[Edgars] Sign of Death by Callie Hutton - 3 stars rounded up

[Theresa]

It's January 1891, Victoria reigns, and we are in Bath. In this second in a series dubbed a Victoria Book Club Mysteries, 2 of the members find themselves once again embroiled in a murder. This time, it's William not Amy. William is suspected and actually arrested for murdering this man of business, about whom he'd just started to have suspicians. Naturally the police are intent on proving William guilty and thus leave the sleuthing and bringing the real murderer to justice. Rather farcical as a mystery, this was fun, and Amy herself, who writes very popular murder mysteries under a male pseudonym, is actually entertaining. However, this author is better known for her historical romances and it really shows both in the strong romance very strong sweet romance plot, but also in crafting the murder mystery. The clues just sort of happen, or are announced, including how accidentally William figures out who is the real murderer and why in the last couple of chapters.

I knocked off a bit for the misleading title -- there is no 'sign', the plot bears zero similarity to The Sign of the Four which the Mystery Book Club is reading and discussing at their weekly meeting in the beginning of the book, and the book is not even dedicated to Sherlock Holmes or Arthur Conan Doyle, but to Agatha Christie! I rounded this up from 2.5 to 3 stars in part because there are so many wondeful Victorian era mysteries mentioned as being under discussion with the Mystery Book Club, and because Amy herself is very amusing.