I received a free eBook from net galley in exchange for an honest review.

I bow to everyone who not only thought up this idea but saw it through to such successful completion. This book shows the talent of each author being able to seamlessly tell this story with constistancy yet were able to showcase individual writing styles to show their heart on the paper. I love that we journey through time with this cursed watch and watch each author weave a story around this watch. I love how deeply these stories touched me in such a short time. This will be a top recommendation.

Fans of Susanna Kearsley, rejoice! Weapon of Choice brings together three pairs of main characters from The Rose Garden, The Firebird, and A Desperate Fortune. Weapon of Choice is my first novella. {Coincidentally, The Rose Garden was the first novel that I read when I returned almost two year ago from a fiction-reading hiatus. Since then, I have read all but two earliest books by Ms. Kearsley.} This story centers on Hugh and Mary and, on the surface, is a murder mystery that has touches of folklore, sorcery, and of course historical events. The underlying/secondary story is the relationship between Hugh and Mary as they begin their marriage. The scenes take place primarily at an inn and I felt as if I was reading a Clue movie. What make a good mystery are the unexpected twists and turns and Weapon of Choice has them. Additionally, Weapon of Choice is a profound title, cleverly named. I don’t think I can explain more about it without giving away a spoiler. Overall, if you are fans of Ms. Kearsley, you will appreciate the return of these wonderful characters. For others, I view this novella as an Agatha Christy like mystery set in early 18th century.
I will add soon to this review my feedback about the other three novellas in the book.

Four of today's best historical fiction writers collaborate in "The Deadly Hours" to produce a five-star book.

C.S. Harris, whose dashing Sebastian St. Cyr has been leaving readers breathless for fifteen volumes now, drew my notice. I started with part four, never planning to read any more.

But the saga of a cursed pocket watch proved so intriguing that I went back to page one and, for my efforts, discovered three new writers.

Susanna Kearsley begins the story in 1733. Highlander Hugh MacPherson, aboard a ship to Genoa with his new wife, learns the story of a watch finely crafted of gold.

Anna Lee Huber's Lady Darby tells part two, set in 1831 in Edinburgh. A talented artist whose subjects included cadavers as she illustrated her late husband's anatomy book, Lady Darby is brought into the story by Bonnie Brock Kincaid, a Robin Hood bedeviled by the watch's curse.

Christine Trent writes part three. Her lady undertaker, Violet Morgan, solves mysteries in Victorian London. Harris wraps up the mystery in England as World War II ends.

Perhaps the best thing about this book is that it offers brand new reading lists to those just discovering these unique characters.

A very promosing concept, but I couldn't get through the first story.
It's not necessarily poorly written, and I do think that there might be readers who would enjoy this, but for me it was too much of purple prose.
Maybe 'purple prose' is the wrong choice of wording; it's not so much that the writing is extravagantly ornate; more that it feels like there's... misplaced emphasis. There's not a natural flow.

I'm rarely a fan of picking up a story midways through. For that to work for me, it requires that I care about either the plot or the characters (and preferably both) from an early stage, here I just didn't.

An enchanting historical mystery that takes you from 1733 Italy to 1831 Edinburgh, then on to 1870 London. I was hooked from the start and enjoyed each story and its connection to the next. THE DEADLY HOURS is truly a masterpiece.

This book immediately caught my attention because 2 of the authors are favorites. I haven’t read much from the other 2 but this was a nice introduction to them. All 4 novellas center around a supposedly cursed watch which is what connects them all. I thought some were better than others, but that may just be because I wasn’t familiar with all of the characters in all the novellas. All 4 though were well written and entertaining to this historical mystery fan.

Full review to come closer to publication date.