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.
Buy the Book:
~ Google Store
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?
Buy the Book:
~Google Store
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.
Buy the Book:
IndieBound
~ Kobo ~ Google Store
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.
Buy the Book:
~ Google Store
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!
PREORDER NOW:
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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
Guest Post
Guest Post
Where Do You Get Your
Inspiration for Your Series?
Shortly after I got out
of college with an unusable degree in English Literature, I found myself
working on Chicago’s northwest side at a nursing home called The Bohemian Home
for Orphans and the Aged. (Doesn’t that
already sound like the perfect setting for some kind of gothic novel?)
I was hired to be the
admissions director, which I turned out to be horrible at, by the way, because
I didn’t realize that my primary duty was essentially to sell beds. I was much
more interested in the residents themselves, who had such amazing stories
to tell to anyone who would take the time to listen.
Because of this strange
fascination with the residents and their many problems and tales—and because I
was probably losing the home money—the administrator very wisely shifted me out
of admissions and into social service, and it now became my job to interview each person as they were admitted. With great care, then, I would listen to all
of the stories I’m sure their families had heard a hundred times before and
never, ever wanted to hear again. But I
was a fresh face, and I would spend at least a week or two sitting with them
and jotting down notes about their life, getting to know them better and, I
hope, making them feel more at home and not so scared.
I was really only
supposed to write a brief paragraph (a paragraph?!) about their life to put in
the chart, but I would inevitably end up writing pages and pages and pages,
which the staff, to their credit, seemed to really enjoyed reading. When my first child came along, I quit to
become a stay-at-home mom, and that was the end of my writing days until almost
thirty years later.
When I decided to pick up
the pen again and attempt to write the novel I always wondered if I could
write, I turned to my beloved stash of stories from the nursing home and picked
one to help me craft the character of Henrietta Von Harmon, the heroine of my
series. Therefore, much of what happens
in Book 1 of the series, A Girl Like You, is based on a true
story, which makes it so interesting and fun to read.
While I’m saving the best
of my stories for future novels, I do use the bulk of them as the basis for my
blog, “Novel Notes of Local Lore”
in which I tell the story of a different “forgotten Chicago resident” each
week. It’s become a very popular in its
own right, with a whole separate following than my novels!
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3 comments:
Thank you so much for sharing this intriguing mystery series. These books will make a welcome addition to any TBR pile.
Thank you for sharing this wonderfully intriguing series. These books will be a welcome addition to every TBR pile.
Thanks for spotlighting my series! So excited to be featured here!! Hope you enjoy!
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