halfamoon | Day 4: Books! Book recs

I have been a mystery reader since my earliest days and it's a genre that is chocked full of female characters and authors. I could be here all night talking about all of them so I decided to focus on the the best historical mysteries that I read in the last few years

The not overly ambitiously named " Victorian Mystery" series by Laura Joh Rowland has the character of Sarah Bain who is a photographer which is actually rather unusual for historical mysteries. There are some plot choices that annoyed me but I did like this

The Cabinets of Barnaby Mayne by Elsa Hart was a really interesting mystery, dealing with cabinets of curiousities and again the protagonist Cecily Kay, a botanist in a really early era. Sadly it still seems to be a one off. I had hoped for more.

A Homefront News Mystery Series by Joyce St. Anthony Is a WWII era mystery series revolving around Irene Ingram, editor in chief of a newspaper which was another interesting setting for a character

Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Lord by Celeste Connally is your more typical historical mystery centering on a wealthy woman (mostly I think because they would have the most freedom and free time) I did really enjoy Lady Petra Forsyth who made the scandelous decision of never marrying.

Murder by Degreesby Ritu Mukerji is one of my favorite books of the 2020s so far. Dr. Lydia Weston is associated with the Women's medical college in Philadelphia and I loved most everything about her (it helps that I'm a doctor and this school and real women who would have been Lydia's contemporaries are part of my upcoming sabbatical research)

Dear Miss Hermione Series by Anastasia Hastings is an interesting one where yes Violet is a wealthy young woman but she's also an agony aunt, the dear abbey of her day.

Rosalind Thorne Mysteries Series by Darcie Wilde is another twist on the wealthy woman trope as she lost her family fortune in regency England and is working more or less as a thieftaker.

And while the main character is male, I felt I had to include this because his partner Hero is one of the strongest smartest females I've seen in historical mysteries and this series is just so good Sebastian St. Cyr Series by C.S. Harris

And I wanted to share a few of the recent female-written horror novels too

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. I don't five star a lot of books but this one deserved it. It was such a great gothic story set in Mexico

Wake the Bones by Elizabeth Kilcoyne A southern gothic sort of thing. It was an odd story but I enjoyed it

The Children on the Hill by Jennifer McMahon this one isn't an easy read because it deals with mental health, children, unethical experimentation but it's fascinating and has a really cool twist

Together We Rot by Skyla Arndt a YA horror split between Will (female) and Ellwood (male) points of view. Another five star book for me

Bittersweet in the Hollow by Kate Pearsall, another five star YA horror, entirely about a family of women and generational magic set sort of close to me

Your Blood My bones by Kelly Andrew okay this one isn't out yet but I read the arc. Occasionally you might want to slap the characters, especially the female one, Wyatt, but it is a very interesting concept