Okay, I get that needs must, but to couch it as a gradual movement away from Catholicism toward Protestantism didn’t work for me, because that path wasn’t established earlier in the series. Nell’s reasons for divorce (the Church says it’s wrong) dissolved in the face of pregnancy.
All the unresolved sexual tension that made the books work so well? Gone.
On the personal front, I felt as if Ryan had more or less undone the careful tension that she established in the first five books. It’s not until Will returns from France (after a disastrous episode as the field doctor for the French in the Franco-Prussian war) that the investigating picks up most of its steam. Cyril Greaves, but his practice and knowledge of forensics was limited. The forensic work usually done by Will Hewitt was delayed another doctor appeared on the scene, Nell’s former employer and lover Dr. I suppose the death of Nell’s brother is supposed to be the mechanism by which she is released from her earlier life, but his inclusion just felt strained. It felt tacked on and quite rushed in comparison to the carefully built mysteries of the first five books of the series. Yes, the personal matters were wrapped up neatly, but the entire plot felt contrived and false to me.įirst, the mystery. What did I think of the book? Well, TBH, I’m a little disappointed in the book. Though Nell’s attempt to clear his name starts in the criminal underworld, it will lead her to the top ranks of Cape Cod society… But now a terrible secret from her past–and the lurking suspicion that she might be carrying Will Hewitt’s child–threaten to rob her of everything for which she has worked so hard.īut these problems pale when Nell learns that the body of her only remaining brother has been discovered–and that he was wanted for murder. Nell has proven herself a model governess in the years she’s worked for the Hewitts. At last, her dark past is behind her–but soon she’ll learn that it’s never too far behind… Summers at the Hewitts’ sprawling Cape Cod cottage always prove bittersweet for governess Nell Sweeney, for it was here that she lost three sisters and two brothers–and gained a reputation as the best pickpocket on the Cape.
Ryan’s last Nell Sweeney/Gilded Age mystery, according to her website.
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