sterling8 's review for:

Murder at the Breakers by Alyssa Maxwell

2.5

adventurous lighthearted mysterious slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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This is a cozy mystery set during the Gilded Age in Newport. At the Breakers, one of the great mansions along the cliffs of Newport, a man falls from the upper story to his death. Emmaline Cross, a young reporter who happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time because she's trying to help her feckless brother get out of a jam, has the body fall almost on top of her. When her brother Brady becomes the main suspect in the murder, Emma decides to to help clear his name.

Emma and her brother are distant, but poor, relations to the Vanderbilts. This allows Emma to come and go through different levels of society. She works to find who might have meant the murder victim ill.

I always like a plucky heroine and Emma was fun to read about. Unfortunately, this is also the sort of book in which as soon as I read about a certain character I was pretty sure they were the culprit, and I was right.

I picked this up in large part because I'm watching The Gilded Age right now and was interested in reading more about this era. I don't feel like I got a lot of great description of the setting, really, since the author was more focused on the mystery plot. I honestly read historical mysteries more for the history than the mystery, so I don't know if I'll read more in this series or not.