October 1, 2026
Genre:
Cozy Mystery, Historical Mystery
Length:
312 pages
Series:
An Inspector Garrett Mystery
Book description courtesy of Goodreads:
England, 1923. The war is over but not forgotten, and in the cloistered corridors of a university town just outside London, life has resumed its careful performance of normality, with faculty politics, reading circles, and theatre productions.
Into this world comes Eden Brior: an American librarian, sharp-eyed and perpetually out of step, who came to England looking for her lost brother but has made her quiet life among the stacks of St. Cecelia's.
A trying evening becomes considerably worse when she and the charming, impossible Simon Cross are accidentally locked in the bookvault, and a French actress turns up dead in the nave upstairs.
Eden is a witness. She may also be a suspect. And Inspector William Garrett, who has seen everything, has not quite seen anything like her.
Witty, vivid, and steeped in the textures of postwar English life, The Harlot of St. Cecelia's is a mystery that earns its place on your shelf through character: the people who loved the victim, the ones who didn't, and the ones who aren't quite sure.
Into this world comes Eden Brior: an American librarian, sharp-eyed and perpetually out of step, who came to England looking for her lost brother but has made her quiet life among the stacks of St. Cecelia's.
A trying evening becomes considerably worse when she and the charming, impossible Simon Cross are accidentally locked in the bookvault, and a French actress turns up dead in the nave upstairs.
Eden is a witness. She may also be a suspect. And Inspector William Garrett, who has seen everything, has not quite seen anything like her.
Witty, vivid, and steeped in the textures of postwar English life, The Harlot of St. Cecelia's is a mystery that earns its place on your shelf through character: the people who loved the victim, the ones who didn't, and the ones who aren't quite sure.
My Thoughts:
First in a series is always tricky....you want to give the author a chance to develop the characters and so I always go in with an open mind, ready to try book two. This story was not super exciting for me though and I haven't committed to continuing with it yet. But I do like to give things a chance so maybe eventually. The premise sounded interesting, murder in a library, love triangle, set in the 1920's. I usually love these types of mysteries.
Unfortunately, I found myself just trying so hard to care about the characters and I just didn't. They felt flat to me. Part of me had an impression of Inspector Garrett that didn't bear out (can't say without spoilers!) and I found that the book started strong with the librarian Eden as the main focus only to kind of let her go towards the end of the first half. I kept thinking, "why did we quit talking about her, she was very interesting!" After continuing I decided I enjoyed the mystery part of the story, just not the character development. No one really stood out to me like in some books where you might have the quirky sidekick or someone with a loveable pet.
The writing was good and I thought the setting was portrayed accurately so this was not a total loss of reading time. I just don't think I'm invested enough with the characters to continue though.
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