Directly on the heels of their first case, Miss Lane and Mr. Jesperson are confronted by a man looking for them. He dies on their front steps crying "Witch!" and Mr. Jesperson isn't satisfied with the London coroner pronouncing it heart failure when the man looked healthy. Tracking his brother down, they are hired to look into the circumstances surrounding his death and discover a little more in the countryside than they had thought they would.

This is another outing for Di Lane and Jasper Jesperson, so if you enjoyed the first novel as I did, this is a welcome return to the duo.

They're friends, but the mores of the time mean that there is opposition to their presence in the countryside. The fact that Miss Lane is just as inquisitive as Mr. Jesperson also doesn't sit well with the conservative vicar's wife, though it also means she has an opportunity to get closer to some of the suspects in the investigation. She's not above using the misconceptions of others to her benefit, but it also means that much of the clues we hear about in her discussions with Mr. Jesperson comes across as a deus ex machina. That does seem in keeping with the Holmesian style of mystery that this is, though.

There are actually two mysteries interlaced together, as a newborn goes missing while the duo are in the countryside, and it's tangentially related to the reason why they even arrived in the first place. That mystery is weaker than the search for Charles Manning's last days and why he died, and it feels as though it was simply there to fluff out the plot. It isn't a bad side story, as it is somewhat related, but distracts from the main plotline. It might be there to add some mystery about who the titular Witch would be, but it didn't feel as dramatic to me.

The Curious Affair of the Witch at Wayside Cross is a decent, but entirely unremarkable paranormal mystery.  I expected more based on the description.  

What would you do if a man enters your home, cries witch and dies at your feet?  In the case of Jesperson and Lane, you investigate, particularly when the unknown man has your card in his pocket.  Charles Manning died of no known poison, but the peculiar circumstances surrounding his death imply foul play.  The man, previously employed in the city had recently abandoned all practical concerns to write poetry and research the occult in Aylmerton.  At his brother’s request, the two travel to Aylmerton to uncover the mystery of his last days.  Amongst the suspects number Felix Ott an occult researcher and lecturer, Miss Bulstrode a practicioner of natural medicine and her two sisters and Aylmerton’s vicar and his uncompromising wife.  Charles Manning isn’t the first to mysteriously die, but is his death and that of his friend murder?

The Curious Affair of the Witch at Wayside Cross is entertaining enough, but it is shallow in story and character.  It’s laced up tighter than a Victorian corset.  Lisa Tuttle is a good writer, but The Curious Affair of the Witch at Wayside Cross seemed to be going through the motions with very little emotion.

3 / 5

I received a copy of The Curious Affair of the Witch at Wayside Cross from the publisher and Netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.

--Crittermom

The best words I can come up with to describe this book are: charming and entertaining.


Jasper Jesperson and Miss Lane make up Jesperson & Lane, Private Investigators. A possible client, Charles Manning, arrives at their London home in the wee hours of the morning. He screams at Miss Lane, calling her a witch and then promptly drops dead. Jesperson suspects foul play, but after an autopsy Mr. Manning's cause of death is listed as heart failure. It turns out Manning was obsessed with the occult and witchcraft. The detective duo are hired by the deceased's brother to investigate what caused his death. Their investigation takes them to an area of Norfolk known for its haunted hollows called shrieking pits and a strange, weeping, female specter. The area has had three suspicious deaths in the past year. The case keeps expanding and increasing in scope -- unexplained deaths, a missing woman, a missing baby, and three strange women living at Wayside Cross. Are the three women witches? Where is the missing baby? And, what happened to Charles Manning?

I loved this book! The mystery is engaging and fun. I like the characters as well. Jesperson is more than a little eccentric. Diane is level-headed and keeps Jesperson grounded so that he doesn't just go off on tangents. The two of them together make an awesome detective agency. The supernatural aspects of the plot were not over-done, but just made the story interesting, engaging and creepy. Just a fun read!

This book is the second in The Curious Affair Of.... series. I have not read the first book, but that didn't matter. It isn't necessary to read the first book to enjoy this tale of witches and murder. I'm definitely going to read the first book though! I hope it is as enjoyable as the second one!

**I voluntarily read an advanced readers copy of this book from Random House - Hydra via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**

Since I didn't get to read the first book, I am reviewing this as a stand-alone, which it very well could be. A pounding on the door late at night, a frightened man and a bewildered Ms. Lane are the start of this action/crime drama story. Mr. Jesperson doesn't think the police quite have it right regarding the death of his late night visitor and he decides that he and Ms. Lane will find the truth. As they question the man's only living relative, his friends, and uncover other mysterious circumstances in a small countryside village, Mr. Jesperson and Ms. Lane come face to face with witches, folklore, fairies, a stolen baby and a missing girl. I enjoyed this book. It moved along well and was not so outlandish that it was completely unbelievable.

This is the second in the series of Jesperson and Lane"Curious Affair,,,". The two are detectives in London. An unknown man shows up at the home of Jasper Jesperson, Ms. Land and Jesperson's mother. Almost as soon as the man enters the home he says something about witches and dies. He seems to be a healthy young man with no obvious sign of trauma. Mr. Jesperson and Ms. Lane soon find themselves investigating the death of Charles Manning. In order to find out more about Mr. Manning they must travel to the countryside and investigate his recent activities. There they are drawn into the strange world of fairies, little people, witches and superstitious activities. An interesting tale of mystery, suspense and fantasy. Though this is the second in the series it is a stand alone as well. #mystery #suspense #fantasy #London

Miss Di Lane was a small non-threatening woman that the stranger yelled witch at then he fell over and died. His face froze in terror. Jasper Jespersen was her partner P I. Their office was in Jasper's home and Lane lived there also with Jasper and his mother. The man had pounded on the door a couple minutes before. The man’s name was Charles Manning. Jespersen was not satisfied with the natural cause ruling on Mr, Manning’s death. So then they found Charles brother Alexander and Jespersen and Lane both went to Alexander’s home explained why they were not satisfied with the cause of death and why. Alexander hired them to find out what really happened to Charles. Alexander told them his brother Charles had an obsession with what he called “ the old religion”, witchcraft, pagan mumbo jumbo, the supposed ancient mysteries of Britain. Alexander said his brother Charles was a poet, a dreamer whose soul yearned for mystery and adventure Charles couldn’t find in the workday world. Alexander also told Jespersen Charles had quit his job at the bank and moved to Aylmerton. Charles had become an obsessed follower of Felix Ott who promoted the ancient religion - a mishmash of superstition and sorcery , everything a civilized person would find abhorrent - black magic, devil worship, and human sacrifice. Jaspersen and Lane went to Aylmerton and stayed at the Vicar’s where Charles had lived. Dr. Ringer was the Vicar informs Jasper they had three other mysterious deaths in the parish. Charles had become engaged to Ann who was rumored to be a witch as were her sisters Bella and Alys. Bella is responsible for her half sisters Ann and Alys. In Bella's library is a grimoire with magical attributes ascribed to it. And a number of people want it. With the possibility of Charles having been poisoned - as everyone said Charles was a healthy young man. There were a lot of suspects including a male witch. Then the baby of the maid comes up missing.
This was a very good read. I like Lane and Jespersen as a team of P I they do complement each other. I also liked how the team went to Alexander about their doubts on the natural causes ruling and Alexander hired them. This did drag for me at times. This book included : fairies, deaths, a missing baby, witches, witchcraft, magic, spells elves, mystery, intrigue, suspense, and so much more. I did love the characters and the twists and turns and I recommend.

The second book in the Jesperson & Lane casebooks, The Witch at Wayside Cross nevertheless works well as a standalone. The author, Lisa Tuttle, is a prolific and entertaining writer. The series is marketed as a Victorian paranormal mystery series, but apart from a single strange subplot (basically a few pages), this book at least is very much within the scope of realistic murder mystery.

The book does have a fairly odd 'vibe', and the central plot line concerning the establishment of a school to educate and research pre-Christian belief systems in the British Isles, isn't the usual fare for more traditional Victorian murder mysteries. The oddness persisted for me throughout the book and I found myself wondering about the behavior of several of the characters (Mrs Reverend Ringer for example... odd doesn't begin to cover it).

The writing on the whole is adept and the plotting works pretty well. There are quite a number of interwoven subplots which are resolved satisfactorily by the end of the book. I do have some caveats, however. The two titular characters (Jesperson & Lane) are refreshingly free from romantic entanglement with one another (and I hope the author continues that way), but I found myself being very slightly annoyed that he (Jesperson) treats her (Lane) as a glorified secretary or appendage or finder-out-of-things and certainly not as an equal. I'm sure it's intended as a nod to Holmes and Watson (or Poirot and Hastings), but since they are male and female, the power disparity was quite noticeable for me. Not quite annoying, but slightly distracting. Also, the aforementioned odd behavior of some of the characters made me feel off-balance when reading the book. It didn't quite break my suspension of disbelief when reading, but it was something of which I was often aware.

At 261 pages (Kindle version), there's enough room for the plot to be fairly detailed and the it moves along at a good clip; I didn't find my interest waning or the narrative dragging. For the denouement, I didn't really buy the motivations of some of the characters which also lent an odd feeling to the ending. It almost felt as if the author had five or six different plots in mind at the halfway point and picked a likely winner and finished writing that one. (I'm not a writer, perhaps ALL writers do that to a greater or lesser degree).

It's a tricky thing, writing period dialogue for modern audiences which doesn't break character and also appeals to the modern reader. The author manages it quite well, and the dialogue, if odd in places, maintains character and form throughout the book. I enjoyed it. For readers of modern Victoriana who don't mind giving the romance angle a miss, it's a nice series to seek out.

Three and a half stars
Published November 28th 2017 by Random House - Hydra
261 pages, ebook format

I haven’t read the first book in this series, but while I have clearly missed a slice of the adventure, that didn’t hamper my understanding or enjoyment of this story. Tuttle doesn’t hang about – she tips us straight into the case which I appreciated. While this series has been compared with the Sherlock Holmes adventures, I don’t think that Miss Lane, the narrator of this case, is all that much like John Watson. She isn’t overly gushing about Jasper Jesperson’s detecting skills, for starters – indeed, there are times when she is quite sharp about him, which I enjoyed.

The other aspect that I hadn’t expected and very much liked – while both Jesperson and Lane are middle-class and reasonably comfortably off, that doesn’t prevent Tuttle from lifting the façade on apparent Victorian respectability by depicting a young serving girl’s plight after suffering a rape. The detective duo also uncover a shocking lack of respect towards women who have the temerity to refuse or thwart a couple of apparently eligible men, who portray themselves as perfectly reasonable, educated gentlemen. Miss Lane isn’t particularly happy about the state of affairs, but isn’t overly surprised. What it reinforced for me is how much women were simply not regarded as on a par with men. Not only did they not have the same protection in law, they were not felt to be capable of the same understanding or intellect as a man – so when a woman demonstrated any independence of spirit, she frequently incurred anger at her temerity – how dare she defy him!

That said, I don’t want you to go away thinking this entertaining, engrossing whodunit is focusing on the gender inequality of the time – it is a mere side issue in this adventure. An adventure full of twists and turns as Lane and Jesperson then find themselves desperately looking for a baby. And the resolution to that puzzle had my jaw dropping…

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this one and will definitely be tracking down the first instalment in this series. Recommended for anyone who enjoys their historical crime series with a twist of fantasy.
9/10

The Curious Affair of the Witch at Wayside Cross starts with an early hours summons to the door of the residence, and business premises of Jesperson and Lane Investigations. The young man is plainly distressed and babbling about being pursued by witches. He then points at Miss Aphrodite Lane, calls her a witch, collapses and dies in the hallway. The coroner pronounces it a heart attack, despite the young man, Charles Manning, being in perfect health. Jasper Jesperson is of course intrigued and visits Manning's brother. The brother tells him that the two were estranged over a property dispute and Charles was living in Aylmerton. Charles had become involved with Felix Ott, who is a folklorist who wants to bring back the pagan wisdom of ancient Britain. Jesperson and Lane set off for Norfolk to investigate. When they arrive they find a community immersed in superstition with three sisters rumored to be witches and tales of the "little folk".

I waffled quite a bit over the rating of The Witch at Wayside Cross. While I enjoyed the primary mystery of Charles Manning's murder, the secondary story of a missing baby was a distraction for me. This series is centered around paranormal events, but the resolution of the missing baby puzzle severely strained my credulity. Jesperson and Lane are still a bit two-dimensional with little more revealed in this second book. I also missed Mrs. Jesperson, Jasper's mother. Now she is an interesting character! Hopefully, she will return for a third outing and there will be more background provided for the main characters.

Thanks to NetGalley and Hydra Books for an advance digital copy. The opinions are my own.

RATING- 3 Stars

The first question a reader might ask about this book: Must this book be read with the first of this series? Well, I think it *could* be read first or as a standalone. However, I enjoyed the first one so much, I'd really be remiss not to exhort others to read both in order!
Who/What:: Mr. Jesperson & Ms. Lane are detectives for hire. Like Holmes & Watson.
When/Where: These books are set in Victorian England, which admittedly, I tend to avoid. However, as not a single word is uttered about "the season" I found it quite agreeable.
Why/How: With insatiable curiosity, acute observational skills, and widely-read nature, Jesperson and Lane are solving cases and getting noticed.

One interesting feature of these books: Not all details, even major ones, are strictly scientific, or even common between "our" London and the London in the books. You will discover this as you read, trust me.
Absolutely a pleasure to read!

https://www.amazon.com/review/R2EGBMWY70SUF8/ref=cm_cr_srp_d_rdp_perm?ie=UTF8

At times this book was hard to read and the only reason I think that is because of when it is set. It is sometimes hard for me to remember that I am reading an historical book and my mind wonders why people would care about certain things. I do feel I missing somethings by not reading the first book but not enough that it would have me lost in this book. The mystery and how Jesperson and Lane go about figuring out the answers is fun to read. I would read another book in this series.

Events had just been drawn to a close in the first book in this series, The Somnambulist and the Psychic Thief, when Jesperson and Lane get their second case literally fall dead at their door step…all with accusations of witchcraft ringing in the ears of our two detectives. After being hired by the victim’s brother Mr Jesperson and Miss Lane start to investigate the very mysterious death that fell at their feet.

I finished the first book in this series with mixed feelings. I liked some aspects of it, whilst I didn’t like others. However, the ending, a man literally dying in their hall way and accusing Miss Lane of being a witch, had me quickly reaching for the next book. I left The Curious Affair of the Witch at Wayside Cross with no mixed feelings. I really liked it. It was a lot of fun, Tuttle mixes detective work with a bit of the occult and mixes it all up to give you an interesting mystery to delve into.

I have mixed feelings about the first book due to the head scratching jumps of logic and happy coincidences, this book had much less of this and I thought it worked a lot better for that reason. Instead we are introduced to a village load of suspects, the priest, the witch, the occult leader… and left to untangle the web that holds them all together. One thing that didn’t change was that it was written from Miss Lane’s POV, which, I really liked, through her language and attitudes it gives a very clear picture of the time period in which this book is set.

Although I wasn’t sure about the first book, I definitely enjoyed this one, it wasn’t perfect, but it was engaging and I did enjoy the story. If you are after a good historical mystery series which has a hint of magic about it, then you definitely need to give this book a try.

This book was as good as the first book in the series. It's also written so well, there's no need to read the first book in order to understand this one. The story begins with a bold punch and the investigation continues at a brisk pace throughout the book. It's a quick read, with interesting (and often unlikable) characters, and a compelling plot. I find this is one series I look forward to following in the future.

Let’s check out this title.

“The Curious Affair…” Well, if you haven’t figured out that this is a mystery, you probably aren’t a mystery fan. Most of this book is about Miss Lane and Mister Jesperson solving the mystery of what caused the death of a man that arrived on their doorstep with the word ‘witch’ on his breath. It is an interesting, complex mystery with all sorts of clues and misclues. But with no hint of the ‘paranormal’ that the book blurb hints at.

“…Witch of Wayside Cross”. That is the part that is meant to entice you and it is exactly why I decided to read it. Don’t let it fool you though. This book is pure mystery. Witches and witchcraft are incidental to the story. The setting is Victorian, so the accusation of witchcraft is something to be taken with a large grain of salt.

Di Lane, the first person narrator of the story, is a strong, independent, woman. She is highly opinionated, which can offend people. But she also is prudent enough to hang back when she feels her partner Jasper Jesperson, a man, will have better luck without her.

Jasper Jesperson tends to make plans and explain himself later. As his partner, Lane must be quite frustrated. As a reader, I know I was.

What I’ve just told you about these main characters is about all I know about them. I did not feel like I got to know these characters well. Even, Lane, the narrator is still a mystery to me. I certainly don’t get a feel for the relationship between Jesperson and Lane, which appears to be strickly business with very little hint of friendship. The other characters in the book are depicted in much more detail, as they are all suspects, and are better known by the end of the book.

Since I did not engage with the protagonists, I was not not emotionally involved in this story at all. And I was only slightly curious to know how it ended. I know there are readers that prefer just the fictitious facts, but I am not one of them.

There was a sub-plot that was kind of fun. It was a mystery also, but had a hint of magic. It seemed totally incongruous with the rest of the story, but was the best reason to read this book.

Originally posted at Whiskey With My Book.

The novelty of this historical mystery series, with a detective partnership at its core, is involved primarily in the unorthodox pairing of the partners rather than the nature of the cases they undertake. The partners are both single and live in the home of the male partner’s mother. Everyone they meet assumes they are married or betrothed, and for astute detectives, the reader may wonder, why those clues don’t produce any reflective discussion from them. Perhaps it will in a later book. Unfortunately, this book is light on the fantasy elements that its title and description imply. It is a fairly straight-forward mystery, in the vein of Holmes and Watson, with a slight dalliance in the ‘natural’ as opposed to scientific arts. The case is made that the earliest beliefs of those living in England were perhaps the most powerful and true, although fast disappearing in the face of modernity. The mystery involves an attempt to preserve and study these beliefs. The tale itself is winding and somewhat circuitous with an ending that is less surprising than the reader may have wished. I received my copy from the publisher through NetGalley and am quite appreciative.

Howdy, howdy! It’s the last Wednesday of the month, which means it’s time for another book review! For November, I read The Curious Affair of the Witch at Wayside Cross by Lisa Tuttle. It was published on November 28th. As with my last two reviews, I must thank NetGalley and the publisher, Hydra, for giving me access to an ARC (advanced reader copy) in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. So, let’s get on with said review!

The Curious Affair of the Witch at Wayside Cross is the second in Tuttle’s series about detectives Jasper Jesperson and Aphrodite (Di) Lane. I admit that when I realized this was book two, I bought and read the first. And I had a lot of the same complaints about both books. The premise is a fun one, basically being a supernatural version of Sherlock Holmes. The Witch at Wayside Cross sends our detectives out of London to Aylmerton in search of the story behind Charles Manning, who dropped dead in their front hall after showing up at two in the morning, delirious and babbling about being hunted by witches. Sounds exciting, right? Not so much.

I wanted to like the book with its promise of intrigue and witches, but it fell flat with me. There were at least five suspicious deaths throughout the book and one missing baby. It was a lot to keep track of, but we weren’t allowed to forget a single detail. Not because every aspect of each crime was astounding or even memorable, but because everything was explained to us at least three times. That’s still better than the first book, which explained every detail of the climax five different times. It was as if Tuttle didn’t trust the reader to understand what was going on the first time around. I found it a bit off putting in both books.

Aside from that, I found myself more interested in the supporting characters than the detectives themselves. They seemed more well-rounded than both Jesperson and Lane. This can be risky. It’s what made me want to keep reading this book, but since none of them seem like they’re going to become recurring characters, it doesn’t give me any incentive to pick up the next book should there be one.

I also found Miss Lane to be kind of dense, which was where a lot of the multiple explanations stemmed from. For a detective, she has a really hard time putting two and two together. Considering we’re in her perspective throughout the book, it gets a little tiresome. It’s like she’s being willfully stupid at times just so Jesperson will have a reason to speak. For the time period, that kind of behavior is understandable, but she should at least make the obvious connections in her head. At one point, she basically gives up trying to think and just follows her partner around because all will be explained. For a story that seems to be trying to say women can do whatever men can do, Miss Lane fails miserably at matching Jesperson’s wit and intelligence.

Beyond all of that, I found the writing to be kind of rambling and there was a lot of focus on unimportant things. I didn’t particularly care what they were eating as they were discussing the case. I felt the kidnapped baby arc was thrown in to add an actual paranormal element, but wasn’t exactly important to the main story. A lot of the story made me feel this way. I understood why it was there, but it felt like it was there in order to turn a good novella into a mediocre novel. That’s not the kind of writing I can enjoy.

Ultimately, I kind of wish I hadn’t wasted my time on The Curious Affair of the Witch at Wayside Cross. I feel bad for not liking it better, but it wasn’t my cup of tea. And I won’t be going out of my way to get a sequel should one come out.

Unfortunately, I’d only rate this one a 1 out of 5 stars. It sounds really cool, but it was poorly executed. If you want a good story about witches and mystery, this is not the book you’re looking for.

Witch! I received this book free from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review. Written by Lisa Tuttle and published by Hydra, an imprint of Random House, in 2017, the book I read was an uncorrected proof. It is from a series about a pair of 19th Century London detectives named Jesperson and Lane. Lane is the female half of the partnership. This is the second novel of the series, the first being The Curious Affair of the Somnambulist and the Psychic Thief, which was published in 2016.

This is a light, easy read. The story involves mysterious deaths and a belief in witches in Victorian-era England. It begins with a man dropping dead on the doorstep of Detectives Jesperson and Lane in the very early morning hours as they were preparing to retire for the evening. The last words from the man’s mouth was the single word “Witch!” that he shrieked just before collapsing after seeing Lane on the staircase to her room. And so the stage is set for a story about witches. Witches, of course, have familiars. In this story, the familiar is a crow. His name is Gabriel, and he is very protective of his mistress.

The two detectives travel to Aylmerton, near Cromer in Norfolk Shire on the North Sea coast of England. It is a very small village, and they must travel by train and carriage, or horse-drawn cab, to reach their destination. Thence begins the investigation, conducted on behalf of the victim’s brother, who, like the detectives, does not believe that the victim died of natural causes. The police believe otherwise, so they are of absolutely no help to Jesperson and Lane in their investigation.

In addition to learning of witches in this story, we are also told about “cunning men,” the male equivalent of “wise woman” witches, and of the “little people” or “good neighbors,” who are also sometimes referred to as fairies. The “shrieking pits” that dot the countryside in the area are widely thought to be the remains of the ancient homes of such people, and the shrieking, heard sometimes at night, emanates from the pits. The shrieks are believed to be a woman shrieking because her baby has been stolen, and she has returned as a ghost who expresses her mourning over her lost baby by shrieking in the night.

By the somewhat surprising ending of the book, Detectives Jesperrson and Lane have figured out everything that has happened, and the police have finally come to believe the truth about the mysterious deaths that have taken place in London and Aylmerton. Gabriel, the crow, plays a somewhat important role in the story.

I liked this novel. It is very well-written, and even though the copy available to me was an unedited proof, the copy was very clean. It needed very little additional editing in my view. The story is Fantasy Science Fiction, but one need stretch the imagination only a little to find the story absolutely believable. I enjoyed this book so much that I must now obtain the first novel of the series: The Curious Affair of the Somnambulist and the Psychic Thief. If you enjoy the genre, read this book. It is a fast, easy read, and it is highly entertaining. I recommend it!

I just could not get into the story in this book. I think part of it was the fact that this is book 2 in a series and I had not read book one. I appreciate the chance to try this new series and thank the publisher for the review copy. I enjoy trying new series and an sorry that this one did not catch me.

First of all, thank you to NetGalley for the free copy in exchange for an honest review.

I would actually give this 4.5 stars.

This is an interesting case. It is set in a time period when people are fluctuating between science and folklore. This is a book that walks that line very well. It does have a very Sherlock Holmes tone, which I like. The investigating pair is a man and a woman. She is an older woman and seems to be a fairly happy as a spinster. They are looking into a case that seems to be a natural death, but they don't agree with that. So they go to look into his recent history and discover at least 2 other crimes. There are several twists and turns. The 'answer' is not totally straightforward, which matches human nature. It is not a straightforward science explanation, nor is it a completely supernatural explanation. Overall, I liked the way it walked the line between science and supernatural.

I did not read the first one and I think that would have been helpful. I was able to get caught up and understood everything, so it wasn't vital. It just would have answered a few questions earlier. So those questions did distract me from the first 3rd of the book.

So read the first one, then read this one because this detective pair is wonderful.