New Adele Gossling mystery from Tam May

 

The Carnation Murder
Tam May
May 2022
Dreambook Press
360 pages
Ebook $2.99
Print $12.99
 
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About the Book
Can a forward-thinking woman help the police solve a murder in a backward-thinking town?

Smart inquisitive, and a firm believer in the new progressive reforms, Adele Gossling seeks a new life after the devastating death of her father. So she flees the big city of San Francisco for the small town of Arrojo. She plans a life of peace and small pleasures running her own stationery shop and living in her own house.

But peace is exactly what she doesn’t get when she discovers her neighbor dead in her gazebo. The police think they have a firm suspect: the young man who was secretly engaged to the victim. But Adele and her clairvoyant new friend Nin Branch suspect the young man is innocent. In spite of the raised eyebrows from Arrojo’s Victorian-minded citizens, she and Nin set out to prove Richard Tanning didn’t do it. But if he didn’t, who did?

Can Adele and Nin solve this puzzling case involving a striped carnation, a diamond ring, a note, a muddy pair of boots, and a broken promise? Or will Richard hang for a crime he didn’t commit and the real killer go free?

 
My Review

From the moment Adele roars up to Arrojo, California’s downtown in her newfangled automobile and confronts the hobsnobs, I rooted and cheered for this firmly kind progressive young woman. It’s not easy trying to live the life you want; definitely not when you’re a single young woman in 1904. Adele sets up housekeeping in a classic abandoned home and sets up a stationery business with her inheritance from her late father, a San Francisco attorney. Adele’s handsome single brother, Jackson, a former detective now at loose ends, occasionally comes to check on her, and the two of them become embroiled in a murder investigation after an unfortunate neighbor girl’s body is discovered in Adele’s gazebo.

May did a great job of establishing several suspects and unique plot twists. I love mysteries and truly wasn’t completely certain about the identity of the murderer until the end. Adele gradually turns the hoity toity neighbors into allies and friends, and Jackson learns to find peace with his own special set of policing skills. Fully fleshed characters and well-researched for era and setting, readers who like mysteries with strong female sleuths and unique characters will enjoy this first book in a new series.

 
About the Author

As soon as Tam May started writing when she was fourteen, writing became her voice. She writes engaging, fun-to-solve historical cozy mysteries. Her mysteries empower readers with detailed plots and a sense of “justice is done” at the end. Her fiction is set in and around the San Francisco Bay Area because she adores sourdough bread, Ghirardelli chocolate, and the area’s rich history. Find more at http://www.tammayauthor.com