Author: Elizabeth Dunne
Genre: Historical Fiction, Mystery & Suspense
Publisher: Level Best - Historia
Book Release Date: 2024
Pages: 258
Source: Netgalley/Publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Synopsis: In Concord, Louisa May Alcott farms pigs after success with Little Women, but as New England's freezing winter approaches, death isn't far away. Concord's Misses, armed with wit and elegance, money and secrets, are present when Miss Emily Collier dies at her forty-second birthday party. Louisa is embroiled in the intrigue. They will lie to her, set traps, and blackmail to avoid justice. And Louisa is now an outsider in what was once her home. To test her mettle, local Justice of the Peace Captain Briers, a man compromised by lust for one of the Misses, enlists her to bring order to the twisted loyalties, land feuds, and secrets fuelling a seditious desire for revenge not seen in Middlesex County since the witch trials.
My Review: The Murderous Misses of Concord is a historical mystery which features Louisa Alcott as an amateur sleuth. Louisa has just published Little Women. She decides to move to Concord and farm pigs. One day, a woman named Ms. Emily Collier died at her birthday party. Louisa suspects that it was murder. Louisa then investigates Ms. Collier’s death and hunts for the killer.
I love Louisa Alcott’s novel, Little Women. I loved the premise of Louisa Alcott being an amateur sleuth and solving crimes! In practice, however, I found that in this book I did not really care how she actually was as a detective. In this book, Louisa is highly observant and very smart. She is able to use reasoning to find the killer. I admired her deductive skills and how she investigated the mystery. However, I thought that Louisa was a paper-thin character. She seemed very bland and one-dimensional, and had so little in the way of a personality that I did want to spend more time with her. I just could not connect with her. I did not care if she solved the mystery or not. Ms. Dunne did not make her a realistic and interesting character. Therefore, I did not find Louisa to be a compelling protagonist.
Overall, this book is about secrets, scandal, and revenge. I did not care for any of the characters and thought that they were flat. I did not like the writing style. It was written in a passive instead of an active tone. The mystery was very complex. However, I thought it was somewhat drawn out, and it seemed to take forever to get to the reveal. The book was very slow moving, and it was confusing in the beginning. I did like the 19th century winter setting of Concord. I’m not sure that I will pick up the sequel because I was disappointed with this book. Still, this mystery may appeal to fans of Louisa Alcott. I recommend this for fans of The Hapless Milliner, A Poisoned Fortune, and The Lace Widow!
Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
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