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A stellar line-up of historical mystery novelists weaves the tale of a priceless and cursed gold watch as it passes through time wreaking havoc from one owner to another. The characters are irrevocably linked by fate, each playing a key role in breaking the curse and destroying the watch once and for all. From 1733 Italy to Edinburgh in 1831 to a series of chilling murders in 1870 London, and a lethal game of revenge decades later, the watch touches lives with misfortune, until it comes into the reach of one young woman who might be able to stop it for good. This outstanding collaboration of authors includes: Susanna Kearsley – New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of compelling time slip fiction. C.S. Harris – bestselling author of the Sebastian St. Cyr Regency mystery series. Anna Lee Huber – award-winning author of the national bestselling Lady Darby Mysteries. Christine Trent – author of the Lady of Ashes Victorian mystery series.
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0The Deadly Hours is a clever conceit, and for the most part the execution lives up to the idea. Four popular novelists, authors of historical mysteries, team up to write the ongoing, centuries-long saga of a cursed pocket watch and the lives - and deaths - through which it passes. At least two of the resulting novellas focus on the characters of those authors’ existing series (I’m unsure of the other two, though I’d happily read a WWII-set series from C.S. Harris, of whose Regency era Sebastian St. Cyr novels I’ve long been a fan), and working the watch and its accumulation of legend into their stories is as fun for readers and fans as it seems like it was for the authors. The four novellas are a bit uneven in quality - the Lady of Ashes story is the weakest of the bunch, not quite living up to the more skillfully crafted WWII story at the end, or the tight structure of Kearsley’s introductory tale - but hold together pretty well. As a fan already of Huber and Harris, I found the book as a whole to be an enjoyable sampler/introduction to the two authors whose work I’ve not read before, and a fun new treat from the two I have.
**Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the advance review copy**
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