Emily Sullivan (Duchess Material) shifts from historical romance in A Death on Corfu, the first in a planned series. Set on the atmospheric Greek island at the turn of the 20th century, the novel is a delightful cozy mystery starring an English widow.
Minnie Harper's husband, Oliver, was a diplomat in Athens but retired from that hectic world for a small-scale export business on the island. His unexpected death left Minnie and their two children in a financially tight spot. Because Oliver wanted Minnie to raise their children on Corfu, rather than in the uptight upper-class English society they grew up in, she has managed to make it work through freelance typing and secretarial work. Her daily routine has scarcely varied in the four years since Oliver's death, but Minnie is content with the monotony of their little Greek haven.
Then famous mystery author Stephen Dorian, lauded nearly as much as his rival, Arthur Conan Doyle, comes to stay in the villa next to Minnie's. She agrees to do some typing for the handsome but curmudgeonly man and finds that he's unexpectedly kind. After Minnie and Stephen discover the body of a young Greek woman who worked as a maid to an English expat family, she begins to spend even more time with Stephen as they investigate the real-life mystery.
Clever and charming, A Death on Corfu is an excellent historical mystery. Emily Sullivan has created a fresh heroine sure to appeal to fans of Deanna Raybourn or A.M. Stuart. --Jessica Howard, former bookseller, freelance book reviewer