Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Minnie Harper moved to Greece with her husband and two children, after he retired from his job with the foreign service. Not long after, he dies unexpectedly, leaving her to raise her children alone. With her children growing up, she decides it’s time for the next stage of her life. When well-known mystery writer, Stephen Dorian, moves into the villa next door, she’s intrigued by the handsome author but quickly finds him to be a boorish grump. But when he offers her a job to be his typist, she can’t turn it down, even if it means working side by side next to a man she hates.

Before she has a chance to regret her choice, she discovers the death of a young maid. With the authorities dragging their feet to solve the case, Minnie takes it upon herself to investigate the young woman’s murder. As she searches for answers, she uncovers dangerous secrets that could change everything.

When I saw this on Netgalley, I immediately requested it. Who doesn’t love a historical mystery? For fans of Emily Sullivan, know going in that this isn’t a romance, and it seems Ms. Sullivan is branching out to other genres.

The story starts out at a sedate pace, much like life on an island, things move slowly and lulls you into a sense of security. The slow pace does go on for a bit longer than I wished for, but once Minnie finds the body of the dead young maid, Daphne, the pace begins to speed up. Not all as it seems, and when Minnie notices an expensive necklace on Daphne’s body, she begins to suspect her murderer is part of her social circles. The only person who takes her seriously is none other than Stephen. Together they begin to uncover the clues left behind by the murder.

Minnie was kind of bland as a character. The story is told entirely from her point of view, but we don’t really get glimpses of her personality. She feels quite distant and removed from the story, so it was hard to relate to her. Stephen is your typical brooding, grumpy historical hero. There was nothing about either character that made them truly stand out. It’s uncharacteristic of Ms. Sullivan as she often creates unique, relatable characters in her novels. I wasn’t able to make a connection with either character. Perhaps this could’ve been a result of the story being told through first POV. The murderer is fairly easy to guess. This could be in part because there aren’t many plausible suspects or red herrings.

In spite of that, I did enjoy the story. The ending was left a bit open ended, and I wonder if this will be part of a series. This novel will appeal to audiences interested in historical mystery novels.

I'm not usually a fan of historical mysteries, but this one did capture my interest and was fun to read.
The characters are a solid part of the story, which is well written and enjoyable.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for selecting me to read an advanced copy of this book.