Indigo Christmas (Hilda Johansson Mysteries, No. 6) - Softcover

Jeanne M. Dams's life revolves around her love of the mystery and of the Victorian and Edwardian eras. She is the Agatha-winning and Macavity-nominated author of the popular Dorothy Martin series, as well as five previous books in the Hilda Johansson historical series. She lives in South Bend, Indiana, with her husband.

The Hilda Johansson series hasn’t been running long enough to need a reboot (this is only the sixth installment), but the author shakes things up a little anyway, keeping the series fresh and offering readers a look at Hilda and her environment (South Bend, Indiana, in the early 1900s) from a new angle. The husband of one of Hilda’s closest friends is under suspicion of murder, and Hilda would dearly like to help out . . . but she is not sure she can. Hilda’s married now, mistress of her own house, no longer a maid—and, to her great consternation, cut off from her usual sources of information: shopkeepers, household staff, and so forth. Luckily, Hilda’s a resourceful woman, and she soon comes up with an ingenious solution to her investigative problem, one that will, not to give too much away, be of particular interest to Sherlock Holmes fans. The novel has a suspenseful story, but, as usual, it’s the characters and setting (rendered in precise but not obtrusive detail) that really capture our interest. --David Pitt