Book Spotlight | A lovely new discovery of Cosy Historical Mysteries: the South Shore Mystery series by I.M. Foster!

What I found so dearly intriguing about the South Shores Mysteries:

I decided to start to look up the authors I’ll be hosting on blog tours on #bookstagram, now that I am establishing my own presence on there as well. I enjoy finding other book bloggers and readers on Insta and when it comes to authors, I enjoy seeing how their keeping their feeds active. Some get really cleverly creative when it comes to content and I must admit, my inclination to want to purchase this series was solely motivated by two factors:

the premise I read for Murder on West Lake,

and Foster’s Insta feeds!

She had carved out this entire day to day selection of hours with her lead characters in an old-fashioned block of images which alighted you into their showcased days. It felt so dearly alive to me, and it was a wonderful chase-up to Christmas, too, and dearly inventive on behalf of Foster! I was truly captured by it and with other posts I saw on her feeds which talked about either the characters, the stories or the series overall.

I happen to have a penchant for finding authors who are Ancestry Sleuths in their families, like Mum and I are in ours as well. I find these kinds of women are well-suited to writing Historical Fiction stories and series because they champion History and the intrigue of lost stories of the ancestral past. Another author I’ll be reading this month I showcased in late Autumn, 2024 of whom dips her pen into writing the lives of her ancestors, too. Research into Ancestry is great fodder for being a writer because of all the entanglements you discover once you uncover one seed of information, and it allows you to pursue a whole web of loveliness thereafter!

Whilst what truly had me at ‘hallo’ so to speak was how dramatic this series felt even before I started to read it. As I found myself truly captured by Daniel and Kathleen once I started reading Murder on Oak Street. Their story is dearly heart-wrenching in so many respects and a testament of the will to not only survive but to overcome one’s challenging circumstances. It is difficult to read in some scenes and uplifting in others. It feels authentically real and not forced when it comes to the drama and the evocative circumstances the characters are living through and that is a credit to how Foster approached penning their lives.

My time spent with them has left me further intrigued and I know I shall be carrying on reading the rest of this series. I will be forever grateful I caught the announcement for this lovely blog tour as it led me to becoming introduced to a new voice in Cosy Historical Mysteries with I.M. Foster.

Murder on West Lake
Subtitle: A South Shores Mystery
by I.M. Foster

A scream shattered the tranquil air, echoing off the ice-covered lake, and Daniel's heart froze. He knew that voice all too well.

After a pleasant afternoon of ice skating on the frozen waters of West Lake, local librarian Kathleen Brissedon stumbles across a gruesome sight in the nearby gazebo. It only takes a moment for her beau, assistant coroner Doctor Daniel O'Halleran, to determine that the victim was murdered.

To protect Kathleen from the ghastly sight of the man’s slashed throat, Daniel insists she return home while he examines the body further. Though the immediate cause of death appears obvious, he fears the subsequent autopsy will uncover more questions than answers, and it's clear that he has his work cut out for him if he's going to find the person responsible.

Kathleen has no intention of remaining demurely at home, not when there's a murder to solve. Slipping back to the scene, she conducts her own investigation. Though her discoveries prove interesting, Daniel is too concerned about her safety to stifle his annoyance, especially after the killer makes a second attempt closer to home. But as the puzzle pieces begin to fall into place and Daniel starts closing in on the truth, the killer sets their sights on him.

With the danger increasing, Kathleen intent on assisting in the investigation, and his family descending on Patchogue to spend the Christmas holidays, Daniel has his hands full.

Will he and Kathleen be able to put their heads together and discover who is behind the attacks, or will the killer continue to plague the tranquil South Shore village unhindered?

Places to find the book:

Add to LibraryThing

ISBN: 979-8987630631

Also by this author: Murder on Oak Street

Published by Self Published

on 11th December, 2024

Available Formats: Paperback and Ebook

Converse via: #CoffeePotBookClub, #SouthShoresMysteries, #CosyHistoricalMysteries,
#CosyMystery, #HistoricalMystery

About I.M. Foster

I. M. Foster is the pen name author Inez Foster uses to write her South Shore Mystery series, set on Edwardian Long Island. Inez also writes Historical Romances under the pseudonym Andrea Matthews and has so far published two series in that genre: the Thunder on the Moor series, a time-travel romance set on the 16th century Anglo-Scottish Borders, and the Cross of Ciaran series, which follows the adventures of a fifth century Celt who finds himself in love with a twentieth-century archaeologist.

Inez is a historian and librarian, who loves to read and write and search around for her roots, genealogically speaking. She has a BA in History and an MLS in Library Science and enjoys doing the research almost as much as she does the actual writing of the story. In fact, many of her ideas come to her while doing casual research or digging into her family history. Inez is a member of the Long Island Romance Writers, the Historical Novel Society, and Sisters in Crime.

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The second novel focuses on Kathleen’s brother Colin, of whom was a protective bloke in the first novel Murder on Oak Street – as he took his duties as a brother quite seriously. Even though they were at odds most of the time, you knew beneath that tug-of-war relationship they cared for each other as siblings oft do. I wasn’t surprised the second novel would focus on Colin as he was ever present in the first and I had a feeling his story might need to be focused on next. I am reading the series in order and so, I only had the synopsis to go on in respect to what the sequel involves.

This third installment, Murder on West Lake is interesting as it pivots from Kathleen taking a more distanced interest in sleuthing and turning into a bit of an investigative sleuth herself! I was quite charmed to read that in the synopsis as I had a feeling, she might have a natural knack for it! She has such a strong mind and heart – she isn’t easily offended nor swayed, and I had a feeling the harder bits to the realities of investigating wouldn’t phase her either. She was her own women in that respect, and she could handle anything she put her mind too as well.

I am also appreciating that Foster is keeping Daniel and Kathleen’s relationship a long-drawn out romance and not having them tie the knot too quickly. I would imagine it would have to do with a lot of the circumstances that were going on in the background of the story – originating in the first novel Murder on Oak Street and continuing forward from there, too. As much as I think for their sake – a longer courtship might be just what they each needed.

I can definitely say, Foster is writing convicting historically dramatic Cosy Crime stories with her South Shores Mysteries. She grips your heart as you read the installments and there are many times where you are either properly shocked by what is revealled or altogether gutted. This is also a family drama with lots of layers to unpack too. She takes you up close and personal to the crimes, but she does so with a deft hand for knowing where to lay the boundaries of what is seen on the page. I appreciate her choices and am enjoying becoming enraptured with the journey of reading her series.

For those considering reading this series –

I will end this spotlighted feature to include portions of
my forthcoming review for Murder on Oak Street.

NOTE: Ahead of the blog tour on Saint Valentine’s Day, 2025 I was able to purchase a paperback copy of the first novel in the series: Murder on Oak Street. I wanted to share a sampling of those thoughts I had as I tucked into the novel and of the series overall whilst featuring the third novel Murder on West Lake for the blog tour. 

I was curiously delighted to find a rather extensive Prologue ahead of the first Chapter as most authors are limiting their introductory sections in novels these days. A trend I am not an appreciator of as I have a fond affection for Prologues and other bits of story ahead of diving into the heart of a novel. In this particular vein of interest, Foster introduces us to Daniel. A man of morals and conscience working in an industry which is rooted in a cut and dry manner of executing one’s job. He’s working for the coroners’ office and with that heavy weight of purpose – he also carries the toll of realising that not all the cases he works will come to the light of the law. Such as the first case we saw him working on alongside his Uncle. For Daniel, seeing the evidence in front of him encouraged him to know more of the truth behind the crime and yet, in his position he wasn’t privy to investigating anything beyond an autopsy.

The tone of the narrative is cosy and comforting and has a police procedural vibe about it in the beginning throughout the Prologue though through the eyes of Daniel – a coroner. The only bit of a surprise for me was finding stronger language inclusive of the text and it seemed it wasn’t going to have any strong language at all until one word* appeared out of the blue to exert Daniel’s disdain for being late to a dinner with his fiancée. Prudence didn’t seem properly suited for Daniel, but I had a feeling that truth would let out eventually. Especially as I knew the name of the women, he was meant to be with ahead of starting the series! Laughs.

Daniel has a thirst for sleuthing and for medical investigative forensics and I was happily pleased he was given a second chance in life to merge his passions into a work environment. I suspect the love of his life would emerge once his everyday life calmed down a bit and allowed him to find ways to pursue a romance once the hurts of the past were dispelled of course.

There are enough secrets brewing underneath the foreground of the story to keep you glued to the pages, too! Especially if you have a sharp and keen mind for details and the particular ways in which Foster reveals certain clues along the route of her characters’ lives. It leaves you quite engrossed in the moment of the story but also, allows you to remain pensive about the larger picture that is starting to form in your own mind about what truly is ‘going on’ with everyone in the story, too. That also leads you into a bit of a rabbit hole – as without knowing the motive and the intentions of the guilty, it is hard to speculate why the villain did what they did and how they did it. I had a feeling this might be a drawn-out mystery in that regard – as if the person responsible had been playing the long game (ie. long con) and that it would take time to untangle all the truths which were kept out of sight (of both the reader and the other characters involved).

I admit, as I kept turning the pages, I was in a bit more shock over the revelations that were alighting on the page. Especially as it is quite hard when you find a wolf so close to the hen house so to speak. It is awful knowing about the wolf and yet, you can’t warn those near the wolf of the dangers they’re about to be in within its presence. In that respect, Foster wrote incredible perseverance in the character of Patrick – Kathleen’s stepbrother. Patrick had a life many would not be able to rise through and his afflictions were not easily known to others who were looking at his life from the outside. His demons were closer than people knew and the pain he was being caused as soul-wrenching.

I was dearly invested in reading the story due to the Historical backdrop of the setting – caught in the tides of the Edwardian era where reputation and recommendations were everything. Where you could be ruined just by rumour and where women were not entirely free to live on their own accord. Foster knits this era well to life as she gives you the foundation of where we are in time as much as where we were geographically on the outskirts of New York City on Long Island. The City had its own way of showcasing the tenacles of its reach onto the Island, too. 

*ENDNOTE: In respect to the strong language, it appears to only be one particular word that seems to be fancied by Daniel and as it was used so often in one particular chapter it became a bit of a comical addition for me to see it. Laughs. Think of high-end mushrooms. Also, it was more of an expression of his exasperation and anger than anything else! Not usual to find it inclusive of Cosies – Cotemporary or Historical but I overlooked it as Daniel had already won me over as the kind of lad you were rooting to find his wings to fly!

I do go into more details with notes on Content (on my forthcoming review for “Murder on Oak Street) in case there are readers who might be sensitive to stories which involve manipulation, physical trauma as well as psychological abuse. Having said that – as I am a sensitive reader myself – what kept me glued to the pages and through the rougher bits of the storyline which dealt with these intensive moments was the incredible writing by Foster. Bad things might happen, but Foster etches out enough Light in the Darkness to keep you full of Hope for a better tomorrow and I applauded her on how she was able to strike that kind of balance in a story which must have been difficult to find the right tone to write and carry the reader forward into the future with her characters.

I stand by saying this is a Cosy Historical Mystery – as Foster has a keen sense about how to leverage the good and the bad and to keep things this side of Cosy rather than lead us into a much darker plot and timeline.

The Virtual Road Map
for “Murder on West Lake” can be found here:

I enjoy hosting for The Coffee Pot Book Club – a touring company who champions Historical Fiction and connects readers to the writers:

See what I am hosting next on my Bookish Events page!

Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2025.

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