Murder, Sweet Murder

March 1, 2020
In this eighth installment of Kuhns' Will Rees series, the action centers on the circus that has come to Durham, Maine, in April 1790. Rees should be plowing and sowing seeds to provide for his wife, Lydia, and their children, but he finds himself longing to weave and sell his wares to nearby farms. Bored with farming, he takes an afternoon to check out the visiting circus and, on his way home, gets involved in the search for a young Shaker girl, who is eventually found dead in a nearby field. To further complicate matters, Rees notices among the onlookers his nemesis, Magistrate Hanson, whom he believes was responsible for falsely accusing him of murder and Lydia of witchcraft two years earlier (The Devil's Cold Dish, 2016). Meanwhile, Constable Rouge seeks out Rees to help him solve the murder, which leads Rees to befriending several of the circus performers. While the character of Rees comes across less vividly than it has in previous adventures, the setting and historical detail remain sharp, with strong, descriptive prose.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

December 6, 2021
In Kuhns’s superior 11th mystery featuring Maine weaver Will Rees (after 2021’s Murder on Principle), Will and his wife, Lydia, set out for Boston in 1801 in response to a distress letter from Lydia’s sister, Cordelia. Cordelia, who’s aware of Will’s reputation as an amateur sleuth, wants him to prove Marcus Farrell, the owner of a sugar plantation in the West Indies and her and Lydia’s father, is not a murderer. Rumors have circulated that Marcus shot Roark Bustamonte, a poor West Indian immigrant, after a quarrel. But after the couple arrive in Boston, Marcus asks them not to pursue the matter, since in his view the killing will remain unsolved, given the lack of any witnesses and his having bribed the sheriff to eliminate him from suspicion, and be rapidly forgotten. This argument doesn’t dissuade Will and Lydia, who, uncertain of Marcus’s guilt, determine to discover who else might have had a motive for killing Bustamonte. A second murder connected to the Farrell family raises the stakes. Kuhns makes the most of having her lead operate in an unfamiliar setting en route to the satisfactory reveal. This series shows no sign of running out of steam. Agent: Mitchell S. Waters, Brandt & Hochman Agency.

December 1, 2021
In 1801, two proven sleuths travel from Maine to Boston to solve several murders. Weaver Will Rees and his wife, Lydia, have little to do with her wealthy family except for her half sister, Cordelia. When Lydia's estranged father is accused of murdering a man in Boston, though, Cordelia begs them to come and prove him innocent. Although he hasn't been charged, his family is shunned by society, ruining Cordelia's marriage chances. Lydia is all too ready to suspect her father, but for Cordelia's sake, she and Will make the journey to Boston. Lydia's snobbish stepmother, Isabeau Farrell, looks down on Will and his family, but Lydia and Will still do their best to investigate the murder that Lydia's father, Marcus, would prefer they ignore. For unknown reasons Marcus is trying to marry Cordelia off to his assistant, but she's madly in love with a wealthy young man she sneaks out to meet. Marcus is estranged from his only son, James, who's chosen to live with his uncle Julian. The young man who was killed had argued with Marcus, who insists their dispute was over wages, but Will finds out Marcus had cheated the man's family out of their Caribbean plantation. Will has faced moral dilemmas before, and the fact that much of Marcus' wealth is built on sugar plantations worked by slaves makes it difficult for him to work up the appetite to defend him. Then Julian's murder flushes more secrets out into the open. Not many surprises, but the ambience of early 1800s Boston makes for an interesting read.

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February 15, 2022
In 1801, Lydia and William Rees and two of their children travel from Maine to Boston at the request of Lydia's sister, Cordelia. Their father has been accused of murder, and in view of Lydia and William's past successes at solving crimes, Cordelia wants them to find the killer, in part because family friends believe her father has bought off the authorities. Against her father's wishes, Lydia and William investigate, interviewing witnesses, confirming alibis, and developing theories. The couple ultimately solves the mystery, but not before two others die. Complicating matters, Lydia, back in Boston for the first time since running away, has been estranged from her cruel, bullying father, and William, a weaver, feels out of place in the upscale household with its servants and conspicuous display of wealth. Crisply drawn characters, combined with the immersive Boston setting, which beautifully delineates the life and times of the era, from the rich to the very poor, add up to a satisfying historical mystery.

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