Miss Scarlet and the Duke Series 4 is set to drop on PBS / PBS Passport this Sunday, January 7. Get a look at a scene from Series 4, Episode 1. While we’re all dying to see where Eliza and William go from here, I thought I’d bring you six more books with Miss Scarlet vibes to check out in 2024.
If you’re saying “more” books? Yep, my first batch of books for Miss Scarlet lovers is here.
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RELEASE DATE: AVAILABLE NOW
Set in 1920s London, A Botanist’s Guide to Flowers and Fatality finds Saffron Everleigh consulting on a murder case. Saffron is following in her renowned botanist father’s footsteps and is now a research assistant in the biology department at the local university. Just months after book 1, she’s teamed up with Dr. Michael Lee on a new research project. But then, the pair find themselves investigating a series of murders in which the killer has left flower coded bouquets outlining the victim’s “crimes.” It does have a romantic element, but I don’t want to spoil it for you ahead of time.
This is book 2 in the series. I actually DNF’d the first book, mostly for its pacing. It was just taking too long to get anywhere. But here, new guy Dr. Michael Lee brings a lot more energy to the proceedings and challenges Saffron in a way she hasn’t been before. This one was great on audio, narrated by Jodie Harris. I gave it 4 stars.
The third in the series, A Botanist’s Guide to Society and Secrets, is due out in June 2024.
Get A Botanist’s Guide to Flowers and Fatality from The Ripped Bodice | Bookshop.org | Amazon | Apple Books
RELEASE DATE: AVAILABLE NOW
First in a 7 book series. An opera singer is dead, but Audrey, the Duchess of Fournier, is 100% sure her husband the Duke isn’t the culprit. To Bow Street copper Hugh Marsden it looks like an open and shut case. Determined to prove the Duke’s innocence, Audrey brings her unique ability to detect the energy field around objects to glean their last known memories (psychometry). I’m about 50% in to this one, and so far it seems what Audrey has is a lot of unearned confidence. I’m not totally convinced it’s gonna be for me, but it’s on Kindle Unlimited. So if you’ve got a subscription, try it on for size.
Get Murder at the Seven Dials on Amazon.
RELEASE DATE: January 23, 2024
ARC provided by the publisher for review
DEBUT AUTHOR. Secret society of governess spies. Need I say more? Never Blow a Kiss is an engaging debut with two MCs who have infiltrated the ton in very different ways. Emily is delightfully brash and let’s be honest, soldier-turned-copper/peer Zach never had a chance of *not* falling for her. Lovise serves up some familiar elements with meddling mamas trying to nab their daughters husbands, but the pacing and twists and turns in the spying element keep things fresh. There’s good balance between the romance and the spying on the family Emily works for. And the set up for the next installment already has me intrigued (and promises a math whiz heroine), so count me in.
Author Lindsay Lovise will launch/sign her book at Grump and Sunshine in Belfast, ME on January 27. Signed copies are also available to ship.
Get Never Blow a Kiss from The Ripped Bodice | Bookshop.org | Amazon | Apple Books
RELEASE DATE: MARCH 5, 2024
ARC provided by the publisher for review
DEBUT AUTHOR. Set in 1920s Philly. Edie is the daughter of a councilman, just back in town after convalescing and recovering in California from the flu pandemic. In the interim she finds out her fiancé returned from war and took up with her twin sister. It’s time for Edie to take control of her own future. Gil is a widowed war vet who now works as a coroner in Philly. The disappearance of a series of women in Edie’s new circle puts these two on a path to uncovering the killer.
Adams paints a vivid picture of Jazz Age Philly (think Gatsby, but it’s not glamorous for everybody) and it’s the details that make it for me. From the aftermath of WWI and the Great Flu to seances to cocktails to the use of a telephone exchange numbers.
Edie’s never had to think about her own privilege, so the investigation also serves as something of a transformative experience for her. While most characters in the story are white, there are marginalized side characters (both POC and LGBTQ+). Gil being an Irish immigrant whose sister is a maid for Edie’s family also brings class and economic status into the story. And in fact, I loved that the class difference between these two ends up being an asset as each have different skills and access in Philly’s social strata. You get gangsters, you get Richie-Riches, you get people who work in service.
While this is historical mystery first and foremost, it’s got a romantic plot that serves up my favorite line in the book. Did I swoon? Maybe.
Signed copies are available for preorder from One More Page Books.
Get A Deadly Endeavor from The Ripped Bodice | Bookshop.org | Amazon | Apple Books
BONUS:
New books are on the way in two of the series’ spotlighted in my previous post of Miss Scarlet readalike recs.
RELEASE DATE: MARCH 12, 2024
ARC provided by the publisher for review
If you started Deanna Raybourn’s Veronica Speedwell series, A Grave Robbery, the next installment is due out March 12. Every long term series goes through ebbs and flows and this ninth book is is one of the ebbs. It’s a more straightforward, low key murder mystery, light on the adventure that’s been part of the earlier books.
Veronica and Stoker have been enjoying their own definition of domestic bliss, continuing to work on cataloging Lord Rosemorran’s collection. when they come into possession of an Anatomical Venus. They discover that rather than a wax figure, she’s a real person meticulously embalmed.
Readers only partially get the payoff they’ve been hoping for with Veronica and Stoker. I say partially because if you’re also a romance reader, you’ll be frustrated with the fact that Veronica is sparing with the details, Yes, I know it’s a mystery first and foremost…and still…
But at this point, I’m in for a penny, in for a pound. A Grave Robbery is an enjoyable, if not totally enthralling read. What’s exciting is A Grave Robbery continues to provide great setup for a JJ Butterworth series. Fingers crossed.
Get A Grave Robbery from The Ripped Bodice | Bookshop.org | Amazon | Apple Books
RELEASE DATE: MARCH 26, 2024
ARC provided by the publisher for review
Intrigue with the Foreign Office! Lady turned governess/author! Romance rekindled!
Several foreign dignitaries and their counterparts from England’s Foreign offered have gathered at a symposium on roses where the host ends up dead. He’s discovered by the family governess Jane Hailliwell. Jane gets pulled into the investigation with Lord Adrian, a friend from her father’s Foreign Office days in Rome.
A solid fourth installment in the Ladies Most Scandalous series! I loved that the case took us in a totally new direction, it’s got so many tentacles AND it opened doors to new characters in this world. It’s a little lighter on the romance side, I think mostly because there are enough characters around to cause romantic interruptus at all times in this house!
Cameos from Poppy, Kate and Caro from the previous books.
Will I buy myself a copy? Yes.
Get A Governess’ Guide to Passion and Peril from The Ripped Bodice | Bookshop.org | Amazon | Apple Books
