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 historical mystery series with realistic characters.
A wonderful Victorian collection of mysteries! Major Giles Vernon and his physician associate with the police department, Mr. McCallum persue criminals and romance when and where they find it. Not all persuits end happily for either of them.
I love mysteries, period pieces, & crime stories. These books were all of that and more.
Really Liked this book once I started to get into it. Great book
l like books that the characters can’t use modern technology to solve mysterys.
Harriet Smart is a must read got Victorian mysteries. You will love the characters. Stories are original with a twist
good mystery taking place in the mid-late 1800s. It shows the way life was back at the time and how in a small town, the police work. Highly recommend
I love this era of history and the detail in this book was terrific
1 and 3 were quite good. 2 was a bit of a let down.
interesting for light read
I always enjoy period mysteries and this collection did not fail me. The main characters are flawed, yet still manage to engage the reader, as annoying as they sometimes might be.
If you dont mind reading a book that feels like Charles Dickens wrote it and threw in a mystery. At the end of each book was a list of charaters because there were so many with such unusual names.
I loved the old time writing style.
These three mysteries are not your normal “cozy” or “police procedural” or “crime” or “thriller”. Besides being historical, they have a social and moral compass (not always pointing due North). Even when the “mystery” is solved, there tends to be so much more going on in each of the books. Truly a pleasure to read.
Kept us guessing.
I’ve just finished reading books 1-3, and I must say I’m hooked for this authors mysteries! I love old English works.. Her stories lead you into different avenues of mystery within a mystery. In that I mean the reader experiences a bonus. Instead of concentrating on one problem, their attention is shared by more. It’s stories within a story. I liked the way she incorporated the personal lives and past history of the main characters; Mr. Vernon and Mr. Carswell. This brought the human element into their makeup, and brought insight to the development of their personalities. I applaud such a writer who knows how to keep a story interesting from beginning to end. It didn’t run out of steam in the middle. This author could give Sir Arthur Conan Doyle competition if he were still alive!
However, after a glowing recognition to the author, there is a clear downside to her books. That being the lack of good proofreading. I was very aggravated by many mistakes throughout these three stories. There is a consistency of badly constructed sentences, wrong verbal tenses, and putting “he” or “she” where it doesn’t belong. It interrupts my train of thought. My personal message to Ms. Smart is this: Dear lady, I implore you to seek a better proofreader to replace your present one, because they are committing a literary crime on your great work. You deserve so much better. If you don’t have a proofreader take my advice and employ a good one now. None the less I gave your stories five stars for being so entertaining. I look forward to reading more of your work. Thank you for making my hours enjoyable!
Good settings and characters. Different topic for the stories. I liked it.
Historical Fiction,enjoyed all 3 books
Well written. Great descriptions of locales, dress, etiquette, laws, culture of Thevtimes. Even language if if an earlier time. Very enjoyable.
Book 1 was very interesting in the way they proceeded with forensic science. Book 3 dragged, though.