REVIEW Tour + #Giveaway: The Rose in the Wheel by S.K. Rizzolo @GoddessFish

The Rose in the Wheel

by S.K. Rizzolo

GENRE:   historical mystery

BLURB:

This well imagined, carefully detailed, and cleverly plotted debut draws on actual historical events of 1811 London.

Regency London knows Constance Tyrone as the conspicuously celibate founder of the St. Catherine Society, dedicated to helping poor women. One wet November evening a carriage mows down Constance outside her office. Why was a gentlewoman abroad in the night? And if she died under the wheel, whose hands bruised her neck and stole her monogrammed crucifix?

Dismissing the idea of an accident, Bow Street Runner John Chase forms an unlikely alliance with Penelope Wolfe, wife of the chief suspect. A young mother paying the price for an imprudent marriage, Penelope is eager to clear her husband Jeremy, a feckless portrait painter whose salacious drawings of the victim suggest an erotic interest. Barrister Edward Buckler, drawn despite himself to Penelope, shakes off his habitual lethargy to join the investigation.

As horrifying murders on the Ratcliffe Highway claim all London’s attention, the trio discovers that it won’t be easy to unravel the enigma of Constance Tyrone, a woman who revives the legend of martyred St. Catherine.

Excerpt:

London, November 1811

The clatter of wheels broke the stillness. Two horses strained in harness, nostrils flaring, breath steaming in the night air. Wrapped in a greatcoat and low-crowned hat, the driver rode hunched over, face hidden by his scarf. A gloved hand cracked the whip. Faster.

The woman lying in the road seemed unaware of her peril. She kept her eyes fixed on the church rising against the night sky. As the mists parted, the rose window emerged, a circle of textured shadow patiently awaiting the sun’s fire.

The horses reared, and the woman’s body tumbled beneath hoof and carriage, arms and legs a-tangle. Whipping around the wheel, her cloak yanked her back and up so that for one instant she was held suspended. Down she tumbled to land in a heap. The coach tilted wildly, regained control, and sped on. Hoof beats echoed away. The silence closed in with the fog.

My Review:

On a dreary cold and rainy night a woman lies dead in the middle of the street run down by a carriage with only one white clean shoe and bruises on her neck. Was she run down or was she murdered?

The wife, Penelope Wolfe, of the main suspect, Jeremy Wolf, is trying to figure out what happened to that poor woman and with any luck find, the real killer and clear her estranged husband’s name.

Runner John Chase is also on the case investigating what may have happened to Constance Tyrone. With a slew of characters to interview John is on the case to find out what happened on that dreary night so that Constance can tell her story.

When I was reading The Rose in the Wheel it was like watching a movie I could just picture the carriages rumbling down the street and hear the house’s hoofs clopping a long in the London fog.

It was a slow going in but the more I turned the pages the faster the story went. If you like a good mystery set in historical times then The Rose in the Wheel is just the book for you. 

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

S.K. Rizzolo writes dark regency mysteries—no dukes, earls, or ballroom debutantes need apply. After developing a childhood obsession with Henry VIII’s headless wives, she became an incurable Anglophile and went on to watch practically every Masterpiece Theatre show ever made. By day she teaches literature to high school students; by night she retreats to her dusty attic to craft her own stories. Her mystery series features a trio of crime-solving friends: a Bow Street Runner (an early English detective), an unconventional lady, and a melancholic lawyer—all of whom live much more exciting lives than she does. The Rose in the Wheel is the first title in the series followed by Blood for Blood, Die I Will Not, and On a Desert Shore. Rizzolo lives in Los Angeles with Oliver Twist and Lucy, her cats, and Michael, her husband. She also has a grown actress-daughter named after Miranda in The Tempest.

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Buy links:

Amazon ~ Barnes and Noble ~ Indie Bound ~ Kobo ~ iTunes

Giveaway:

$25 Amazon or B/N GC

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