Accomplished Series by Dara England

Last night, I read the first two novellas in the Accomplished Series by Dara England:

Accomplished in Murder (Accomplished #1)

When her holiday on the coast of Cornwall takes a deadly turn, it is up to Drucilla Winterbourne to uncover the dangerous secrets the inhabitants of Blackridge House will do anything to conceal. But can a proper young lady from London society comprehend the dark motives of a killer?

Available for purchase at Barnes and Noble and Amazon.

My Review

Accomplished in Murder by Dara England
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

A hybrid of Victorian Romance and a cozy murder mystery series - I hesitate to dub this neo-Gothic romance because of the lack of foreshadowing. The writing itself is fine but the story lacks substance. Clues are thinly veiled and I'd like to know more about the characters, especially the main character Drucilla.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review.

Accomplished in Deception (Accomplished #2)

Murder has manners…

When a dinner party at a friend’s country estate ends with the gruesome murder of the local curate, Mariah Featherstone will have to clear the name of an innocent man, one who also happens to be her former suitor. But capturing the real killer may not be simple when everyone in the house seems to possess the means and motive for the killing.

Can Mariah deduce the identity of the murderer before she becomes the next corpse? And will her efforts uncover a truth she would rather not discover?

Available for purchase at Barnes and Noble and Amazon.

My Review

Accomplished In Detection by Dara England
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A hybrid of Victorian Romance and a cozy murder-mystery series.

The clues surrounding the murderer were better hidden than the clues in the first novella. The story is well-written but, like the first novella in this series, it lacks substance, particularly in the way of character development. I would like to be able to "see" the main character in my head.

The main character of this novella -Mariah- is loosely associated with the main character of the previous novella -Drucilla. This is an interesting twist to the murder-mystery genre; it helps flesh out the characters and the society in which they live. Still, I need better images of the main characters in the individual novellas themselves if I am to keep them all apart for the duration of the series.

Having seen the development of the author's abilities between these two novella's, I'm intrigued to know more about this series.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review.

I'm interested in seeing where this series goes. The novellas read quickly and Ms. England has a fine writing style but I wish these were novels instead of novellas.