Kate Shackleton Series
Seems most mystery fiction enthusiasts are always in search of a new cozy series. Perhaps you only read cozies, or you use them as “palate cleansers” between the more Noir, police procedurals, or spy/thrillers you enjoy.
But a good cozy series is hard to find. Sometimes sickeningly sweet or outlandish. Often poor writing with insipid characters who without fail go down into the dark basement on their own when a killer is loose. Too many recipes and not enough plot. Talking animals or romance fiction masquerading as a mystery…there’s a lot to dislike out there.
I recently finished the first three books in Frances Brody’s Kate Shackleton mysteries. I can’t wholeheartedly recommend, but their inoffensive and you might enjoy them for your bus commute to work–easy to pick up and put down.
The mysteries are set in the years directly following the Great War. Kate is a possible widow (her husband, a doctor, MIA). She is a woman of means, with a policeman for a father and a titled mother, so she is free to pursue mysteries to her heart’s content. She is an amateur photographer, drives a Jowett, and honed her detective skills trying to first find word of her MIA husband. Although still no leads to anyone who witnessed his death, she continues to search hospitals for war veterans with amnesia or soldiers who might have been in her husband’s regiment. We learn that her own unsuccessful search led her to helping others find information about their missing husbands or brothers.
All this takes place prior to our meeting Kate. When we first meet her, she is being hired by her friend, Tabitha, to find Tabitha’s missing father in time for her wedding. Is he still alive somewhere, having disappeared under mysterious circumstances, or is he dead? Kate is determined to get to the bottom of the mystery. The following two in series were similar in locale (England) and time (just after the war) and delved a bit deeper into Kate’s background (she was adopted).
There is a clear sense of time in this series, and the author does a good job placing us in England just after WWI. There is a little bit of humor and a light touch of history–nothing heavy here. The plot development of the first three novels is somewhat slow. If you’re looking for thrills and chills, I could not recommend. Kate is likable, though, and it’s an interesting look at a young, privileged widowed female in the early 1920s. I liked how her photography hobby is woven into her detective work. But I would say that all three I’ve read could have been quite a bit shorter. Slow pace with superfluous details. A nice change of pace from some I’ve been reading lately, but doubt I’ll read any farther in the series.
