The Prospect of Death (An Alyssa Chalmers Cozy Mystery) by Carmen Radtke – Review by Jennifer Gordon

The Prospect of Death by Carmen Radtke
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I thoroughly enjoyed this historical cozy mystery, which had me hooked from page one. Set in 1862, our heroine, Alyssa Chalmers is one of a group of Victorian emigrants, who have arrived in British Columbia, having traveled by boat from Australia, to be brides. However, Alyssa is a very reluctant bride, but luckily she is a rather good intrepid sleuth, who all her friends turn to when there is a murder. The victim is the hotel owner in the prospectors’ town “Run’s End”, and along with the dead body, the gold which is stored there is also found to have something wrong with it. All the brides turn to Alyssa to find the murderer. However, the killer is both desperate and cunning and the epidemic outbreak complicates things further. The storyline had me gripped and the plot twists and turns kept me guessing until the last page. The characters are all wonderfully detailed, but Alyssa is particularly likeable and relatable and I was so engaged with her, that I felt I was solving the case alongside her. The descriptive narrative along with the added historical details bring both the setting and the era vividly to life. I could not put this book down, and I look forward to future books in this series, and I particularly look forward to meeting Alyssa Chalmers again!

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