Still Life with Murder

By P.B. Ryan,

Book cover of Still Life with Murder

Book description

“What a thoroughly charming book! A beautiful combination of entertaining characters, minute historical research, and a powerful evocation of time and place.” —NYT bestselling author Barbara Hambly

Boston, 1868: The dawn of the Gilded Age, an era of burgeoning commerce and invention, of unimaginable new fortunes and lavish excess—for some.…

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Why read it?

2 authors picked Still Life with Murder as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

I fell in love with this book almost instantly when I first read it over ten years ago. It contains many of my favorite things about murder mysteries. I really enjoy books that have a strong sense of place or time, which this one does.

I also love people who almost reluctantly start investigating a murder but can’t help but try to get to the bottom of it. This story has the added bonus of a love interest, which I also really enjoy. I’ve read and reread this book so many times I’ve lost count now.

This is the first in the Nell Sweeney Mystery series. And the slow-burn romance extends over the whole series. Set in 19th Century Boston, these little gems kept me on the edge of my seat, while immersing me in the historical period.

Normally, I don’t find drug addicts make for the best romantic heroes, but William Hewett is not your typical hero. Sure, he was a surgeon in the Civil War, where he was injured physically and emotionally and has become hooked on opium because of it, but he’s not a scorch-your-panties-off kind of hot. (It is the Victorian era,…

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