Pilfered Promises
Pilfered Promises by M. Louisa Locke – mystery set in 1880 San Francisco 2016
This is the fifth book in a series. I had no problem following the story but the hints of past cases made me want to read the previous books. When writing a series, add a few memories in the current story to entice the reader to read them all.
This historical mystery captures the time period with just enough information to show the detailed research of the author. A historical novel needs the setting, events, and characters to reflect that time period. Locke succeeds at this and is a good example to look at for writing a historical novel.
Annie Dawson has led a full life and works as an accountant and is married to lawyer Nate Dawson. She was married to an abuser who committed suicide. After working without pay for his relatives, she inherited a boarding house in San Francisco where she has several interesting boarders. She was once Madame Sibyl in order to give financial advice to others and has worked with the police in previous cases. This allows her to play detective in this story.
Locke gives her characters rich backgrounds and introduces us to a lot of people in this story but she keeps them clear in her storytelling. She also has done her research and anyone who wants to write in this time period of 1880 should read her books and become familiar with the clothing, transportation, and other items used by those in this decade.
Other historical mysteries can have a dark side but Locke begins with a shoplifting incident by a relative and is hired by the Silver Strike Bazaar owner to investigate missing merchandise. She enlists family and servants to help with the investigation that has plenty of suspects. She also has several subplots going on at the same time with Nate helping a woman obtain a divorce and custody of her children from an abusive husband.
When a woman, who designed clothing for the store is murdered, Annie must figure out who had a motive to kill her. She interviews each suspect and eliminates them one by one until the only one left is revealed. All sex and the murder are done off stage like a cozy mystery and everything works out in the end which gives this mystery a PG rating.
Many social subjects are mentioned like abusive husbands, worries about pregnancy, working wives, and race but handled without being preachy. Although the main characters are more open-minded than most people in the 19th century, they acknowledge the difficulties for some people in unfortunate situations.
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