I picked this up because of Kearsley, one of my favorite authors. However, I found her story to be the weakest part of the anthology. Each author built on the previous and the stories improved as you got further into the book. Only recommend this if one of your favorite authors is included.

A new genre for me to explore. Historical mysteries. Loved it! Four short novellas on the theme of on a cursed pocket watch that brings death and destruction to all who come in contact with it. It was an interesting premise, but in a couple of the stories I felt like I was 'thrown in' midstream without knowledge of the backstory. I have never read any of these Authors, and I thought this book was a welcome introduction to all of them. I look forward to exploring all of these authors and to research other books they have written.

Thank you NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the opportunity to review this wonderful book!

jb
https://seniorbooklounge.blogspot.com/

#TheDeadlyHours #NetGalley

Four stories linked together by a cursed watch. An intricately woven tale, of danger and intrigue. This novel had depth, each story was linked by an old watch, beautifully crafted, but leaving a trail of death in its path. I was fascinated by the stories from each author. I had only read novels, by Susanna Kearsley, I had never read anything by the other three authors.

I will admit right up front that I approached this book with mixed feelings. I was curious to see how four authors could write novella length stories and keep the connection with an inanimate object, in this case a pocket watch. The watch is cursed and the curse follows the watch through time; 1733, (Weapon of Choice by Susanna Kearsley); 1831, (In a Fevered Hour: A Lady Darby Novella by Anna Lee Huber); 1870, (A Pocketful of Death by Christine Trent); 1944, (Siren's Call by C. S. Harris). I need not have worried because the cursed watch itself holds a place as a character in all four stories and that commonality keeps each of the stories interesting. Even more interesting is how each author managed to keep me entertained when I discovered the characters would not overlap. Not even a manor to keep them connected, just the watch.

For me three of the stories were quite good with one being slightly weaker but I'm not going to say which one that was because the difference really was almost too minor to even mention. If you don't believe in the power of a curse, you might find yourself having a moment of indecision about this one; the writing to include the watch is really quite good. If you already believe in the power of a curse, this will be right up your alley.

Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for an e-galley of this collection of novellas.

Four authors, four stories, one watch! La Sirene, a pocket watch, is the constant in each of the stories that make up The Deadly Hours. Susanna Kearsley opens the book with "Weapon of Choice" starring Hugh and Mary MacPherson allied with Anna and Edmund O'Connor against a dastardly Scotsman bent on killing the Jacobite pretender to the English throne. Anna Lee Huber in "Fevered Hour" provides a medical thriller staring the watch, brigands, and revenge in 1830s Edinburgh. Christine Trent in "A Pocketful of Death" brings the watch to status conscious London in the 1870s where a female undertaker needs to solve a series of murders targeting the local rich. C. S. Harris finishes the book with "Siren's Call" in a small village in Kent where the watch case has turned up and leads to murder once again. Each story is satisfyingly complete in themselves, but fit neatly together to make a complete tale when read in chronological order. I admit I picked this title off Netgalley because C. S. Harris wrote one of the stories. Now I feel the need to check out the other authors and see if their characters have other tales that have been spun so I can continue to enjoy visiting with them on the page.

Overall, four solid novellas in this cohesive anthology explore a cursed gold watch traveling through Europe over a period of several hundred years, bringing death and destruction to nearly everyone unfortunate enough to cross its path. Each of the four writers here picks up the story in a new era with a new set of characters and develops an entirely new and unique mystery around the watch's ghastly ability to wreak havoc.

There are enough commonalities among the stories to render the curse plausible, including healthy skepticism from main characters in each new generation and story about the watch's powers. I like too that each author considers the relevance of the historical moment they choose for a setting to understand the impact cultural superstition can have on people. For historical mystery readers, Kearsley, Huber, and Trent fans will enjoy reconnecting with familiar characters from these author's series. C. S. Harris though departs a bit by introducing entirely new characters, and though I would not have minded a Sebastian St. Cyr mystery around the cursed watch at all, her new characters here are utterly fascinating and her story was easily my favorite of this anthology and worth the purchase of this book on its own.

I did find the book a bit uneven in that while Kearsley's book is solid and enjoyable, Huber's and Trent's stories were less interesting. I've not though alas been a fan of the Lady Darby books, but fans of her series might enjoy this story more. Harris's story demonstrates to me why she is just so good at what she does. Setting her story in a small village in England during WWII to wrap up the anthology, she shows how the traveling watch fulfills its curse. The story relies on the historical facts around Hitler's fascination with the occult and his desire to locate cultural items hidden in other nations and steal them on behalf of the Motherland. This plot was actually the plot of the first Indiana Jones saga. As usual, Harris researches history well and provides lots of interesting information to create a tale ostensibly about a cursed watch but in actuality about the connections between past and present. A society susceptible to conspiracy theories and open to scapegoating its most vulnerable citizens is a broken society capable of being exploited by demagogues. If this sounds familiar, I think that's the point. I love too the underlying discussions about the hardships of a nation living through incredible sacrifices, including necessary blackouts at night to prevent German bombers from hitting their targets. It's hard to imagine today's citizens being willing en masse to sacrifice their freedoms for the sake of each other. I came away thinking a lot too about what it means to live through challenging historical times and how much a belief in transitions as an underlying philosophy that things will get better is needed to see people through. I am committed to the Sebastian St. Cyr books but I wouldn't mind at all reading more about Jude and Rachel. Their romance was satisfying on its own terms but they are such well-developed characters that I would eagerly read more of them. And Harris's command of the WWII period was really quite wonderful.

This book was received from the Author, and Publisher, in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.

The watch is engraved with a french saying...
“Je suis le seul maître de mon temps”; “
I am the only master of my time”

Each novella is by one of the finest historical mystery writers.

A delicately designed cursed gold pocket watch that comes with a terrible curse to all those that encounter it leaving mayhem and death. The watch surfaces and resurfaces as the tales unfolds, spanning close to two hundred years.

1. WEAPON OF CHOICE (SUSANNA KEARSLEY)
2. IN A FEVERED HOUR (ANNA LEE HUBER)
3. A POCKETFUL OF DEATH (CHRISTINE TRENT)
4. SIREN’S CALL (C.S. HARRIS)

Four mystery novellas follow the trail of a priceless pocket watch from the mid-1700s until the Great War as it crosses paths with four couples who seek to contain its mysterious force.

Brilliantly executed with seamless flow that was easy to follow from one tale to the next. Weaving a wonderful collection with a cursed object that passes through time. Rich in historical atmosphere imagery and mystery, will catapult the reader within the pages of this stunning book. Every story was captivating and engaging. I loved every minute reading all of the novellas

I will be recommending this book to my family and friends.

I really enjoyed this book. It was quite different from anything I have ever read. Although it was an average length for a book, due to the fact that it was split into four different stories made it. really quick read. I also really enjoyed how the different authors flawlessly combined their stories together. The combination of magic, supernatural, and science made for a very well balanced book. Not only that but I felt like I was in a Pirates of the Caribbean movie the whole time I was reading this. The book als0 showcases many strong female roles which I really appreciated even though it takes place in the 17-20 centuries. The only drawback is that the stories did seem to start feeling very repetitive and near the end of the book I wasn't quite sure if the watch was cursed because the storyline for the "curse" seemed to change. Overall I would recommend this book because of how light a read it is and how unique it is.

I love a good collaboration between authors, so when I saw this book, I requested it immediately! While I found this an enjoyable and easy read, I felt like I was missing a lot of the backstory on a few of the installments and it would have been an immeasurably enjoyable read if I had read the author's other works first (big spoilers for me in this one as I have only read the first Lady Darby mystery, so this was kind of a letdown to see resolution of a storyline that to me had just begun). I would probably give this book four stars if I had read the other series and had the proper context for the backstories. Still an enjoyable standalone read. ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I wanted to like this book, but it was hard for me to get into, especially with the first story. I did like that the book had four different stories to choose from. I think some were more entertaining than others.

The deadly hours is an anthology where 4 different authors tell a short story about the same cursed gold watch that wreaks havoc on everyone who owns it, including their loved ones. Through the 4 different story's the watch travels through the time, interconnecting the 4 different story's.
The settings of the story's are quite diverse.

It is a nice way to discover new authors, because previously I had only read books by the last author, C.S. Harris. The short story's for me are an incentive to read some work of the other authors in the future.

4 stars.
I want to thank Netgalley and Poison Pen Press for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

A delicately designed gold watch is cursed and those that encounter it find death, murder, and mayhem. From Italy in 1733 and Scotland in 1831 and on to London, spanning decades the watch’s curse is detailed by four noted mystery writers in the The Deadly Hours.
Susanna Kearsley, author of compelling time slip fiction, C.S. Harris, author of the Sebastian St. Cyr Regency mystery series, Anna Lee Huber author of the Lady Darby Mysteries and Christine Trent, author of the Lady of Ashes Victorian mystery series all contribute a novella in this collection of mystery and intrigue in historical settings.
If you enjoy historical fiction, steeped in atmosphere and mystery, you will enjoy these stories that all connect and weave together. I had not read any of these authors before but seen their titles in the library. I now feel I will venture to read some of their stand-alone works.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3417380495

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this and provide an honest review. This genre is a bit out of my norm as I'm not a huge fan of historical fiction. This book, or anthology as it's called, was interesting enough and well written. I was intrigued enough to finish the book and may be open to trying more. Thanks!

JE SUIS LE SEUL MAITRE DE MON TEMPS
This is a hard book to review as it is made up of 4 shortish stories, each by a different author that describes the journey through time of a cursed timepiece/watch. Each story is told by a female private detective who also features in her own series (apart from the last one). And there’s a cat hidden in the last three. Although every story features a completely different period, characters and setting, the authors managed to bring us an interesting and well-constructed tale. This concept is not an easy task they undertook, but they each did a great job and I can’t pick one that’s more favourite than the other
The timepiece is made of gold that was stolen during an extremely cruel and brutal raid of pirates. Well, the pirates tell a different story about the mechanics of the facts. This gold belonged to the cathedral and was cursed by the bishop to bring all sorts of death, misfortunes, and disasters. But the church had stolen the gold from the Indians and was possibly cursed prior to the raid. The only manner to get rid of the curse is to have it embraced by all four elements in turn. Whether or not this curse is real or not is not clear, you have to make up your own mind to believe or not. Although many of the unfortunate deaths can be explained; there remain various incidents with mysterious bouts of bad luck, misery, and death that are much harder to dismiss

1. WEAPON OF CHOICE (SUSANNA KEARSLEY)
The first story takes place in 1733. The English dispatched an assassin to kill the duke of Ormond, a fierce Jacobite with a substantial following. The captain of his ship is in the possession of ‘La Sirène’, a watch with an infamous reputation for being cursed and bringing disaster, destruction and death. The assassin and a clever newly-wed couple of Jacobite supporters/spies come eye to eye while sheltering in an inn during a fierce storm.
The main characters are to solve the murder of the captain and to prevent the one on the Duke. They’re a lovable couple and I can see them very well carry their own series. It’s an excellent story to open this collection; it has spies, pirates, a murder mystery, and a curse. What more do you want?

2. IN A FEVERED HOUR (ANNA LEE HUBER)
This is set in Edinburgh 1831, almost 100 years after the first story. Here we meet another newly-wed young couple that’s called upon to solve an epidemic of a mysterious and strange disease, the poisoning of a rather sympathetic (I thought him not so bad and I noticed that the female sleuth wasn’t impartial to him) crime boss. Of course, the cursed watch resurfaces after being lost for a century.
There was a real documented outbreak of spotted typhus in Edinburgh that year. So there an enjoyable mix of fact and (plausible?) fiction in this story.

3. A POCKETFUL OF DEATH (CHRISTINE TRENT)
Now we move 40 years into the future, to 1870. ‘La Sirène’ has been split into the casing and the watch itself, and it is the watch self, that’s suspected of being responsible for a series of violent deaths.
I really like the rather original and unusual occupation of the heroine. She’s an undertaker and has to dig up all the buried relatives of a newly knighted viscount and bury them again on a private lot in a London graveyard. And it’s during those activities that she unearths the cursed thing. Violet’s occupation gives an interesting look into the pre-occupation with the death in Victorian times and some of the (now strange looking) habits they practised.

4. SIREN’S CALL (C.S. HARRIS)
We move on to 1944 on the coast of Kent and meet an old home-guard captain that’s murdered in his own house. He was a famous collector of all sort of clocks and his price-possession was the outer case of ‘La Sirène’. All of his life he tried to find the watch self and might have been close to achieving this. There are also 2 detectives from MI5 in the village who’re looking for a German Spy and they think he may be the culprit. There’s even a love story woven into this mystery. It’s also the only tale that’s not connected to a series, although I think the characters are interesting enough to do such a thing.

I thank NetGalley and Poisoned PenPress for their free ARC, this is my honest, unbiased review of it.

Fantastic compilation of some of the best female mystery writers today. I so enjoyed this book and the different voices of each "episode" of watch's history through time. One of my favorite of the year!

An exceptional anthology by four authors around a golden watch. For fans of historical fiction it is four treats in one. The different times and places along with the well known characters are brought together beautifully. Enjoyed it. Superb effort.

The Deadly Hours by Susanna Kearsley, C.S. Harris, Anna Lee Huber, Christine Trent - 4.5 stars

This book intrigued me because two of my favorite historical mystery authors participated in this anthology. I have been a big fan of C.S. Harris and Anna Lee Huber for many years and was thrilled to received this ARC. The book gives four authors a plot point in common and asks them to weave a tale through time. The stories take place between 1733 to 1944. I was really surprised by the stories from Harris and Huber. I expected a Sebastian St. Cyr mystery from Harris and a Verity Kent story from Huber. Instead, Ms. Huber provides a Lady Darby story and Ms. Harris does a story set during WWII. Each was excellent and a wonderful read. Kearsley and Trent were new authors to me and their stories were very good also. I may have to go back and pick up the series, "The Lady of Ashes" by Christine Trent because the novella was a great introduction to her series. I will eagerly await the Fall 2020 Verity Kent mystery from Ms. Huber and the next Sebastian St. Cyr mystery from Ms. Harris next year.

Weapon of Choice by Susanna Kearsley 4 stars
In A Fevered Hour by Anna Lee Huber 5 stars
A Pocketful of Death by Christine Trent 4 stars
Siren's Call by C.S. Harris 5 stars

Thank you Netgalley and Poisoned Pen Press/Sourcebooks for this ARC

Brilliantly executed! I absolutely love books about objects that pass through time. Using various authors who write in various time periods to do this, with a watch, is simply amazing! The one author who alerted me to this book is Anna Lee Huber. I love the use of her characters from her Lady Darby mystery series! And now I have three other authors' to read that are new to me. The methods these four authors each use to pass this watch on to the next time period is spectacular, and how the next time period's person finds the watch left me in awe. Wonderfully done!

Thanks for the opportunity to review this book.
This was a series of four novellas with the common thread of a cursed pocket watch that survives four time periods and four elements before the curse is broken. While I thought this was a great concept and enjoyed the period pieces, I found it a bit redundant and boring. Death was the common theme around all those who wished to possess the watch. The characters were unfamiliar to me and the authors had to provide some background to fill in the reader. I did enjoy the third story the best because who ever encountered a female undertaker especially in the 1800s. Each 'crime' is solved by the hero/heroine of the time as opposed to the reader trying to solve, which would have made it more fun. Took me a bit to get through the stories as each story was a bit similar...death surrounding a cursed watch. By book four I was bored.

First of all, I love Susanna Kearsley, so when I saw her name on this book I knew had to read it!

Four authors come together to make an anthology surrounding a cursed watch. This stolen watch has a curse that can only be broken by going through four stages- water, air, earth and fire. We see this happen through four different time periods, four different instances where this watch is desired, and lives destroyed because of the lure it has. We see the good and bad in people in each novella, which was great as well.

I loved this book. I loved each of the voices of the authors. I loved seeing characters I know from other books written by these authors. I makes me want to go back and read more of the books from the authors I haven't visited yet.

Thank you NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.