Join Us for this Series Spotlight Tour from Mar 16 to April 3, 2020!
SERIES DETAILS:
Series Title: Henrietta and Inspector Howard by Michelle Cox
Category: Adult Fiction (18+)
Genre: Historical Mystery
Publisher: She Writes Press
Release dates: April 2016; April 2017; April 2018; April 2019; April 2020
Tour dates: Mar 16 to April 3, 2020
Content Rating: R: Books 1-2 do not have any sex scenes,
though there is sexual reference, Books 3-5 do have explicit sex scenes
(tasteful). There is periodic swearing and violence, but not a lot.
There are some dark themes (though not graphic examples) of suicide,
prostitution, mob involvement, rape, drinking, homosexuality.
SERIES DESCRIPTION:
A GIRL LIKE YOU: Beautiful Henrietta Von Harmon works
as a 26 girl at a corner bar, Poor Pete’s, on Chicago’s northwest side.
It’s 1935, but things still aren’t looking up since the big crash and
her father’s subsequent suicide. Left to care for her antagonistic
mother and seven younger siblings, Henrietta is persuaded to take a job
as a taxi dancer at a local dance hall. Henrietta is just beginning to
enjoy herself, dancing with men for ten cents a dance, when the floor
matron suddenly turns up murdered. The aloof Inspector Clive Howard then
appears on the scene, and Henrietta unwittingly finds herself involved
in unraveling the mystery when she agrees to go undercover for him in a
burlesque theater where he believes the killer lurks.
Even as Henrietta is plunged into Chicago’s grittier underworld, she
struggles to still play the mother “hen” to her younger siblings and
even to the pesky neighborhood boy, Stanley, who believes himself in
love with her and continues to pop up in the most unlikely places,
determined, ironically, to keep Henrietta safe, even from the Inspector
if needs be. Despite his efforts, however, and his penchant for messing
up the Inspector’s investigation, the lovely Henrietta and the
impenetrable Inspector find themselves drawn to each other in most
unsuitable ways.
A RING OF TRUTH: In this second book of the series, Henrietta and Clive delightfully rewrite
Pride and Prejudice―with a hint of mystery!
Newly engaged, Clive and Henrietta now begin the difficult task of
meeting each other’s family. “Difficult” because Clive has neglected to
tell Henrietta that he is in fact the heir to the Howard estate and
fortune, and Henrietta has just discovered that her mother has been
hiding secrets about her past as well. When Clive brings Henrietta to
the family estate to meet his parents, they are less than enthused about
his impoverished intended. Left alone in this extravagant new world
when Clive returns to the city, Henrietta finds herself more at home
with the servants than his family, much to the disapproval of Mrs.
Howard―and soon gets caught up in the disappearance of an elderly
servant’s ring, not realizing that in doing so she has become part of a
bigger, darker plot.
As Clive and Henrietta attempt to discover the truth in the two very
different worlds unraveling around them, they both begin to wonder: Are
they meant for each other after all?
A PROMISE GIVEN: This third book in the Henrietta and
Inspector Howard series provides a delightful romp through the English
countryside and back.
Anxious to be married, Henrietta and Clive push forward with their
wedding plans despite their family differences, made worse now by
Oldrich Exley’s attempts to control the Von Harmons. When the
long-awaited wedding day arrives, there is more unfolding than just
Clive and Henrietta’s vows of love. Stanley and Elsie’s relationship is
sorely tested by the presence of the dashing Lieutenant Harrison
Barnes-Smith and by Henrietta’s friend Rose―a situation that grows
increasingly dark and confused as time goes on.
As Clive and Henrietta begin their honeymoon at Castle Linley, the
Howards’ ancestral estate in England, they encounter a whole new host of
characters, including the eccentric Lord and Lady Linley and Clive’s
mysterious cousin, Wallace. When a man is murdered in the village on the
night of a house party at the Castle, Wallace comes under suspicion―and
Clive and Henrietta are reluctantly drawn into the case, despite
Clive’s anxiety at involving his new bride and Henrietta’s distracting
news from home.
Delicately attempting to work together for the first time, Clive and
Henrietta set out to prove Wallace’s innocence, uncovering as they do so
some rather shocking truths that will shake the Linley name and estate
forever.
A VEIL REMOVED: Murder is never far from this sexy couple . . . even during the holidays!
Their honeymoon abruptly ended by the untimely death of Alcott Howard,
Clive and Henrietta return to Highbury, where Clive discovers all is not
as it should be. Increasingly convinced that his father’s death was not
an accident, Clive launches his own investigation, despite his mother’s
belief that he has become “mentally disturbed” with grief. Henrietta
eventually joins forces with Clive on their first real case, which
becomes darker―and deadlier―than they imagined as they get closer to the
truth behind Alcott’s troubled affairs.
Meanwhile, Henrietta’s sister, Elsie, begins, at Henrietta’s
orchestration, to take classes at a women’s college―an attempt to evade
her troubles and prevent any further romantic temptations. When she
meets a bookish German custodian at the school, however, he challenges
her to think for herself . . . even as she discovers some shocking
secrets about his past life.
A CHILD LOST: A spiritualist, an insane asylum, a lost little girl . . .
When Clive, anxious to distract a depressed Henrietta, begs Sergeant
Frank Davis for a case, he is assigned to investigating a seemingly
boring affair: a spiritualist woman operating in an abandoned
schoolhouse on the edge of town who is suspected of robbing people of
their valuables. What begins as an open and shut case becomes more
complicated, however, when Henrietta―much to Clive’s dismay―begins to
believe the spiritualist's strange ramblings.
Meanwhile, Elsie begs Clive and Henrietta to help her and the object of
her budding love, Gunther, locate the whereabouts of one Liesel
Klinkhammer, the German woman Gunther has traveled to America to find
and the mother of the little girl, Anna, whom he has brought along with
him. The search leads them to Dunning Asylum, where they discover some
terrible truths about Liesel. When the child, Anna, is herself
mistakenly admitted to the asylum after an epileptic fit, Clive and
Henrietta return to Dunning to retrieve her. This time, however,
Henrietta begins to suspect that something darker may be happening. When
Clive doesn’t believe her, she decides to take matters into her own
hands . . . with horrifying results.
Release Date: April 28, 2020!
MEET THE AUTHOR:
Michelle Cox is the author of the multiple award-winning Henrietta and
Inspector Howard series as well as "Novel Notes of Local Lore," a weekly
blog dedicated to Chicago's forgotten residents. She suspects she may
have once lived in the 1930s and, having yet to discover a handy time
machine lying around, has resorted to writing about the era as a way of
getting herself back there. Coincidentally, her books have been praised
by Kirkus, Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, Booklist and many others,
so she might be on to something. Unbeknownst to most, Michelle hoards
board games she doesn't have time to play and is, not surprisingly,
addicted to period dramas and big band music. Also marmalade.
Connect with the Author:
website ~ facebook ~
twitter ~
instagram ~
goodreads
1. What’s different about this series compared to other mysteries
set in America’s past?
A couple of things, really.
The first is that it’s set during
the 1930s during the depression years in Chicago. There’s tons of great books and series set
during both the first and second world wars, but not so many during those lost
years between the two. There’s certainly
a lot of themes that can be explored in that era, such as the extreme division
of wealth and the limited roles of women.
I’m just getting started!
Second, it’s different from other
mystery series in that it’s more about the characters than the mystery. It’s not the same set of characters solving a
different mystery each time so that the books can easily be read in any
order. The character arcs and plots
evolve and continue on from book to book, making it more like a saga than
anything else. There is a mystery in each one that gets
resolved by the end of the book, but each book always ends on a little
cliff-hanger regarding what’s happening with the characters themselves.
Third, it’s really a cross-genre series. It’s won a lot of awards for mystery, romance
and historical fiction, which shows I think that it can’t really be easily
defined. It’s sort of a “Downton Abbey
meets Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries.”
2. What detective team or tales inspired
you to write your own?
As a kid, I loved
Trixie Belden. My best friend was a
Nancy Drew fan, so we had lots of arguments about who was the better
detective. I also loved watching Hart to Hart and Moonlighting, which might have influenced me, as well as the film, American Dreamer, with Tom Conti and
Jobeth Williams. My mom and I have
watched that thing about a hundred times.
Talk about a fun escape! And of
course, there’s Nick and Nora from the Thin
Man films; their chemistry is perfect.
3. Who’s
the perfect reader for your books?
Though
some men enjoy my books, it’s primarily attracted women. Anyone who loves Downton Abbey; Upstairs,
Downstairs; Miss Fisher’s Murder
Mysteries; the old black-and- white films, like The Thin Man . . . basically any
period drama or old movie . . . will
love my series. I can’t tell you
how many people have written to me to tell me that the series is so visual,
that reading it was like watching a movie.
It’s delightful escapism; people tell me all the time they feel like
they’ve been transported back in time after reading them.
4.
Plotter or Pantser?
Definitely
a plotter. I have to have a pretty solid
outline and chapter summaries, even if it’s just a sentence or two, before I
begin. I definitely allow for changes in
the story as I move forward, but I think that especially with mystery, you have
to really know ahead of time where the story is going.
5. Describe your writing style in three words.
Vintage,
literate, visual
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