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shareen17's review against another edition
3.0
A bored Victorian young woman of the landed gentry set is on a train ride home when it crashes.When trying to help with the disaster she becomes involved in solving several mysteries.
rebleejen's review
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
I dithered between three and four stars. It was diverting, but in the end, not super compelling. I enjoyed it enough to read this author again, though.
heidenkind's review against another edition
4.0
Despite a few boring sections, this was a super solid historical mystery with a romance subplot that I thought was really successful.
maggienack's review against another edition
4.0
Quite good if you like a Victorian mystery with a bit of romance on the side. The history of railroad doctors was interesting too.
reneesmith's review
4.0
Very enjoyable---admirable, forthright heroine caught up in an absorbing mystery that ends up challenging her perceptions of who she is & where she comes from. Kind, noble love interest. Great dialogue & inner voice of the heroine. Interesting period details about trains, train crashes & surgeons who specialize in injuries related to such trauma. So glad I gave this author a try. I'd definitely pick up her next book! (Clean read)
**Right now 4/17 the Kindle e-book is $.99 & the Audible book is $2.99
**Right now 4/17 the Kindle e-book is $.99 & the Audible book is $2.99
nevclue's review against another edition
3.0
2.5 stars
Generally historical mysteries with a female protagonist are one of my favorite things, but this one didn't click for me. Lady Elizabeth Fraser gets into a train accident and meets a handsome surgeon who is far below her in class. They realize the train accident may not be an accident at all and a larger conspiracy might be at play. Unfortunately I found Elizabeth very frustrating. She alternates between fainting/being overcome with emotion and actually getting shit done, which makes the former incredibly annoying. The attitudes were pretty typically Victorian, but they still grated on occasion. I wasn't invested in any of the relationships. The train stuff was actually interesting.
Generally historical mysteries with a female protagonist are one of my favorite things, but this one didn't click for me. Lady Elizabeth Fraser gets into a train accident and meets a handsome surgeon who is far below her in class. They realize the train accident may not be an accident at all and a larger conspiracy might be at play. Unfortunately I found Elizabeth very frustrating. She alternates between fainting/being overcome with emotion and actually getting shit done, which makes the former incredibly annoying. The attitudes were pretty typically Victorian, but they still grated on occasion. I wasn't invested in any of the relationships. The train stuff was actually interesting.
arounds's review against another edition
5.0
What wasn’t to love? It was the best mixture of mystery, historical fiction, and star-crossed lovers written in such a feel-good way.
tracey_stewart's review against another edition
4.0
A train goes off the rails in 1874, and the aftermath brings together people who ordinarily would never have crossed paths. I think I expected this to be much of a muchness with other Victorian-set novels, but very quickly learned how wrong I was. From the very beginning, as the horrors of the accident are detailed, it was pretty clear that this would be blazing its own trail.
Elizabeth Fraser, fresh from her fourth disappointing London Season, has her hands full and more than full with her addicted mother, and there's another point of difference for this book. Partly to escape the oppression of looking after the woman, partly because her assistance is genuinely needed, Elizabeth lends her aid to the doctor (Paul Wilcox) who follows the casualties placed, along with her and her mother, in a boardinghouse, and then goes with him on his other calls.
That actually annoyed me a little. Whether or not Wilcox has any idea that Elizabeth is a capital-L Lady, or just a young lower-case-L lady, it seemed like a remarkably bad idea for him to allow her to go with him to the much more desperate neighborhoods he has to enter. She gets an education that night.
And, of course,she begins to fall in love with one of the more inappropriate men to cross her path.
I liked her; I liked him. I did not much care for the fact that Paul joins the ranks of Regency, Edwardian, and Victorian novel characters to have as a sidekick a young street urchin who once tried to pick his pocket. There seem to be a lot of them out there. It would be kind of nice to think that in the 1870's a young man's first impulse would be to put such a boy, caught in the act, to work – but I don't have much faith in the vision.
I'm not entirely sure the whole motivation behind the mystery – this train crash not being the first of its kind of late – is entirely logical – it seemed to me that the plot would end up costing more money than it saved or earned – but then, major conspiracies (either in theory or practice) aren't always logical. But the investigation – in which Elizabeth only takes part in ways that actually make sense, which is refreshing – is logical, and ties together quite nicely.
Though there were some hiccups in the writing – a bit of a tendency toward Recapitis (Yes. I know. You just told me that a few pages ago), a little bit of ponderousness at times – on the whole I enjoyed the plotting and the writing. The acid test for a book in a series that is new to me, by an author new to me, is whether I'll look for more – and in this case I believe I will.
The usual disclaimer: I received this book via Netgalley for review.
Elizabeth Fraser, fresh from her fourth disappointing London Season, has her hands full and more than full with her addicted mother, and there's another point of difference for this book. Partly to escape the oppression of looking after the woman, partly because her assistance is genuinely needed, Elizabeth lends her aid to the doctor (Paul Wilcox) who follows the casualties placed, along with her and her mother, in a boardinghouse, and then goes with him on his other calls.
That actually annoyed me a little. Whether or not Wilcox has any idea that Elizabeth is a capital-L Lady, or just a young lower-case-L lady, it seemed like a remarkably bad idea for him to allow her to go with him to the much more desperate neighborhoods he has to enter. She gets an education that night.
And, of course,she begins to fall in love with one of the more inappropriate men to cross her path.
I liked her; I liked him. I did not much care for the fact that Paul joins the ranks of Regency, Edwardian, and Victorian novel characters to have as a sidekick a young street urchin who once tried to pick his pocket. There seem to be a lot of them out there. It would be kind of nice to think that in the 1870's a young man's first impulse would be to put such a boy, caught in the act, to work – but I don't have much faith in the vision.
I'm not entirely sure the whole motivation behind the mystery – this train crash not being the first of its kind of late – is entirely logical – it seemed to me that the plot would end up costing more money than it saved or earned – but then, major conspiracies (either in theory or practice) aren't always logical. But the investigation – in which Elizabeth only takes part in ways that actually make sense, which is refreshing – is logical, and ties together quite nicely.
Though there were some hiccups in the writing – a bit of a tendency toward Recapitis (Yes. I know. You just told me that a few pages ago), a little bit of ponderousness at times – on the whole I enjoyed the plotting and the writing. The acid test for a book in a series that is new to me, by an author new to me, is whether I'll look for more – and in this case I believe I will.
The usual disclaimer: I received this book via Netgalley for review.
novelesque_life's review against another edition
3.0
RATING: 3.5 STARS
2016; Random House Publishing Group - Alibi
(Review Not on Blog)
This is Karen Odden's first novel, and my first novel by her. I really liked the way Odden describes the setting - you really get a sense of the time as much as the place. Her characterization was pretty good, although at times minor characters seemed a bit overly cliched. I liked that this historical mystery was gritty and realistic. The novel starts with a bang but is a slow burn overall. While it appears that it took me a long time to read that was more during to time and other commitments. I am looking forward to my next Odden read, which is another historical mystery set in Victorian times but is a series.
***I received an eARC from NETGALLEY***
2016; Random House Publishing Group - Alibi
(Review Not on Blog)
This is Karen Odden's first novel, and my first novel by her. I really liked the way Odden describes the setting - you really get a sense of the time as much as the place. Her characterization was pretty good, although at times minor characters seemed a bit overly cliched. I liked that this historical mystery was gritty and realistic. The novel starts with a bang but is a slow burn overall. While it appears that it took me a long time to read that was more during to time and other commitments. I am looking forward to my next Odden read, which is another historical mystery set in Victorian times but is a series.
***I received an eARC from NETGALLEY***
eaterofwordsandworlds's review
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75