As a fan of Sheila Connolly's apple orchard and museum mystery series, I was happy to see that she has started a new one. This is an exceptionally interesting series, a mystery with a history lesson thrown in. Kate has just been downsized from her job as a hotel manager when she is asked by her friend Lisbeth to come back to her small hometown in western Maryland which has fallen on hard times and see if she can figure out how to get the town back on its feet. The jewel of the town is a Victorian mansion formerly owned by Henry Barton, a local factory owner. Kate gets the idea to turn the whole town into a Victorian themed village but when she visits the mansion she finds the murdered body of her former high school enemy Cordelia. Kate also finds another mystery, in the form of letters from Henry Barton to his cousin Clara which allows the author to bring in some of the characters from her museum series when Kate goes to Nell to have the letters authenticated. The history lesson comes in the discussion of Clara Barton and her fascinating work trying to uncover what happened to missing soldiers after the Civil War. There is mystery, history, and a touch of romance in this wonderful story and I highly recommend it.