Review: (2.5 stars)  Second in England's series of Victorian mystery novelettes.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 11 18, 2011
This is the second in Dara England's series of historical mystery novelettes set in Victorian England.  Her first one,Accomplished in Murder, was good enough that I decided to take a chance on this one.  However, this novelette has the same drawbacks I found in the first and I don't feel as forgiving this second time.I do not know how many novelettes are planned for this series, but I would prefer that there be fewer and that they be longer.  These first two are too short to develop the story and characters satisfactorily.  Everything is shortchanged this way, with one-dimensional characters, an underdeveloped mystery, and no depth to anything.As for a brief summary of plot, our intrepid mystery-solving heroine this time is Mariah Featherstone.  She's visiting her friend Charlotte at the country estate of Charlotte's aunt and uncle, the Morleys.  Charlotte is promised to the local curate Charles Pettifor and there is to be a dinner party that night.  Charlotte's cousin Richard is coming from London, bringing his friend, Edwin Winterbourne.  (If you read Accomplished in Murder, you will remember that Edwin is the brother of that novelette's intrepid mystery-solving heroine, Drucilla.  To tie the two stories together somewhat, the new heroine Mariah had been somewhat tepidly pursued by Edwin in London but she has discouraged him.)Poor Charles Pettifor turns up murdered in the Morleys' garden before the dinner party begins.  Edwin Winterbourne is discovered with the body and he is accused of the murder and arrested.  Mariah believes an injustice has been served here and sets out to discover who the murderer really is.  There are a few suspects, among them the strangely behaved and emotionally unbalanced Morley daughter who is not usually allowed to mix with company.  No one in the story is fully drawn, even the protagonist, and one wonders how it is that Mariah is convinced she is a detective.  She goes around asking questions of everyone, demanding of the magistrate to see the murder weapon and expecting him to share all knowledge of the crime with her.  It's puzzling, especially considering the time period.And as for Edwin, he merely represents an unjustly accused man and could be anyone.  We never see him interacting with anyone.  He's taken away by the magistrate at the beginning of the story and we never hear from him again except to note that he is freed once Mariah intrepidly solves the crime and finds the real killer.I am repeating myself, but I have to say these little novelettes would interest me much more with more character and mystery development.