Interesting historical perspective, and familiar characters from the first volumes in this series. I found the mystery itself to be secondary to the intriguing characters, and also thought the wrap up at the end was rather convoluted. ( )

Up to now I have enjoyed the Colonial series set in Bracebridge Minnesota in the latter part of the 18 century. I did not find this book as good and I had trouble maintaining my interest throughout. I had figured out the main gist of the plot about halfway through and had determined who the murderer was. The book is set in the summer of 1765 in Bracebridge and in Boston. There is a lot of unrest in the colonies at this time and the people of Boston in particular are chafing under British rule. This book was set before the Boston Tea Party, but Ms. Miles portrays the political machinations and the unrest quite well. The victim, the murderer and the peripheral characters in the book are foreigners (actually from Milan, Italy). The language barrier and the cultural differences make it more difficult for Charlotte Willett to unravel the mystery. But she does in the end, although the perpetrators are actually not apprehended. I think there is only one more book left in this short series, and I will read it because I do normally like Ms. Miles' writing and I enjoy her main characters. ( )

Third in the Charlotte Willette “Bracebridge” mysteries set in the times just before the Revolutionary War in small-town Massachusetts. When a houseguest of Richard Longfellow, Charlotte’s neighbor, arrives from Italy, before the man is around for 24 hours, a dead body, also a foreigner, is found on the side of the road. The houseguest is an opera singer, a castrato, and thus is suspect on many levels by the villagers and even to some degree by Richard and Charlotte. When a shocking secret is discovered, they wonder how much they can trust him about everything else that’s happened—and does this make him capable of murder? The secret certainly gives him a strong motive for having killed the strange man—or does it? Enjoyable foray into the eighteenth-century Colonies. Even though it was sweltering August in the book, for some reason I always get a “Sleepy Hollow” autumn-ish feeling when I read this series—I’m forever picturing shocks of harvested cornstalks and pumpkins! ( )