The Deadly Hours
Authors: Various
I absolutely love the concept of this historical mystery story collection!! A cursed gold watch causes trouble as it passes from owner to owner over more than a century. Four owners -- four outstanding stories!
All of these writers (Susanna Kearsley, C.S. Harris, Anna Lee Huber and Christine Trent) were new-to-me authors. Not new as in I haven't heard of them...but new as in I haven't read anything by them. I have books from all four on my TBR list, but haven't gotten to them yet. This collection of stories made me move all those books closer to the top of my list!
The stories start in 1733 and the watch makes it way to Edinburg, London and Kent over the years, with the fantastic ending coming in 1944. I love how all of the stories are so different, but all tied together by the gold watch.
Normally I read books like this slowly, really savoring the differences in the stories, the awesome background story of the watch, and the plot nuances of each novella. I also take time to research the authors and add lots of new books/stories to my TBR stack. But because I was reading to write a review in a timely manner (All this covid19 stuff has my job revved up to insane, so my reading and writing time is really taking a hit this year), I had to hurry and spend much less time than I normally would on such a lovely book. BUT, I solved this problem -- I pre-ordered my own copy of the audio book and I'm going to listen to my heart's content as slowly as I choose and then add lots of lovely books to my TBR stack after each tale is completed.
Even with the somewhat rushed review read, I loved these four intertwined historical mystery stories. I couldn't pick a favorite -- all are wonderful stories. Well written, with interesting characters and period appropriate plots. I can tell I am going to enjoy reading more by all four writers! I'm on the lookout for more story collections woven together by a plot point like a cursed item -- that really added something extra to my reading enjoyment!
Awesome read!
**I voluntarily read a review copy of this book from Poisoned Pen Press. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**
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