A CHILD LOST by Michelle Cox








BOOK DETAILS:

Series Title A CHILD LOST (A Henrietta and Inspector Howard Novel #5) by Michelle Cox
Category:  Adult Fiction (18+)
Genre Historical Mystery
Publisher She Writes Press
Release dates:   April 2020
Content Rating: R:
My book is rated R for 2 sex scenes that are somewhat explicit but which are tastefully done. There is periodic swearing (not excessive), but no violence.




BOOK DESCRIPTION:

A spiritualist, an insane asylum, a lost little girl . . .

When Clive, anxious to distract a depressed Henrietta, begs Sergeant Frank Davis for a case, he is assigned to investigating a seemingly boring affair: a spiritualist woman operating in an abandoned schoolhouse on the edge of town who is suspected of robbing people of their valuables. What begins as an open and shut case becomes more complicated, however, when Henrietta―much to Clive’s dismay―begins to believe the spiritualist's strange ramblings.

Meanwhile, Elsie begs Clive and Henrietta to help her and the object of her budding love, Gunther, locate the whereabouts of one Liesel Klinkhammer, the German woman Gunther has traveled to America to find and the mother of the little girl, Anna, whom he has brought along with him. The search leads them to Dunning Asylum, where they discover some terrible truths about Liesel. When the child, Anna, is herself mistakenly admitted to the asylum after an epileptic fit, Clive and Henrietta return to Dunning to retrieve her. This time, however, Henrietta begins to suspect that something darker may be happening. When Clive doesn’t believe her, she decides to take matters into her own hands . . . with horrifying results.

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Writing to Travel Through Time

People often ask me why I write. 
As an author of historical fiction, it’s tempting to say that I write as a way of traveling back in time.  I’m convinced, you see, that I was born in the wrong era, and writing is the only thing I’ve found, given the lack of time machines lying around, to get myself back there.  Surrounding oneself with antiques, reading Victorian novels or watching period dramas all do their part in inching the needle backwards, but there is nothing like creating my own world populated with living, breathing characters to really transport me.  And it’s icing on the cake when readers claim to be transported, too.  It’s the highest compliment I can get, actually. 
So that’s part of the answer of why I write, but it’s not the whole thing.  I’ve been doing this writing thing now, pretty much day in and day out, for roughly five years, and while traveling back in time to the 1930’s is wonderfully fun, it’s not enough of a draw after a while to get up every day at five am to keep at it.  There has to be something more to it.   
The real reason I write, I think, has something to do with creating itself.  The act of creating something out of nothing, I’ve come to discover, is a joyful one and nothing short of miraculous, whether the result of that act is a child or a book or a garden, or something else entirely. 
Creating requires you to reach down into some deeper source, a place of communion with something which, regardless of your beliefs, can only be called the Divine. And this hovering near the Divine—this co-mingling with it, in fact—is all at once beautiful and terrifying and addictive.  It’s a bit like love, really.  Or maybe it is love. 
I’ve always been a creative person.  Looking back, I can see so many ways that it was finding its way out of me, sometimes bursting out spectacularly, sometimes merely oozing.  But it was always there.  It’s found a home now in the form of writing, turning all systems to go, transporting me past the past to a place of even deeper joy, the place from which it begins.     
This is the real reason I write and why, now that I’ve begun, I can’t possibly stop.

I was introduced to historical fiction by my mother's love for books and reading historical romances. My father was also a reader and leaned towards nonfiction or a great detective mystery. If you have followed my blog for a bit, you see I read in many genres, but have a penchant for crime novels and problems to be solved. This book punched all those buttons and more for me. I had a difficult time putting it down. Although not a one sitting read, it definitely fell into the "One more chapter" category.

While I have not read previous books in this series, I quickly became a fan. The characters are well developed and the plot well thought out and researched. Look at that description! How could I not want to dive into this book?!?!! 
Being a midwestern girl, myself, and a fan of this era, such a changing time, I was easily pulled in.  Wonderful, vivid details, even those darker sides to the mental health topics of this day.

The women portrayed are strong and capable, always a plus in my eye, and the investigators are competant, rather than the bumbling duos in certain other popular fiction series.
There may be some trigger topics for sensitive readers, but you can't avoid all triggers in life.  If you are such a reader, have someone else read a bit ahead for you and give you a heads up, because I don't think anyone should miss out on this fantastic series.
I am looking forward to reading more in this series and by this author.

MEET THE AUTHOR:

Michelle Cox is the author of the multiple award-winning Henrietta and Inspector Howard series as well as "Novel Notes of Local Lore," a weekly blog dedicated to Chicago's forgotten residents. She suspects she may have once lived in the 1930s and, having yet to discover a handy time machine lying around, has resorted to writing about the era as a way of getting herself back there. Coincidentally, her books have been praised by Kirkus, Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, Booklist and many others, so she might be on to something. Unbeknownst to most, Michelle hoards board games she doesn't have time to play and is, not surprisingly, addicted to period dramas and big band music. Also marmalade.

Connect with the Author:
website ~ facebook ~twitter ~ instagram ~ goodreads




 






Comments

  1. Thank you for sharing this fun and exciting mystery.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you so much for this awesome review, Laura! I'm so happy you enjoyed the book! Very best to you!

    ReplyDelete

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