Where I Discover a New-to-Me Historical Mystery Series

Callander Square by Anne Perry
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this a lot. Excellent mystery. I could almost give a 5 (4.5?) but I can see ways that the series will likely improve, and I'm gonna wait for it to get there.

Accidentally started this series at book 2. My bad. But it worked fine.

So, like so many things, this started with Jane Austen. A love of her novels led me to Jane Austen mysteries by Stephanie Barron. Read all those. (Highly recommended.) That led me to C. S. Harris's Sebastian St. Cyr mysteries--still set in Regency England. All caught up on those. (Also highly recommended. And one more is coming soon!) I went looking for something like that, and the internet led me here to Anne Perry. Well done, internet.

I can't say, after just this one book, that I love Inspector Pitt and his wife Charlotte the way I do the characters in those other books. They're very likable, though, I can say that, and I hope that's how it goes later. They made a good team in this. The mystery was well done, too. Like is so often the case, I was busting my brain keeping the relationships straight among neighbors, friends, lovers, brothers, and the like, but either the author did well to introduce them and differentiate them and organize them for me or I'm getting better at it. I'll give her the credit, because it's more likely, tbh. And I liked the ending. Lots of possible solutions to the puzzle, and though I didn't quite solve it ahead of time, the conclusion is nicely obvious (in a way) and very satisfying.

I'm somewhat less interested in Victorian times than Regency, but I think that's a matter of habit, not based on anything real. I'm sure I'll get used to it. The setting here--place as well as time, I mean--was used well and seemed perfectly realistic, though I am not particularly knowledgeable in this area. In any case, nothing jarred, so it worked for me.

Without summarizing the book much--murders, investigations, clues, all the normal things are here--I can say that I found the story engaging and the principal characters sympathetic. There isn't a ton of action, at least not in the sense used in action movies, but there is lots of movement in the plot and lots of interest with a decent amount of tension. Very entertaining.

What is lacking, IMO? Maybe a few more characters to care about--which I suspect is coming in subsequent titles. And maybe a little more backstory for everyone--which is also inevitable, moving forward in time. Maybe a little more time with Pitt and his wife, working together, sharing their lives as well as the work. Those things would be nice.

Recommended. I'm gonna go read the first book now, out of order, and then get back on track. Not sure how many are in the series, but I see there's quite a few, and I hope this book is an indication of what I'lll find.

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