A wonderful read!
This novel drew me in from the very first page and kept me hooked until the end. The characters were vibrant and relatable, the writing was engaging, and the story had just the right balance of heart and humor. Highly recommend!
Many thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for my ARC. All opinions are my own.

It's 1898, and Harriet Morrow has just left her bookkeeping job for a chance to be a detective. The Prescott Agency hires her as their first female operative; her hiring immediately generates controversy within the agency and resistance amongst most of the male operatives, and the female secretarial staff.

Theodore Prescott, owner, decides to send Harriet to her first investigation: a maid at his neighbour's place, Pearl Bartless, has been missing. Though Prescott believes the maid may not even be missing, based on one of his male operative's initial assessment of the case, Prescott also believes Harriet's presence will mollify Pearl.

Harriet meets the unconventional Pearl, and quickly deduces that there is more going on; in fact, Harriet is worried Agnes Wozniak the maid may have been kidnapped from her third floor room at Pearl's. Following what few clues about Agnes that Pearl can provide, Harriet begins travelling around Chicago in search of answers. She finds more than she expected in Chicago's Polish community, from Agnes' attractive older sister Barbara, to the Wozniak family and its bitter and controlling patriarch, to factory union workers, and to a crime boss.

Harriet's investigation is overseen by a male operative, who is supportive one moment, dismissive the next, and Harriet finds herself instead bonding with another of the male operatives, who listens, provides useful feedback, and even takes her to a gun range to learn to protect herself, if necessary.

Harriet has a very tight timeline in which to conclude the investigation, and she finds danger in the city, sabotage of her investigation at the agency, and recalcitrance from her high school-aged brother, Aubrey, who makes home life a little more difficult than it has to be.

The story is gripping, while conveying the historical situation for women and queer people well. Harriet is unconventional, wants more from life than what women are typically allotted, and discovers more about herself through her investigation, while also forging a better relationship with her brother. And there's a hint of possible romance eventually for Harriet.

It's a good start to a series, and I look forward to Harriet's next case.

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Publishing for this ARC in exchange for my review.

I'm so devastated that I didn't like this! I really like Harriet as a character and Osler does a good job making 1898 Chicago feel alive. It's obvious when you read afterword that Osler has put a lot of thought and research into the context, which I appreciate. There is a lot of care put into the portrayal of queer people and womanhood from that time period. I see other reviews criticising how mean people were to Harriet but I think Osler deliberately chose to be faithful to what it would've been like in a young queer woman in a male-dominated field in the 1890s.

That being said, I really struggled getting through this book. There's no obvious reason that stands out but I was just not invested in the story at all. Maybe Osler was a bit too ambitious with setting the scene for the series because at times, there was too much exposition for my liking. Perhaps, too, the stakes also were mostly relatively low. I do like how it ended and set up future books in the series so I'd be curious to see how it continues. Thank you Kensington Publishing and Rob Osler for the e-ARC!

The Case of the Missing Maid introduces Harriet "Harry" Morrow, a sharp and determined young woman navigating 1898 Chicago as a junior investigator—the first woman in her agency to hold such a role. Struggling against sexism and skepticism, Harry's first case—a missing maid—leads her into the city's hidden Polish immigrant and LGBTQ+ communities, revealing a world she never knew existed. With a unique protagonist, rich historical detail, and a compelling mystery, this novel sets the stage for an exciting series. Perfect for fans of historical mysteries and queer fiction, Harry’s journey is one to watch.

I adored this book! Harriet from the start is such a great MC; striking out as a female detective and breaking so many societal norms in her quest to be her authentic self. There is SO much to love in this book, from exploring the gay underground community, the look into the Polish community in Chicago, a hilarious and unexpected friendship all integrated into a shocking mystery with lots of drama and action. I also so enjoyed meeting her brother and how that relationship is becoming stronger. The writing was funny and endearing and I could not put this down.

I loved every page of this book! I cannot wait for more of Harriet!

A delightful mystery with a woman at the lead. I loved diving into 1890s Chicago with mystery, intrigue, and a relatable portrayal of being a woman in male dominated fields. Harriet was a loveable, inquisitive main character and I deeply enjoyed the cast of characters we were introduced too throughout this mystery. I highly recommend reading this book to all who love a good mystery.

I love running across a historical fiction book with a strong female character determined to make her own way in the world.

Harriet, aka Harry, is a phenomenal character who I enjoyed following through the story. As she's stepping into her new career as a budding detective, she is confident but a bit out of her depths. She is smart and eager to prove herself, but she also has to learn the ropes of being a female detective in a male dominant field.

The setting is 1898, just a few years after the world's fair would have occurred in Chicago (1893). The city is vibrant and full of life and Harry soon discovers its also full of secrets and ulterior motives. She's not certain who she can trust as she follows the strings of her first case which is intended to be a simple missing maid. However, the missing maid is not as straightforward as her new boss would hope.

As Harry follows the clues through Chicago's Polish community, and through the back rooms of clubs, she soon learns she may need to trade her skirts for trousers in order to keep up with the investigation and dangers of her new job.

I certainly hope we get more mysteries with Harriet at the helm. This was a fun, enjoyable book with great twists and turns.

We are following Miss Harriet Marrow as she is hired as The Prescott Agency's first woman operative in 1898. She is told she must solve her first case by Monday to keep said job giving her about a week to find you guessed it a missing maid. I liked this way more than I thought going into it. I loved Harriet and all the people she meets along the way. I'm not sure if it is the start of a series but I hope so. I would love to see what is next for everyone

When Harriet Morrow sees an advert for a junior field operative at the Prescott Agency, she seizes the chance to quit her stifling and tedious secretarial position. Having learned about Kate Warne, America’s first female detective, it’s kismet and the perfect opportunity to do something exciting and ambitious. After all, if Kate Warne can do it, why can’t she? Harriet confidently makes her case for the job, but though she is hired, Mr. Prescott is skeptical and considers her employment an experiment. As such, her first assignment is actually a favor for his neighbor, Pearl Bartlett. Pearl swears her maid Agnes Wozniak is missing, but Prescott has sent a junior detective to her home twice before to find “missing” items that turned up at random places in the house. He’s convinced this is similar, but wants Harriet to search Pearl’s home for confirmation.

Disheartened by the task, but determined to make the best of it, Harriet scours the home. However, Agnes is nowhere to be found, and the scene in her room is suspicious. Ecstatic, Harriet reports her findings to Prescott, who reluctantly cedes the case to her under the supervision of a dismissive and caustic agent. However, Prescott only gives Harriet a week to prove her worth by finding Agnes.

Her initial search takes her to Agnes’ family, where she acquires leads (and tingles) from Agnes’s attractive and impressive sister, Barbara. Harriet’s investigation takes her from Chicago’s vibrant Polish community to dark clubs and underground queer balls, and with the clock ticking, few allies, and potential sabotage, Harriet must use all her wits and resources to find Agnes. However, discovering what happened to Agnes may be the least of her troubles.

The Case of the Missing Maid is the first book in the Harriet Morrow Investigates series and is an enjoyable historical mystery. Although the puzzle can be solved early on, it’s interesting to see Harriet’s journey to the resolution. Harriet is coming of age during America’s progressive era, born to activist parents that encouraged her not to settle for simply being a wife and mother. As a lesbian with no interest in men other than their attire, Harriet has taken that support and advice to heart. After their parents’ death, Harriet is doing her best to raise her sullen teenage brother and being an investigator not only sounds exciting, but pays better than secretarial work. She’s surrounded by skepticism, condescension, and antagonism, but remains undaunted. She’s very conscious of her good fortune in receiving this opportunity and is determined to prove stellar at her job for herself and the women who come after her.

Harriet is self-possessed, confident, and intelligent. She’s also impetuous, impatient, and ill-prepared. She’s good at taking council, but usually only after her prickly defensiveness has been deactivated. Working in a hostile environment where practically everyone is waiting for her to fail, it’s hard not to assume someone is questioning her suitability when offered advice. I like that Harriet isn’t an investigative savant, able to suss out improbable clues and motives out of whole cloth. She’s simply a twenty-one-year old who decided to take a chance and whose romantic notions of the job are altered at almost every turn.

She does possess the dichotomy present in many feminists, then and now. In the charge to remove patriarchal shackles so women can do what they want and be who they are, there’s sometimes an underlying condescendence towards manual labor and homemaking. In one breath, Harriet gives space for women who make sacrifices to survive and, in the next, is affronted that someone “[thinks] she’d come for a job scrubbing floors or rubbing water spots from champagne flutes” when she is at. . .a domestics hiring agency. It’s an interesting character trait that marks her youth and the complexities of social issues.

The book is also a coming-of-age narrative as Harriet’s worldview and experiences begin to expand. Her adventure is full of elation, frustration and lessons, and she discovers a type of freedom and queer acceptance she’s never known. Her encounters with Barbara hint at a future romance, while her relationships with a fellow junior investigator and Pearl are the most formative. The writing effectively establishes time and place, and the pace is generally steady, though it drags occasionally. However, there is something missing to me, and I felt distanced from the story. My attention wandered and even the harrowing scenes didn’t elicit as much interest as they should. Nevertheless, I had fun with Harriet and found The Case of the Missing Maid delightful. I’m curious to see how Harriet grows as the series progresses.

Gilded Age mystery

Chicago 1898.
Pinkerton had appointed a woman operative decades ago.
Harriet Morrow has always been encouraged to be herself. She knows about Pinkerton but she doesn’t hold her breath when she decides to apply to a detective agency for a job. She’s stunned when finds out she’s been accepted.
Not that that shows up in her workplace. On her first day neither the receptionist or the secretaries will believe that she’s a new operative. Quite a circus!
Only when verified by Mr Prescott, the agency owner do they evince a modicum of belief. But then she’s given a desk in the secretaries’ room? Still Harriet wasn’t going to let that deter her.
Harriet fast becomes a bike riding, gun toting, bowler hat and men’s shoes wearing investigator (practical!), as she tracks down a maid that’s disappeared from the residence of a neighbor of Mr. Prescott’s.
The other operatives and the police believe the maid’s left.
Harriet’s convinced there’s been foul play.
I really enjoyed Harriet (Harry) as she discovers her calling, new friends and herself!
Hopefully more episodes will follow.

A Kensington ARC via NetGalley.
Many thanks to the author and publisher.
(Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.)

1898, Chicago. Harriet Morrow is taking her shot. She's left her bookkeeping job at a grain elevator, and is applying for a junior detective position with the Prescott Detective Agency. Obviously, she'll be the first female operative at the agency if she is successful. Armed with reliable men's shoes, a bowler hat and her trusty bicycle, Harriet sets out to prove that she can solve the case of the missing maid, and earn her place among the firm's detectives.
This is an atmospheric trip back in time. Osler conjures up the chaos of riding a bicycle in a city coming into its own as a motorized metropolis, and learning your way around different neighbourhoods (as an urban bicyclist, I loved this). The large Polish community in Chicago plays a key role here, and Osler lets us taste the sweetness of the paczki along with the bitterness of young women trying to establish their independence in traditional families. There's also some solid work on the inequity of life in a large city at the turn of the 19th century. Harriet is lucky enough to have inherited the flat she shares with her teenage brother, but she still is just scraping by, and the contrast between her world, the multi-generational spaces shared by the immigrant community she interacts with, and the wealth of her client is very well drawn.

Harriet is queer, preferring women romantically, and being more comfortable is men's clothing (both for practical and identity reasons). Navigating that (and a potential romance) on top of trying to figure out who's sabotaging her at work and finding the missing maid is a lot. We are invited to ride along with Harriet as she attempts to prove herself. There are some unexpected twists here, and I wasn't totally sure who was actually an ally for Harriet until late in the book. It's a satisfying read and an inviting beginning to a series. In a classroom or library setting, it might be interesting to read in parallel with Katharine Schellman's Nightingale series, set in New York, 20 years farther down the road, but with similar themes.
Thanks to NetGalley and Kensington Books for the e-arc.

A new historical cozy series, an excellent start that I hope will be the first in a long series.
Well plotted, entertaining, a solid mystery and a clever and spunky heroine.
Well done, recommended
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Harriet lives in Chicago in the late 1800s and become the first woman detective at a prestigious agency. Within a few hours on her first day, she finds herself investigating the disappearance of a maid from a mansion. She sets out to find out the truth of what actually happened to the maid.

I liked the premise here, but I found it to be slow. There was just something about the writing that was not for me. That could be a personal preference though, so others may enjoy this one more than I did.

I think I'm liking the historical mystery and here we have a queer one, where our protagonist becomes an investigator in a detective agency.

This historical setting in which the story develops takes us into a great investigation and not only the one done by the author to write this book but the one that Harriet, the protagonist does to solve the case of the missing maid and to prove her worth in the agency and to be hired.

It was a great story, and I hope to continue exploring this genre, which has been whispering to me lately.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Harriet Morrow is not one to let life happen around her. She is going to be in the middle of it and in charge, which being a woman in 1890s Chicago isn’t something that is easily attainable. That never stopped her. After interviewing and being placed on probation, she is Prescott Agency’s newest junior detective. After being assigned what was supposed to be a no nothing case, she is embroiled in the local Polish community on the trail of a missing maid and exposed to a whole new world she knew nothing about, but isn’t going to miss out on.

As a previous self proclaimed hater of historical fiction, this year has completely changed me. I’ve now read over 20 historical fiction books and without this change in mentality, I would have missed out on a fun mystery. As with all mysteries, I’m just here for the ride. I’m not here to solve anything or to think too much about different clues and evidence found. If you are the type of reader to try and solve the mystery before finding out who did it, then this book is for you and if you are like me, then this book is also for you.

It did take a while for the plot to pick up speed and get it to the stage where I couldn’t put the book down, but it did get there. The stakes were low and even in the most sticky of situations, it did feel like Harriet had plot armor to protect her. This didn’t lower the enjoyment for me, but it is something to be aware of.

It does look like this book will be the beginning of a series, so I will be eagerly awaiting the next installment.

#netgalley #thecaseofthemissingmaid #kensingtonpublishing

An interesting start to a new series with a dynamic character in young Harriett who becomes a female operative at a detective agency less because she wants to be a detective than because she needs to support herself and her younger brother. But then she gets intrigued with the job and with the case of Agnes the proverbial missing maid. Pearl Bartlett, the older woman who employs Agnes has been seen as a pest by others from the detective agency but not Harriett. This is more than a sorta cozy though as Harriett is navigating knowing herself. This is nicely atmospheric, especially with regard to attitudes toward women. One quibble- early on Pearl serves German chocolate cake, a treat which was not invented or popularized until the 1950s. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A good read and I'm going to look for Harriett's next case.

*Received as a free ARC*
I have been reading a lot of historical mysteries lately, so I was delighted to find one with a lesbian protagonist. That being said, I think I would enjoy following books in the series more. I understand the need for set up, and historical realities, but the office politics! Everyone was so mean! I plan to keep an eye out for the next book in the series.

Chicago, 1898, LGBTQIA, investigators, private-investigators, missing-persons, rivalry, jealousies, secrets, lies, undercover, friction, friends, friendship, frustration, investigation, cross-dresser, ethnic, witty, historical novel, historical research, historical setting, history and culture, clothing, suffrage*****

I loved it. BUT. I think that it was too ambitious in that it shoehorned in so many historical and social issues into one episode of a storyline that could comfortably snuggle itself into three or four books. I am somewhat concerned that some critics might focus on historical language and terminology of the time. Another thing that is a distraction is the use of correctly spelled words in Polish throughout the story (my mother had Polish immigrant relatives in Chicago in that time period). It is a good historical representation of some of the issues of the day and does provide significant references and documentation of historical facts about things like the employment of women as operatives in the Pinkerton Agency and the problems specific to gender bending in that era.
About the story itself. Good character development and presentation, devious red herrings, amazing world building, and a real whiplash twist at the end!
#TheCaseoftheMissingMaid by Bob Osler #HarrietMorrowInvestigatesBk1 @KensingtonPublishing #NetGalley #LGBTQIA#CozyCrime @goodreads @bookbub @librarythingofficial @barnesandnoble @waterstones ***** #Review @booksamillion @bookshop_org @bookshop_org_uk

The cover of The Case of the Missing Maid grabbed me but the story didn't mesh with me like I had hoped. The writing and era are engaging but as a mood reader my heart wasn't invested enough to finish.

Thank you to Kensington Books and NetGalley for the opportunity.

In 1898 Chicago, Harriet Morrow jumps at an opportunity to become an investigator with the Prescott Agency, but she has to prove herself first. Her test—find a missing maid and Mr. Prescott will take her on as a junior operative. Since Harriet is supporting herself and her brother, she needs this job. As a woman, and a lesbian, she knows she’s unlikely to ever have another chance like this, but finding the maid proves to be far more complicated and dangerous than she anticipated.
I really enjoyed this book. Historical mystery with queer primary characters in an interesting setting. Harriet is particularly engaging and determined against all odds to succeed at this assignment and win the job that she is truly suited for. I look forward to seeing how she gets on.