I adore a good historical mystery series… and it’s been a while since I’ve found a new one to enjoy. I’m happy to announce that I am three books along into a new-to-me historical mystery series by Katharine Schellman, and I’m waiting breathlessly for the fourth!
This series begins with The Body in the Garden, set in London, England in 1815. We meet the recently-widowed Lily Adler, who has been living with her husband’s family since his death a few years ago. Now Lily has arrived at her own town house in the city, ready to re-enter society. Her dear friends, Lord and Lady Walter, are hosting a glittering gala, and Lily is reluctantly persuaded to attend. She escapes from the dizzying heat and light of the party into the welcome quiet and seclusion of the mansion’s garden, where she overhears a conversation that sounds very much like blackmail. Later, there is a gunshot, and Lily stumbles over the body of a murdered young man who is a stranger to her and most of London.
Lily cannot leave the case alone, and she is joined by her husband’s best friend, Captain Jack Hartley, who serves in the British Navy and is ashore while his ship is under repair. Along with them is Miss Oswald, who is also new to London society as a young biracial heiress from the West Indies. Miss Oswald has a personal connection to the man who was killed, and both she and Lily are determined to find the answers and solve the crime.
The three meet up again in the next book in the series, The Silence in the Library, also set in London, and again in the third book, Death at the Manor, which is set in the 
English countryside. The mystery is riveting in all three books, and it’s a positive pleasure to get to know Lily and her friends better and better.
I’m waiting for the fourth book, Murder at Midnight, and hoping there will be many more!
