I tried so hard to get into this one, but I found the story telling so difficult to follow. I ended up not finishing it.

While I am new to this historical fiction mystery series, I found it easy to dive in and get acquainted with Captain Jim Agnihotri and Lady Diana Framji as they crossed the Atlantic and tried to discover the identity of a Spanish dignitary's murderer before reaching shore. This locked door mystery is chockfull of suspense and political intrigue, with a seemingly impossible number of possible suspects and a dearth of viable leads. While Jim is an able private investigator, he cannot help but feel that he has been tapped to solve the crime because he will be an easy scapegoat if the crime is not solved before the cruise ship reaches England. He is given an impossibly short timeline to solve the crime, but he is determined to do so.

I enjoyed the dynamic between Captain Jim and Lady Diana, who played a pivotal role in helping Jim investigate. They each bring strengths that complement each other and allow them to pursue different angles in different social circles. While the two worked well together as they used Sherlockian techniques, there is an underlying tension between them. Jim seems just as eager to solve this marital mystery as he is the crime. I really liked how much he seemed to respect his wife's abilities and his desire to be the husband he believes she deserves. They both seemed to be progressive for their time, which made it easy to connect to both of them.

If you enjoy historical mysteries that harken back to the Golden Age, this would be an excellent pick. The author played fair with the reader in this locked-cabin-room-mystery and incorporated historic elements in a way that transported me back to the 1890s.

Many thanks to Minotaur Books for providing this NetGalley copy and introducing me to this engaging series! I look forward to catching up with earlier installments soon and finding out how Captain Jim and Lady Diana made it from India to the U.S. and ultimately heading to England aboard that fateful cruise ship.

The Spanish Diplomat's Secret follows Peril at the Exposition and Murder in Old Bombay as the third in Nev March's historical mystery series starring Captain Jim O'Trey and his wife Lady Diana.

As this episode opens in the summer of 1894, the O'Treys are on a cruise from Boston to Liverpool. A Spanish grandee is found murdered in the ship's locked music room. Anglo-Indian Jim, an admirer of Sherlock Holmes, is asked to investigate.

With Diana's help, and many references to Holmes, Jim sets a trap and catches a killer.

After having immigrated to America, Captain Jim and his wife Diana are heading from Boston to Liverpool on one of 1894's elaborate Cunard ocean liners. Jim meets an elderly Spainard during a rough first evening as he attempts rather descriptively to find his sea legs. When the elderly man is found in the locked music room. tied to a chair and garroted, the Captain of the ship leans on Jim's past investigative experience to solve this locked room within a locked room mystery before they get to England. There is a ship full of suspects and Jim relies on Diana's capable instincts as well as his own to try to solve the crime.

The Spanish Diplomat’s Secret is the 3rd installment of the series but can easily be read as a stand alone. This particular murder mystery is set on an 1894 transatlantic voyage. There are plenty of twists and turns along the way. Will Jim find the murderer before the end of the voyage? I enjoyed the plot this historical mystery presented along with the glamour of being on a transatlantic voyage in the late 1800s.

A great mystery entwined with history in this transatlantic cozy. My interview with the author will be live on the History, Books and Wine podcast on February 27th!

Jim and Diana encounter murder on the high seas when a fellow passenger is killed and the captain asks Jim to solve the crime before their ocean liner docks. The clock’s ticking on a locked door mystery with international ramifications that has everyone baffled. I was so glad to see this third book in the series release since I’ve enjoyed seeing Jim sleuth like Sherlock and Diane show her brilliant wits, too.

The series works best in order because of the personal side of the story introduced and developed through the books.

The book starts with Jim and Diana preparing to enjoy the perks of a luxury cruise across the Atlantic. It isn’t long before metaphorical dark clouds drift in. Jim knows they’ll be meeting Diana’s brother Adi and needs to tell her about the situation meanwhile he senses an emotional distance in Diana. He’s still struggling with being the child of a British soldier father and an Indian poor woman and how it caused him so much misery growing up in British Colonial India and he still feels unworthy of Diana whose family are Indian aristocracy and Parsee Zoroastrian.

But, then a fellow passenger Jim encountered while dealing with his bout of seasickness is murdered. Jim’s investigation is a hard grind there in the middle and the story does drag a bit, but there is progress as Jim speaks with First Class passengers and their entourages and ship staff. I wanted to bop Jim for being overprotective of Diana and keeping her away during witness interviewing and the prime bits of investigating especially when he really needed her help. I felt she proved herself when by herself she came to Jim’s aid in the previous deadly Chicago situation. In truth, Jim is still mentally recovering from that previous case and I was glad to see the author didn’t brush over that or his sensibilities about race and social status. But, Jim learns and by the end, he’s encouraging Diana as his equal detecting partner.

Delving into the Spanish Cuban former governor’s life led to a part of Cuban history I didn’t know and was at the heart of this case. I appreciate how the author chooses lesser known historical incidents to mesh with her murder cases and I learn a great deal from them. And, it’s fun to see Jim employing what he learned from Sherlock Holmes’ stories.

While this one was slower in the middle, the end more than made up for it and left things set up nicely for book four. I encourage historical mystery lovers who enjoy a cultural and international historical emphasis to give Captain Jim and Lady Diana a go.

Thank you NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Spanish Diplomat's Secret is a historical mystery/thriller set on a cruise. During this cruise, someone is murdered and our main character, Jim Agnihotri, must figure out who did it and why, with the help of his wife Lady Diana Framji, before docking in order to not face international consequences.

I was initially drawn to this because I wanted to expand my horizons in terms of genre, but I was not really vibing with the book, so I DNF'd it.

Oh this was such a great book! It is a great Who-done-it and is historically accurate and based on the old time Sherlock stories. I was pulled into this adventure right away. I need to read the other in the series now.

Let me just say I love this series and the author's writing style. I've read all the book in this series so far and loved them. Diana and Jim are so likeable and relatable. I can't wait to find out what happens in book 4. I would really love for this series to get picked up by BBC. The mystery unravels slowly in the most satisfying way, the authors pacing is excellent. She teases you with clue and details to keep you interested without making the story slow. Each book is unique in it's setting and side characters as well. Jim and Diana are the only characters who show up in a each book. I can't wait to read book 4! In the meantime I'm telling everyone about this series again since I do whenever a new book comes out. Keep up the amazing work :) <3 .

This is the third entry in the historical mystery series that began with A Murder in Old Bombay. This new book can be read on its own but those who want to know more about how Captain Jim Agnihotri and his wife Lady Diana Framji met and came together as a couple (despite their rather different backgrounds), will I think want to read the first novel.

This story is really a very large, locked room mystery. Jim and Diana are on a ship bound for England when there is a murder. Given his background, the captain pleads for Jim’s help in solving the case before the cruise is over.

Who was the Spanish diplomat? Why was there a murder? Will Jim find the answers and the culprit (readers can be pretty certain that he will)? Furthermore, what has been troubling Diana?

This story will be enjoyed by those who gravitate toward historical mysteries. It is an interesting read albeit a bit slow at times.

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press/Minotaur Books for this title. All opinions are my own.

THE SPANISH DIPLOMAT'S SECRET by Nev March; (Murder in Old Bombay) is the latest in the Captain Jim and Lady Diana mysteries which are set in the 1890's, involve characters with East Indian heritage, and deal with the social mores and prejudices of the times. In this case, a mysterious death occurs on an ocean liner and, as a neutral but experienced investigator, Jim is drafted into solving the why and how of a potentially explosive diplomatic death. He is truly puzzled by a lack of motive and suspects which also lent a bit of frustration to my reading. I do wish the story had moved somewhat more quickly and that Diana had a larger role throughout. Still, March produced a puzzling case and kept me guessing, too. Earlier series entries (see also Peril at the Exposition, set in Chicago) are stronger, but THE SPANISH DIPLOMAT'S SECRET still offers an entertaining diversion. And readers who enjoy the shipboard setting, may also like watching High Seas (on Netflix) which involves a mystery on an ocean liner and is set in the 1940s.

Thank you to Minotaur Books and NetGalley for the free Advanced Reader’s Copy in exchange for my honest opinion. While I was disappointed in the second installment of this series, this one gets five stars from me.

In this third installment, Captain Jim and Lady Diana are on their way to England on a transatlantic voyage. Nev March has placed the action in the summer of 1894. The narration is from Jim’s point of view. This is a plus in my opinion.

Lots of mysterious things happen while they are on their way to England. It is basically a locked room mystery since they are on a boat and the suspects are limited. Jim and Diana encounter a murder, a suicide, and missing jewels.

While this is the third one in the series, you could start here although I would recommend that you go back to the beginning. The attention to the historical details is fantastic. I highly recommend this book.

This series has been a bit up and down, and this is closer to the first book than the second. It’s not a bad story, but it’s overlong and drags badly in parts.

I really liked the second book in the series, which had far better pacing and a richer sense of place. This one felt like a bit of a regression on both counts, if still a good mystery worth reading.

I was hoping for more atmosphere, particularly with the ship setting, which is among my favorites for a historical mystery. Here the setting works well in a technical sense, but doesn’t feel particularly immersive.

Jim and Diana remain wonderful, though sometimes Jim’s bumbling tendency to falsely accuse a number of people before getting it right grates on the reader. There is also some content included that doesn’t relate to the central mystery touching on rape and miscarriage that might upset some readers and while it was by no means badly handled, it felt very out of place in a book like this.

This was a pleasant surprise. Captain Jim is looking for a way to reconnect with his wife, whom he has felt distanced from recently, so he booked a transatlantic voyage for them to visit her family in England. The time alone, without any mysteries to solve, is a recipe for a reconciliation, he hopes. Yet when a distinguished gentleman who graciously helped him while he was sick on the deck the day earlier sends a message to come immediately to his quarters, he is surprised. Worse yet, the porter admits it was a delayed delivery. He finds that the Spanish gentleman is murdered, and the ship's captain is only too happy to leave the investigation in Jim's hands, thus keeping him and his staff clean.

This was a twisty addition to the series. I enjoyed the mystery with the complicating factors of class and diplomatic protocol as the Spanish man was a cousin to the King of Spain and a diplomat, thereby complicating the rules of engagement for the investigation. And the mystery surrounding why his wife was pulling away was well written, as well.

Taking place during a transatlantic steamship crossing in the late 1800's this cozy-style mystery has the feel of an Agatha Christie novel and there are numerous references to Sherlock Holmes. I have not read the first two books in the series so I can confirm that this book is enjoyable as a stand-alone. There are many issues touched on here including race, class, and politics - fascism and war brutality. But the main focus of the story, is a murder of a Spanish Diplomat early in the voyage, and the ensuing investigation that the ship's captain assigns to Jim Agnihotri and his wife Lady Diana Framji. Captain Jim is a private investigator and works diligently for the rest of the voyage to find the killer. I loved the descriptions of daily life on board, as well as the interaction of passengers. The characters were well crafted. However, I felt that this book dragged on and would have benefitted from better editing. The plot was dense, secrets were constantly being revealed and every time Jim (and the reader) felt like things were falling into place another layer would be revealed and the plot would become more complicated. For me, this got in the way of telling a good mystery story.

The Spanish Diplomat's Secret is the third book in the Captain Jim and Lady Diana historical mystery series by Nev March. Released 12th Sept 2023 by Macmillan on their Minotaur imprint, it's 320 pages and available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. Paperback format due out from the same publisher in Aug 2024. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links throughout.

This is a very well written and engaging historical mystery. The titular protagonist, Captain Jim Agnihotri, is a half English, half Indian officer and investigator who leaves India to take up a job in America with his young wife. He deals with racism because of his upbringing and skin color as well as being an Englishman in the US.

The relationship between Jim and his wife Diana is refreshingly honest (and modern). She's intelligent and headstrong, if naive. Both of them have a distinct honesty that's refreshing to read. The mystery is well constructed and the prose is nuanced and enjoyable. The action moves the plot along quickly and the denouement and resolution are satisfying and fair play. There are some sweetly romantic moments as well as inevitable moments of melancholy and misunderstanding between the (married) protagonists, but it's all euphemistically described and effectively described. The author has an impressive command of dialogue and the writing is immersive and full of period verisimilitude.

The unabridged audiobook has a run time of 12 hours 1 minute and is beautifully narrated by Vikas Adam. He has a classically trained, clear, and well modulated voice and manages a number of accents (including "foreign" accents), and a range of ages, and both sexes, without a hitch. He has a pleasantly neutral voice which made the read seamless and unobtrusive. Sound and production quality were high throughout.

Four stars. Recommended for public library acquisition and home use. With three volumes extant in the series, it would make a good choice for a binge/buddy read.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes

Captain Jim Agnihotri and his wife Lady Diana Framji are embarking to England in the summer of 1894. Jim is hopeful the cruise will help Diana open up to him. Something is troubling her, and Jim is concerned.
On their first evening, Jim meets an intriguing Spaniard, a fellow soldier with whom he finds an instant kinship. But within twenty-four hours, Don Juan Nepomuceno is murdered, his body discovered shortly after he asks rather urgently to see Jim.

I enjoyed the first book in this series more than this one, but I do love seeing the evolving relationship of Jim and Diana. They are a prefect fit to me. I have also enjoyed the history aspect of the story more than the murder mystery in this one. It is a closed door murder mystery and I think I am jaded and to me no one can do that better than Agatha Christie.

Overall this was an enjoyable read but I am not sure that I am going to continue on with the series.

Another great one from this author! Book 3 did not disappoint. As always Nev has an intriguing way of weaving mystery with historical background.

I loved this novel from the very beginning. It was a un put downable novel.
The mystery was just simply awesome and I loved that it took place aboard a ship. I love anything that takes place aboard ships. It's the only way I can take a cruise or a trip!
I could generally guess who it already was before the end but I always like to finish a book to see if I'm right.
This novel also reminds me of a modern day game called The Escape Room. It also reminds of a movie called 1894.
The way this author describes everything! I definitely felt like I was there!
I really appreciated how Jim made his Lady Diana feel special in their relationship. I'm almost jealous lol.
My most favorite part is the historical descriptions. I learned much from this author's research. Who by the way has done very well with it.
I'm giving this exciting adventure 5 stars. I loved being swept away into a novel like this one and I appreciated the Shakespeare that was scattered throughout this novel as well.
I highly recommend it.
My thanks for a copy of this book. I was NOT required to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are my own.