tammy_m_nc 's review for:

Murder on Platform Four by Irina Shapiro

5.0

dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Murder and secrets

I love this series and this installment of the historical whodunit series staring Sebastian Bell and Gemma Tate. Like the other books in the series, it had a layered storyline, an intriguing mystery, surprising plot twists, and suspense which made it hard to put down once I started. This author always manages to take simple ink on paper and create a living breathing place full of three dimensional beings that feels real. This type of immersive reading that involves my brain, my heart and my soul is the best kind. Sebastian and Gemma are portrayed as real, relatable and complex people who have flaws and scars, but are really just trying to do their best as messy humans.   Still in mourning for her brother, Gemma is a nurse in 1858 London who now works as a live in nurse/companion for Dr Colin Ramsey’s mother who suffers from dementia. Sebastian is a Scotland Yard detective and a widower. Sebastian and Gemma enjoy puzzling out a case together and have recently admitted they want to court once Gemma is no longer in mourning. At the train station to pick up his brother, Sebastian is in the perfect place just when a dead body in a trunk is found and he is once again involved in a murder with an over abundance of suspects and a messy investigation. The investigation leads Sebastian - and to some extent Gemma - to unlikely places, dead ends, plot twists, secrets, and surprising revelations. As always, there are smaller personal story arcs and social commentary which enrich the main plot line and give the characters even greater dimension. I love these characters and this series.