Wednesday 1 August 2018

Murder at Ochre Court (Gilded Newport Mysteries #6) by Alyssa Maxwell


Murder at Ochre Court (Gilded Newport Mysteries #6)

In the summer of 1898, reporter Emma Cross investigates a shocking death among the bright lights of Newport's high society . . .

After a disappointing year as a society columnist for the Herald and staying with her more well-heeled Vanderbilt relatives in New York City, Emma has returned to the salty air, glittering ocean vistas, and grand stately mansions of Newport, Rhode Island, more determined than ever to report on hard news.

But for now she's covering the social event of the season at Ochre Court, a coming-out ball designed to showcase Cleo Cooper-Smith, who will be literally on display, fittingly as Cleopatra, in an elaborate tableau vivant. Recently installed modern electricity will allow Miss Cooper-Smith to truly shine. But as the deb ascends to her place of honor, the ballroom is plunged into darkness. When the lights come back on, Cleo sits still on her throne, electrocuted to death.

Quickly establishing that the wiring was tampered with, Emma now has a murder to investigate. And the array of eligible suspects could fill another ballroom--from a shady New York real estate developer to a neglected sister and the mother of a spurned suitor. As Emma begins to discover this crime has unseen connections to a nefarious network, she puts her own life at risk to shine a light on the dark motives behind a merciless murder.  (Summary via Goodreads)



The last person you would suspect !!!  The one behind all the evil in Alyssa Maxwell's latest installment of her Gilded Newport Mystery series is the LAST person you would ever imagine it would be !!  A complete unexpected surprise !! 

I LOVE the Gilded Newport Mystery series and can never get enough of Emma !!!  Emma is truly someone to admire....she is a strong, independent woman during a time when women were looked upon as being nothing more than servants, debutantes, wives and mothers.  Emma wants so much more and being a journalist for the society page of newspapers, although unusual at that time, still isn't want she wants.  She wants to be taken serious and given more important stories.  After all with her background and family and society connections, she knows more than just who is at the party and what they are wearing.

And in Murder at Ochre Court, the sixth book in this amazing series, you follow Emma down some dark tunnels and easedrop on some pretty scary conversations but that will not deter her from finding out the truth behind the death of Cleo.......  to think that she was electrocuted when electricity was just becoming a thing.......

The imagination of an author always amazes me but the research that some authors do when writing a story, a piece of fiction, that blows my mind !!!  You cannot truly appreciate the story until you read the Author's Note at the end of one of Maxwell's stories ...... she sheds more light onto the background of the buildings and the Newport area that Emma calls home.  

I HIGHLY recommend getting lost in Murder at Ochre Court....it will take you on a very memorable journey and even though there are a lot of twists and turns you will not lose your way !!!

Review by Missi S.





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