Blog Book Tour | “Death Comes to London” (Book 2: of the Kurland St. Mary #mysteries) by Catherine Lloyd Step inside the mayhem of the London Season, whilst keeping toe and step in tune with Lucy and the Major!

Posted Monday, 8 December, 2014 by jorielov , , , , , 0 Comments

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Death Comes to London by Catherine Lloyd

Published By: Kensington Publishing Corp. ()
Available Formats: Trade Paperback, E-book

Converse on Twitter via:#KurlandStMaryMysteries, #DeathComesToLondonBlogTour

Acquired Book By:

I was selected to be a tour stop on the “Death Comes to London” virtual book tour through Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours. I requested the first novel in the series to better understand the flow of continuity and the origins of the Kurland St. Mary mysteries series of which Kensington sent me a complimentary copy of “Death Comes to the Village”. I read both novels back to back for the blog tour and was not obligated to post a review for the first novel. I received a complimentary copy of “Death Comes to London” direct from the publisher Kensington Books, in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.

I sometimes find curious extra bits tucked inside my review book parcels, and this time around Kensington surprised me with a few things: a bookmark for “Death of a Dog Whisperer” by Laurien Berenson replete with the ENTIRE series listing on the opposite side of the bookmark! How lovely! I am going to be seeking this series out via my local library! My grandmother was keen on the series (at least I am thinking she was! I only remember there was a cookery mystery series she loved to read and I felt it was this one?) but it was the Double Fudge Brownie recipe bookmark which whet an interest to see when in 2015 I can borrow “Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder” to sort it out for myself! And, ooh yes! I am going to bake these brownies too! Which girl do you know wouldn’t savour a ‘free’ chocolate maddeningly rich brownie recipe!? The third surprise was a postie (postcard) annoucement for Kat Martin’s “Against the Sky” February release — on the flipside, it reflects her Alaskan series! However a rather buff agent of the law is on the cover of “Against the Sky” also set in Alaska (perhaps their the same series?) and I happily read “first time in print”! Ooh how lovely – perhaps it was an e-book previously!? (as an aside I found a tweet which answers my questions! see below this review!) Thank you, Kensington for whetting the whistle of my curiosity with these lovelies!

Inspired to Read:

As I have expressed recently, my love and passion for reading cosy mysteries are twofold: I appreciate the ones which take-on a particular historical setting and thereby become a part of the emerging sub-genre “Cosy Historical Mysteries” of which I defined a bit underneath this tour’s author’s guest post; all the while I appreciate the traditional cosy mysteries which harken back to the grandmother of the genre itself Agatha Christie! (read my thoughts on Dame Christie via my tour stop for The Monogram Murders) The Regency is a era of folly and mirth of joyful readings for me — I positively adore reading romances set during the Regency era and the fact this particular mystery series is set within a tranquil and quaint village outside of London; well, you can well imagine how wicked happy I was to request to be on the blog tour! I believe as you read my review of the first novel Death Comes to the Village prior to reading this review of the sequel you shall understand fully why I am drawn into reading cosies!

I read this installment with my newly given reading marker with the cutest hound dog and a stack of books seen on the front side of the Death of a Dog Whisperer bookmark! I had forgotten to mention there is a wicked lovely puzzle you can play with the cover art for “Death Comes to London” on the author’s website! 

Blog Book Tour | “Death Comes to London” (Book 2: of the Kurland St. Mary #mysteries) by Catherine Lloyd Step inside the mayhem of the London Season, whilst keeping toe and step in tune with Lucy and the Major!Death Comes to London

A season in London promises a welcome change of pace for two friends from the village of Kurland St. Mary—until murder makes a debut…

With the reluctant blessings of their father, the rector of Kurland St. Mary, Lucy Harrington and her sister Anna leave home for a social season in London. At the same time, Lucy’s special friend Major Robert Kurland is summoned to the city to accept a baronetcy for his wartime heroism.

Amidst the dizzying whirl of balls and formal dinners, the focus shifts from mixing and matchmaking to murder when the dowager Countess of Broughton, the mother of an old army friend of Robert, drops dead. When it’s revealed she’s been poisoned, Robert’s former betrothed, Miss Chingford, is accused, and she in turn points a finger at Anna. To protect her sister, Lucy enlists Robert’s aid in drawing out the true culprit.

But with suspects ranging from resentful rivals and embittered family members to the toast of the ton, it will take all their sleuthing skills to unmask the poisoner before more trouble is stirred up…


Places to find the book:

Series: Kurland St. Mary Mysteries,


Also in this series: Death Comes to the Village


on 25th November, 2014

Pages: 272

About Catherine Lloyd

Catherine Lloyd

Catherine Lloyd grew up in London, England in the middle of a large family of girls. She quickly decided her imagination was a wonderful thing and was often in trouble for making stuff up. She finally worked out she could make a career out of this when she moved to the USA with her husband and four children and began writing fiction. With a background in historical research and a love of old-fashioned mysteries, she couldn’t resist the opportunity to wonder what a young Regency Miss Marple might be like, and how she would deal with a far from pleasant hero of the Napoleonic wars.

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Prior to reading Death Comes to London, I had the pleasure of reading the first novel in this lovely new Cosy Historical series Death Comes to the Village! As you will see from this small excerpt I am sharing from the review I posted prior to this one, it was a wickedly delightful novel to devour!

Death Comes to the Village by Catherine Lloyd

My introduction of the key characters:

The charm of the cosy within is the cantankerous bloke who warms your heart whilst saying the most wild and unsettling of declarations! He’s at his honest wit’s end, and thereby, all the wildlife in his particular section of the world must be within his field of sight of being ousted out of their natural environment because they are interferring with his tranquility of slumberment! If it weren’t so dire of a picture to envision this war hero walking angst ridden through wood and thistle, it would be laughable because whom would suggest such a crazy thing? Owls surely hoot for good reasons, but on the upturnt it was his nature of voicing his vexations at these natural occurring consternations that endeared me on the upstart of the novel!

My very first impression (of which will not surprise most who know me) of Major Robert Kurland mirrored a direct twin of L.B. Jefferies (Jimmy Stuart’s fated voyeur photographer who catches a murderer red-handed in Rear Window!) The Major has returnt from the front of war with an ill-begotten injured leg, laid up (pent up most likely!), and finding every wince of a vice he can lay his mind upon! He charmed me with his crustacean countenance!

Lucy is a spitfire in her own right, but with less confidence in voicing her confluence of opinions, and relegates her resolve of still being under her father’s roof; thereby his rules of life. A rector’s daughter who replaced her dear Mum who died in childbirth, Lucy’s path in life is laid out like paving stones leading out of a garden. Everything expected of her without a want or will of her own regard, yet a slow burn of freedom knits into her bosom! Her age of youth is on her side, which gives the impression she’s a heap of a step towards endeavouring her own mind and heart like Jo March!

My Review of Death Comes to London:

The most delightful opening for me for this series was finding the Major well attune to Lucy’s (perceived) flight of fancy to wantonly go off in search of a suitor whilst being in attendance of the London Season! The Major’s sharp wit and his personality are a bang-on match to how he was previously presented, but with a happier undertone which alerted me to the fact his congeniality was most likely in direct reference to his better state of physical health! I had to immediately agree with the Major on one count: settling into the life and pace of a village is far more joyful than being caught up in the rails of high society on a regular basis! City and country life are quite different yes, but it is what you can find within the niche of a small towne that trumps what can be readily available in a city. Oh, my yes, the dear Major is in top form!

When I first learnt the only way Lucy could gain the trust of her father to give her permission to go into London was to be in companionship of her sister, Anna; I nearly felt I had missed the opportunity to get to know Sophia a bit better (Lucy’s best friend, the widow). Imagine my happy delight in seeing Anna was situated at their Aunt and Uncle’s lavish estate whilst Lucy was in company of Sophia! I cannot say I liked Anna too much in the last story, she came off a bit too cross and too judgmental of her sister; of which I realise siblings have the tendency of doing – yet, I felt for their particular circumstances the girls might have been a bit closer to each other. I think despite the best intentions of Lucy drawing her siblings together as a family unit, they were each in search of their own way in life. Attempting to distance themselves from one another and forge a future outside the shadows of their conjoined sorrow. Friction thereby being a byproduct of the change they sought with all of their hearts.

Catching a whisper of Lucy and the Major’s conversation whilst seated in the throes of a ball was quite smashing, as it gave a new appreciation for their banterment and a dear clue into how each of them was not quite besotted with the other but not very willing to stay out of their affairs either! If any two could fall for the other without suspecting anything afoot, it would be Lucy and the Major! I am not entirely sure if this is the thought Ms. Lloyd had to give the series a concurrent flow of plot in the forward motion department, but they surely do fit together quite well. Not merely as assistant to mentor but rather companionably as they respect yet yield to each other moreso than naught. A bit of a wicked statement on behalf of the Major to not suspect Lucy to become interested in a bloke she’s met who has the dashing sense to be of sound mind and of a firm background! A further clue to how interlocked their lives have become, as neither fully wants the other to make a decision outside the scope of their confidences. I am unsure then, how either of them could marry and not forestall a deep ache of disappointment!

Miss Chingford makes a re-appearance into the Major’s life, nettling in on Lucy, Anna, and Sophia’s luck at finding someone to court whilst giving all of them a bit more drama than they first bargained to find during the Season. The type of vexing young singleton who swoons to draw off attention of her boiling anger and a young woman who cannot see past her nose. It was not unfathomable she would need aide at some point, but to draw in this close circle of sisterly love into a scandal of murder nearly oversteps her own bounds of propriety! I took her for an opportunist sparked out of family obligation and pressure to marry. Whomever finds love with her will have to take special care to allow her a girth of latitude as she walks into pickles before they are foreseen!

This particular mystery started off innocent enough but a more sinister layer started to emerge as the body count doubled! A good point of arms on how nothing is quite as it is meant to appear — nor can every mystery under the presumption of convincing evidence be explained as readily as one would prefer! The further the Major and Lucy started to dig into the circumstances themselves, the more they unravelled questions rather than clues of fact! As the complications grew, as did the need to sort through what was known and what was speculated as being true. I love a good cosy which gives you fodder to chew on what is a red herring and which lead has the potential to click everything together!

Ooh dear my! Apparently I was quite apt in my assessment about Lucy and the Major; this installment opens the door for such a curious and auspicious beginning in the very next Kurland St. Mary! It is like uncovering your favourite serial has a few tricks left up it’s sleeve; a few more surprises either expected or unexpected to curl your interest into more stories being crafted! For me personally, I cannot wait for Book No. 3! Oh, dear my! How long daresay I have to wait!? Hmm,… what wicked sweet folly!

On why the writing style of Catherine Lloyd is such an enjoyable read:

It is always a heap of fun for me to re-immerse myself into a series I have promptly found myself dearly attached too, and the Kurland St. Mary series is the latest of such joy! All the players I enjoyed soaking up narrative and banter infused dialogue from the previous installment of Death Comes to the Village is not only well illustrated in the second, but it is a champion of the spirit for the serial! Methinks I not only have a new series to itch after a third novel, but an author to lie in wait to see where the third installment shall take me next!

I am not sure if I had mentioned this previously, but the mirth for me are the wordsmiths I am reading of late, who stitch together their stories with Old English words whilst giving us a pause for the century we have entered! There is a particular style to Cosy Historical Mysteries and I am finding myself over the moon in full appreciation for the writers who have taken a new sub-genre and given me such a hearty dose of crime, quirky characters, and a flow of language which makes my heart heavy with appreciation!

Both of these novels are unputdownable — you are simply too curious to know what shall come next! I cannot overstate my joy of the pairing of Lucy and the Major; they are high compliments to each other because they both have chosen not to live by tradition and to seek their own path in a society bent on conformation!

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This book review is courtesy of:

Death Comes to London Blog Tour via HFVBTs

Regrettably I fell ill whilst my tour stop on behalf of this novel was in-progress. I was not able to post my reflections on behalf of Death Comes to London nor the first novel Death Comes to the Village until now. I am still overjoyed in full gratitude to the publisher for giving me the chance to read both novels in tandem with each other, as much as I am grateful I was selected to be on the tour itself by Ms. Bruno! My apologies to the publisher and author for being thus delayed but hopefully my reviews will speak on behalf of the joy I felt whilst I was curled inside the stories! I cannot express how wicked stellar it was to find another wonderfully written Cosy Historical mystery series! What a champion year 2014 became for me for this beautiful sub-genre! Be sure to follow my expeditions into the ‘Cosy Historicals’ via my Story Vault!

I previously posted Ms. Lloyd’s Guest Post and my response in how I am celebrating the joy of reading cosies! In regards to what a ‘Cosy Historical Mystery’ is by definition to my own sensibilities of the genre, I responded to this question whilst hosting Mary F. Burns! Likewise, as promised I am going to be posting my review on behalf of another Cosy Historical series I am wicked addicted to reading: the Lady Darby mysteries by Anna Lee Huber! Stay tuned! The Anatomist’s Wife is next!

Be sure to check my Bookish Events page to see what I’ll be hosting next for:

Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours - HFVBT

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#IndieWriterMonth Take 2 (December) badge created by Jorie in Canva

{SOURCES: Cover art of “Death Comes to the Village” & “Death Comes to London”, Book Excerpt, book synopsis for both novels, author photograph of Catherine Lloyd, author biography, the blog tour badge & the HFVBT banner were all provided by Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours and used with permission. Blog Tour badge provided by Parajunkee to give book bloggers definition on their blogs. Post dividers by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination. Tweets were embedded due to the codes provided by Twitter. #IndieWriterMonth badge created by Jorie in Canva.}

Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2014.

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About jorielov

I am self-educated through local libraries and alternative education opportunities. I am a writer by trade and I cured a ten-year writer’s block by the discovery of Nanowrimo in November 2008. The event changed my life by re-establishing my muse and solidifying my path. Five years later whilst exploring the bookish blogosphere I decided to become a book blogger. I am a champion of wordsmiths who evoke a visceral experience in narrative. I write comprehensive book showcases electing to get into the heart of my reading observations. I dance through genres seeking literary enlightenment and enchantment. Starting in Autumn 2013 I became a blog book tour hostess featuring books and authors. I joined The Classics Club in January 2014 to seek out appreciators of the timeless works of literature whose breadth of scope and voice resonate with us all.

"I write my heart out and own my writing after it has spilt out of the pen." - self quote (Jorie of Jorie Loves A Story)

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Posted Monday, 8 December, 2014 by jorielov in #IndieWriterMonth, 19th Century, Blog Tour Host, Book | Novel Extract, Cosy Historical Mystery, England, Equality In Literature, Historical Fiction, Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours, Indie Author, Jorie Loves A Story Features, LGBTTQPlus Fiction | Non-Fiction, Regency Era




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