Midnight Fires

February 15, 2010
At the start of this captivating historical set in 1786, Mary Wollstonecraft is on her way to Ireland to become a governess, “that most humiliating of occupations.” At Mitchelstown Castle in County Cork, headstrong Mary, the future mother of Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein
, and future women's rights advocate, is determined to pen a novel and remain above the fray of castle politics while schooling Lord and Lady Kingsborough's daughters. Three suspicious deaths, however, compel Mary to seek justice for a poor young sailor, the family's troubled former governess, and even an aristocrat. It appears everyone from poet George Ogle, Lady K's new flirt, to a land tenant or two has a motive in one or more of these tangled deaths. As Mary snoops around in search of the culprit, she is bound not to lose herself to the mystery, her job, or the charms of any man. Wright (Mad Season
and four other Ruth Wilmarth mysteries) deftly illuminates 18th-century class tensions.

March 1, 2010
An impoverished Mary Wollstonecraft (yes, the future author of "A Vindication of the Rights of Women" and the mother of "Frankenstein" novelist Mary Shelley) goes to be a governess in remote County Cork, Ireland, where she witnesses a stabbing at a pagan bonfire. VERDICT This gothic mystery featuring an inquisitive young woman who steps into a vipers' nest is reminiscent of works by Daphne DuMaurier, Mary Stewart, and Joan Aiken. It will also appeal to readers who like their sleuths to be actual historical or literary figures (see, e.g., Gyles Brandeth's Oscar Wilde series).

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.