To Marry an English Lord by Gail MacColl and Carol McD. Wallace

Overview:

From the Gilded Age until 1914, more than 100 American heiresses invaded Britannia and swapped dollars for titles—just like Cora Crawley, Countess of Grantham, the first of the Downton Abbey characters Julian Fellowes was inspired to create after reading To Marry An English Lord. Filled with vivid personalities, gossipy anecdotes, grand houses, and a wealth of period details—plus photographs, illustrations, quotes, and the finer points of Victorian and Edwardian etiquette—To Marry An English Lord is social history at its liveliest and most accessible.

My Review:

In a bit of a departure from my normal murder mystery book reviews, this is instead a work of non-fiction.  With degrees in History and Anthropology, I have a passion for all things history and British – especially the Victorian era – and this book combines both. 

This book tells the stories of the American Heiresses like Consuelo Vanderbilt and Jennie Jerome who ended up marrying into the elite of British Society.  Consuelo married the Duke of Marlborough and Jennie married Lord Randolph Churchill and gave birth to Winston Churchill.  There are numerous others named but those are the two names most people will be familiar with. 

These marriages were considered good matches all around as the impoverished British Peerage needed the money and the American Aristocrats wanted the titles.  On paper it was a win-win for everyone except the poor women who were basically auctioned off to the highest title holder. 

The one complaint I have about the book is how it is laid out.  There are numerous one- to two- page spreads of additional information such as styles of architecture or the various types of what the authors call Wall Street Fathers. These spreads occur throughout the book and usually in the middle of a chapter so you have to thumb through the additions to finish the main section you were reading.  It is a little distracting and would be better to have these either at the end or beginning of each section.  Once you finish the paragraph or section of the main story, you are forced to backtrack to the “secondary” sections. 

Overall, I really enjoyed the book and highly recommend it, especially if you were a fan of the PBS show Downton Abbey as the creator of that show, Julian Fellowes, took his inspiration from this book.  

Murder on Astor Place by Victoria Thompson

 

Overview:

As a midwife in turn-of-the-century New York, Sarah Brandt has seen pain and joy. Now she will work for something more--a search for justice--in a case of murder involving one of New York's richest families.

My Review:

This is the first book in the Gaslight Mystery series and though it was published in 1999 and I have had it on my shelf for years, I am just now getting around to reading it.  Not because I didn't think it would be good but because I prefer my historical mysteries set in Georgian or Victorian England.  Now I could kick myself for wasting so much time in getting started with this series.

Set in turn-of-the-century New York, we are introduced to Sarah Brandt who is a midwife.  While visiting a patient following the delivery, Sarah learns that a young boarder has been murdered.  Sarah had seen her the night before while delivering her patient's baby and thought the girl looked familiar.  It turns out to be the younger sister of one of her old friends.

Sarah had been raised in high society but chose to defy the conventions of the day by not only marrying a doctor, but also by becoming a midwife.  He died (murdered as we find out later) and Sarah is left to make her own way in the world.  When she is approached by the Detective in charge Frank Malloy to examine the body, Sarah discovers she indeed knows the girl and is determined to help find her killer.  

I loved the juxtaposition of Sarah and Frank.  He is immediately prejudiced against her when he learns she is high-born but also has a grudging respect for her when he learns how she defied society to follow her heart.  He also knows that she will be invaluable in helping him gain access to places he would otherwise be banned from.  He resents this but his sense of justice prevails and he cautiously accepts her help.

The characters are realistic and I found myself drawn to all of them and that doesn't happen very often.  I enjoyed the bitterness of Frank, especially as I learned more about him throughout the book, as well as the determination of Sarah.   

The setting was rich in detail and I was easily caught up in that world.  As a historian by trade and education, I know that though mostly accurate, there were some discrepancies but it didn't distract me from the book.  A lot of times, authors will add in modern elements such as a turn of phrase just so the reader can get a better understanding of what a character is thinking and while some readers don't like that, I really don't mind.  It wasn't so egregious that I felt it took me out of the setting and I'm willing to overlook some of that if it helps progress the story.

The plot is well thought out and though it isn't difficult to figure out the murderer, there is an unexpected twist that you really don't see coming - something that is lacking in a lot of mysteries these days.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and am on the hunt for the next one in the series.