Death at Bishop's Keep: A Victorian Mystery, Book 1

Death At Bishop's Keep is a mystery set in Victorian England. A murder mystery! So far not really anything to write home about. But there are a few twists. The main female character, and the main character the book will focus on, is an American writer called Kathryn Ardleigh who is nosy, outspoken, free-thinking. So far, once again, nothing to be excited about. She is asked to come to England, as is it found out she is related to a rich upper class England Family. Everything looks like some kind of childhood dream when the murder happens.The second character, the main male one, is Sir Charles Sheridan, a amateur detective, who shows just as much interest in the murder as she does. He is a modern man, of the time period, who believes photos, and finger prints, and science will change the very face of crime fighting. He is smart, handsome, wealthy and of course falls head over heels in love with her on sight. NOT. In fact he thinks she is not a very properly lady at all. She shows much too much interest in the murder and the Occult Society that may somehow be linked to the victim. In fact the book seems refreshing in that he acts just like a Victorian gentlemen would act to such a rash, blunt American woman. Not that Kathryn is a 20th or 21st Century woman. She is a perfect 19th Century American woman. Who happens to write penny-dreadfuls and, therefore, has a good reason for trying to learn as much as she can the details of a real crime. She is, in other words, a very real picture of a woman of the time period. But when compared to the English women, born and bred in the class system, she is like a Bull in a china-shop. And this upsets everybody, even the staff of the household. This brought a lot of humor to the book but also acted like a realistic barrier to her own investigations.The plot was so twisted that for a few chapters I was sure I knew who the killer was. And I was totally, 100%, wrong. I am not suggesting the book gave me false clues - I just put them together in the wrong order. When I have more secure funding I will start collecting as many of the books in the series as I can. I really wish to revisit this world.

Kate Ardleigh is the 1894 version of a modern American girl. When she learns that she has an aunt who lives at Bishop's Keep in England and who wants to hire her as her secretary, she is eager for the adventure. Kate has been making her living as the author of serial stories filled with mystery and sensationalism. She views the opportunity to travel to a foreign country as a perfect opportunity to research her books.Kate hardly expects to find murders, buried family secrets and secret societies in her real life. Nonetheless, that is what she finds when she arrives at Bishop's Keep. She quickly becomes close to her Aunt Sabrina who is a free thinking woman who is interested in the spiritualism that was so popular in the 1890s but she doesn't at all care for her Aunt Jaggers who is the very embodiment of the poor relation come to live with her sister and very resentful of her. She is also a very harsh disciplinarian of the servants whom she feels will go bad with any sort of indulgence - like sugar for their tea or carpets and a fireplace in their lounge. Naturally, this has caused the atmosphere at Bishop's Keep to be very uncomfortable filled as it is with sullen servants. It also leads Kate to wonder what hold Aunt Jaggers has over Aunt Sabrina that Sabrina would allow her sister such free reign in the household.Our hero is Sir Charles Sheridan. He is a man of means who is interested in science and photography. He enters the story when he takes pictures of a corpse at an archaeological site he is photographing and becomes curious about the murder. He meets Kate who is also making inquiries about the murder on her aunt's behalf. While Charles is fascinated with Kate, he doesn't quite know what to make of a woman so different than the upper class women who are the fixtures in his life. While he is more liberal than the usual Victorian male, he still holds on to some cultural views about women that Kate is constantly upsetting.I enjoyed the mystery and the wonderful depiction of Victorian England. I can't wait to read more stories about Kate and Sir Charles.

This book was a book chosen by one of my book club members. I am not a big fan of series. I don't like a lot of description about whatever I am suppose to see. It was not always i felt needed in some parts. I would not have chosen this book to read if I had not been in a book club.

Death at Bishop's Keep opens the Victorian (1890s) mystery series by Robin Paige. Kate Ardleigh, an independent American woman who secretly writes "penny dreadfuls" to pay the bills, accepts an invitation by an English aunt to work as her secretary. Although she has some trepidations concerning such a major move, she is delighted when she arrives to find that her aunt is willing to buy a brand new Remington type writing machine, and that a murder has occurred in the neighboring town (she hopes she will be able to use the murder as research for her penny dreadfuls). Her aunt has joined a spiritualist cult group, and the murder victim is found wearing emblems of the cult. Sir Charles Sheridan, amateur sleuth and photography pioneer, is staying with friends in the area and decides to help the police with their murder investigation. Sir Charles is fascinated by the new field of forensic science, and he knows much more than the local country police (the police are decidedly ambivalent about Sir Charles' help) about it. He goes about applying his methods, only to find Kate asking questions and disconcertingly informed on subjects such as fingerprints. Sir Charles is torn between admiration and exasperation for Kate's intelligence and interest. Life would be so much more comfortable were Kate a "normal" Victorian young woman, but on the other hand, Sir Charles is pretty certain that it would be more dull. Kate has access to inside information on the cult, and Sir Charles has forensic evidence the police don't know how to interpret; and in this first outing of the series, they each race to find the killer, wanting to be the one to solve the case before the other. Definitely worth reading to find out who wins.

There is good and bad about this book. First of all the good. It is a very carefully plotted crime drama set in Victorian times the plot and story being very hard to predict. The author has clearly done a huge amount of research or is a professor at some prestigious university and teaches that period. The characters, especially Kate Ardleigh, are extremely well drawn right down to the servants and even the police officers. I actually felt sorry for Inspector Wainright. To leaven the dram and horrible murder scene there is wonderful humour sprinkled throughout the story. I thoroughly enjoyed it and have bought the next one. Now the bad. I do understand the author is American and clearly writing for a primarily American audience. The book is written in American English and uses such terms as sidewalk and stoop. Well the American readers might be upset at finding not everywhere is the same as the USA. However, what is extremely disrespectful and inaccurate is to put American words, phrases and general usage into the mouths of nineteenth century characters in England. It insults England and insults the American readers by giving them the impression in this otherwise well researched book that English people spoke like that. Given the popularity in the US of books by Agatha Christie, Ian Rankin, Val McDermid and Conan Doyle (a character in the book) I’m quite sure the author could have trusted her American readers. A query more than anything. Kate is offered £1500 a year plus her keep as a secretary! Really? £200 would have been generous at the time but perhaps it was partly an allowance as she was Miss Sabrina Ardleigh’s niece.

The first book in a series of ten, I really enjoyed this book (and the rest of the series). They are written by an American couple and are set in the British Isles.They have caught the English language and its idioms very well and their knowledge of all the places in the books is extensive and accurate.They feature an English Lord and his American wife and cover a period of change in Britain with new technologies - motor cars, wireless ,fingerprintsbegin to appear in crime detection. They also feature well-known people such as Conan Doyle, King Edward VII, Lily Langtry and Marconi.

A very engaging mystery. I enjoyed the contrast between the American heroine and the English setting. It was good to see a regional dialect used, it made the servants characters more believeable. All of the characters were well drawn. The plot itself was clever without being impossible to work out which made it a satisfying whodunnit. There was good historical accuracy without the total slavishness that can make a book cumbersome. I would recommend this as an enjoyable, well written historical mystery with the prospect of a little romance thrown in.

I loved this story, it was hard to believe it was by a modern writer. The atmosphere was just right. It could have been written by Conan Doyle himself, with the exception that it was sympathetic to feminine intelligence. Wonderful banter between the characters. A must for lovers of Victorian mysteries.

This series of books portrays what is meant to be two unusual women - one a servant and one a " Lady", each with their own unexpected abilities, who also believe themselves to be friends, living at a time when neither their abilities, nor their friendship is acceptable in the normal world. They aren't trying to change their world's perception of women or servants, and they actually still have a huge imbalance in their dealings with each other, but the whole series is a refreshing and humorous take on their world, (police services included). I thoroughly enjoyed this continuing tale.