July’s mystery reading was comprised of four series debuts, two historical and two modern-day. They took me to three U.S. states and the English country-side. I feel as if I’ve been traveling in time as well as distance.

 
RULES OF MURDER ## by Julianna Deering (Mystery Fiction, Amateur Sleuth, 1930s English manor house)

This is a new series starring Drew Farthering, a young member of the gentry, who is pressed into service as a detective when an obviously murdered body turns up at his parents’ country estate during a weekend party. This first offering is set in 1932.

Although Publisher’s Weekly trashed this book, I think the author captures not only the setting, but also the pace and sensibility of a Golden-Age mystery such as those written by Christie or Marsh, while being a little camp a la early Allingham.

The title refers to the “Ten Commandments of Mystery Writing” set out in 1929 by Ronald Knox. It’s great fun watching the author flaunt (or is that flout – you’ll have to read the book to find out) the rules one by one.

Rules of Murder is a clever debut and I’m looking forward to reading the next in this series.

Read this if: you’re an Agatha Christie fan; or you can never get enough Downton Abbey 4½ stars

 

A SPARK OF DEATH by Bernadette Pajer (Mystery Fiction, Historical, 1900s Seattle, Amateur Sleuth)

This is the first in the Professor Benjamin Bradshaw mysteries set in early 20th century Seattle. “When U(niversity of) W(ashington) Professor Bradshaw discovers a despised colleague dead inside the Faraday Cage of the Electric Machine, the police shout murder–and Bradshaw is the lone suspect. To protect his young son and clear his name, he must find the killer.”

I confess that I didn’t understand the electricity issues and, even though the mystery was fairly clued but not obvious, and Bradshaw himself is likeable, I probably won’t continue in this series.

Read this if: you understood those high school physics classes about volts and resistance; or you’re a UW or Seattle fan. 3½ stars

 
CLAIRE DEWITT & THE CITY OF THE DEAD by Sarah Gran (Mystery Fiction, Detective, New Orleans)

A friend of mine described Claire deWitt to me as “180 degrees from Nancy Drew”; I have to agree many times over. This debut of the series is set in New Orleans one-and-one-half years after Katrina and concerns a man who went missing during that hurricane.

Claire uses the I Ching, vivid dreams and a book written by her dead French mentor to be “the best detective in the world”. The only way you’ll come close to finding this solvable is to follow Claire’s mantra to believe nobody and trust nothing.

There is a dark side to both Claire and to post-Katrina New Orleans (the titular city of the dead) but I can’t help but think that Claire’s tongue is firmly in her cheek a lot of the time.

Read this if: you’re interested in Katrina’s devastation in the poverty-stricken Lower Ninth Ward; or you want a fresh new voice in a mystery series and don’t mind the spiritistic elements. 3½ stars

 

A TINE TO LIVE, A TINE TO DIE ## by Edith Maxwell (Mystery Fiction, Amateur Sleuth)

Cameron Flaherty, downsized from her corporate job, has moved from the city to take over her inheritance: her great uncle’s farm in rural Massachusetts. There, she sets up a Community Supported Agriculture project. In this first of a planned series of “local food mysteries”, a killer strikes on Cameron’s property just in time for her customers’ first produce pick-up.

I found the characters typical for a cozy mystery, but the murderer in this story was so obvious that I discarded him as a suspect.

While the mystery was less than stellar, I did very much enjoy the premise of the series: leaving the city, and going back to the land. After all, that’s what Exurbanis is supposed to be about!

Read this if: you’d like a look at how a (albeit idealistic) Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program is run. 3 stars

## I received The Rules of Murder and A Tine to Live, A Tine to Die from LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers
 

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