The Nell Sweeney Mysteries by P. B. Ryan

I got the first book on a whim because it was offered for a low price when I was heading out of the country, and I've a fondness for thoughtful historical female sleuths. The beginning was unremarkable: a doctor and a nurse attend a difficult childbirth. But you learn that the nurse, Nell, is a quiet but observant woman, and projects such a sense of reliability that she's offered the job of governess for the baby. Naturally such a woman must be of unquestionable propriety. Then you get just an oblique hint of Nell's past, and suddenly this placid story rips wide open into a flood of tension and questions.

I quickly bought the rest of the series.

These were originally published as the Gilded Age Mysteries; they've been rebranded for their ebook incarnations. I actually prefer the former series name, as it refers to a period of fast economic increase in America, when the rich were filthy rich and industrial workers grew thick like flies. It's not a time I thought myself ever interested in before, but it makes for a perfect backdrop for these stories.

As you can also tell from the series name, these are presented primarily as mysteries. Given my own genre of work, however, I want to talk about the romantic elements. The spoiler-averse should flee now and know only that these six books are welcoming to someone who's looking for a romance with an imperfect hero who nonetheless deserves our adoration. (There are, as with any recommendation, caveats.)

Said hero: the estranged son of wealthy parents, a surgeon, a survivor of war, a gambler, a man accused of murder…and an opium addict. I don't find drug addicts particularly appealing, and yet Ryan pulled it off here: his illness was convincing, it proved a very real barrier, and even so I thought that Will was smoldering. He's sharply intelligent, caustic, prickly, and to all appearances quite capable of taking care of himself while he slowly drowns in past sorrows.

His first meeting with Nell is rather hostile. He doesn't welcome anyone's help, and she's shocked at his cavalier attitude. But they're bound together in common purpose, and they're both intelligent people who are interested in other people's secrets while having their own to keep. They don't share any initial attraction — he's boorish to her and she sensibly dislikes such behavior — but they quickly gain a grudging respect for each other. And the more they learn about each other, the more that respect grows into a genuine affection. It's pretty clear by the end of the first book that they hold each other in fond regard. But nothing outright is declared, nothing actually happens. And even as events in the next several books rouse them into acknowledging their feelings, obstacles arise.

So this is actually a lovely romance…if you take the series as a whole, since you only get your happily-ever-after at the very end. One book that closed on Nell and Will together filled me with dread, since stark consequences had already been laid out beforehand, so I can't even count that one as having a happily-for-now ending despite the milestone reached in their relationship.

I found this a fascinating juxtaposition of genres, rather like one of those optical illusions that can look like one of two images depending on how you interpret it. I know that at some point (the books blur together; I read them straight through) I kept reading because I wanted to know about these two people, not because I wanted to see how Nell solved the next mystery.

I'd love to find other series that manage something similar, drawing out the formation of a relationship through several books and keeping the journey worthwhile. In the meantime, I'm going to go reread these.

[Series page on author's website]