Murder at Midnight is book four in Katharine Schellman’s Lily Adler Mystery series, but is easily read as a standalone.
Set in rural England in 1816, Lily is drawn into the mystery surrounding the death of a fellow attendee at a ball where many of the attendees were stranded after a sudden snow storm. The investigation is complicated by the fact that the accused is someone Lily is close to, so she is determined to prove their innocence.
I was not familiar with this series prior to reading Murder at Midnight, but it easily read as a standalone even though many of the characters had been introduced in previous books. In addition to the mystery, there is a bit of a romantic subplot that appears to be threading through the entire series but it’s not the main focus of the story.
Being a big fan of historical romance, and especially those set during the regency period the setting really appealed to me. There was a nice range of characters in the story, it was interesting seeing how they all interacted. Identifying the perpetrator was not an easy task, but if the reader pays close attention there are clues along the way and you may be like me and make a good guess, although I still was not sure until very near the end.
I don’t come across many mysteries set in this period, and I really enjoyed this one. I’ll be looking for the previous books and watching for new entries in this series. I recommend Murder at Midnight if you enjoy mysteries, or historical romance with a bit of suspense.
Thanks to NetGalley, and Crooked Lane Books for providing a free copy of Murder at Midnight in return for an honest review.
Murder at Midnight will be available on September 19 2023.
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