dry way.
These are fun and entertaining yet the intrigue of the tales, are not overly arduous .
Witty, charming and relatable characters. Cup of tea, window chair, soft throw, a dog and Northminster Mysteries create the perfect afternoon!
Awesome series!
Kept my interest … happy to read an interesting series.
Well researched, well written.
These are clever mysteries filled with complex characters who are flawed and interesting. I recommend these to readers who enjoy character centered books.
These 3 books were very entertaining. Loved the characters and plots. Great historical fiction read.
Interesting to explore a new region and time period; interesting plots.
Dr. Felix Carswell is the new police surgeon in Northminster, working under Major Giles Vernon. In the course of doing his job, Felix becomes a detective-like partner to Giles. These three books (The Butchered Man, The Dead Songbird, and The Shadow Cutter) show the development of both men’s skills as detectives as well as their frailties and strengths as men. Giles, at age twenty-four is far more naive and impulsive than Giles at age forty. Set in 1840, the reader gets a sense of an England in transition but also of an England rigidly bound by class. These books are well written and contain characters developed in depth.