Female led Historical Fiction!

With the pandemic still moving ahead full force, it has become increasingly hard to find titles for my book club that is available in physical and ebook formats for my group. I stumbled upon this title as my mom loves one of the authors in the collection and we hadn’t read an anthology in a few years, so I figured it would be worth giving a go.

It’s a bit unfortunate how little I read short stories or anthologies because I enjoyed this collection! Being able to pick this book up and read a story a day was very helpful, especially considering it was for a book club, so it made it much easier to read and take notes on every individual story. I found that the book went by super quickly and being able to differentiate between the stories kept everything moving at a much more brisk pace.

This anthology is a collection of four historical fiction/mystery short stories that are all interconnected by a cursed watch that is handed down to different people through time. The four authors included in this collection are powerhouses of the genre and often are very popular in my library.

Overall I thought this was a strong collection. Some stories were heavier on theme of the watch and the mystery element, whereas others fell more on the side of relationship fiction with the watch being the factor tying everything together. I was a fan of the strong female characters in each of the stories, from the mystery solving couple in Susanna Kearsley’s tale to the Victorian era female undertaker in Trent’s. They all had very lively and interesting women as a focal point which made for a fun discussion with my group. Although the characters in each story are taken from full series written by the author’s, I never really felt that the reader had to have read their previous installments in order to enjoy this collection. All in all, a pretty fun journey if you’re a fan of short historical fiction.

Title: The Deadly Hours
Author: Susanna Kearsley, CS Harris, Anna Lee Huber, Christine Trent
Format: Paperback
Pages: 352
ISBN: 9781492664444
Three Descriptors: Atmospheric, Intricately Plotted, Engaging,

Read Alikes:
The Clockmaker’s Daughter by Kate Morton
Tidelands by Philippa Gregory
The light in the ruins by Chris Bohjalian
The Balcony by Jane Delury
Master of His Fate by Barbara Taylor Bradford