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Murder In A Mill Town (2014)

by P.B. Ryan(Favorite Author)

4.06 of 5 Votes: 3

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Berkley

series

Nell Sweeney Historical Mysteries

review 1: I enjoyed the first book in the Nell Sweeney series so much that when I finished it, I immediately downloaded this next book in the series and read it in a few short hours. Big mistake. I loved the first book so much that this one was a disappointment. That disappointment might have been mitigated if I’d not read it in such quick succession. Many of the aspects of the first book that I loved were present - the rich characters, particularly Nell and Will, the post-civil war setting, and the spark between Nell and Will. I also appreciated that the characters continued to develop in this book. The first book hinted at certain aspects of Nell’s early life that were revealed here and shaped the story. A reader could enjoy this book as a stand-alone, yet it didn’t fe... moreel like the author revealed details from previous story just to make that possible. My two biggest complaints about the book are the length and the resolution of the underlying mystery. The first book was over 600 pages and this one less than 200. With the shorter length, the story did not have the same depth and it felt rushed at times. I also did not like the resolution of the underlying mystery - it seemed unnecessarily salacious and the motivation did not tie back into the underlying story as well as in the first book. {Spoiler - Nell and Will begin investigating the disappearance and then murder of a young woman and her lover. In the process they befriend an Episcopalian priest, who turns out to be the murder. This twist is unveiled in the final chapter as he tries, in a syphillis induced mental rage, to murder Nell and Will as punishment for their alleged adultery, which they never committed. The whole final scene seemed out of place.} I don’t know yet whether I will move on to the next book in this series. I do so like Nell and her relationship with Will, but it just felt like the author had found herself with a winning character and story in the first book so pumped out a sequel. We’ll see. 3/5 on my romance/Mystery scale
review 2: A charming second book to follow Ryan's first in the series. Nell Sweeny is clever and good at sleuthing. Will Hewitt is less of a cad but still working on it, and they are, as a team, pretty damned good at solving mysteries. The second book builds nicely from the first, introducing us to Nell's estranged husband Duncan while also continuing to paint an interesting picture of Boston in the late 1800s. Propriety is a major touchstone in the second book, and Ryan handles the balance of explaining what's proper and what's not while also making it part of the conversation, as being proper is very important to Nell. And now, a sentence you probably didn't expect to see if you read my reviews: There's a rape narrative in this book, and it's handled very well. It's uncomfortable and awful, and it (unsurprisingly) centers around Nell, but Ryan does an admirable job of showing us Nell's fear and terror while also allowing Nell to have great agency in her own story. She saves herself when it happens, and when she mentions the events to Will, her fellow white-hat in these stories, he is equally revolted at what's happened but he is in no way revolted by Nell or her experience. In a series where the author is clearly trying to write with a lot of historical accuracy, I appreciate that Ryan doesn't even bother to justify what rape would have meant at the time and simply decides that in her world, even in late 1800s Boston, decent people would find rape terrible. If it must be wrapped in my light-hearted narratives, let it be wrapped up like this: a woman getting to fight back and win. It's a good book with a nice couple of twists, and I look forward to reading the next in the series. less

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