ABOUT THE BOOK
Hamish DeLuca and Regina “Reggie” Van Buren have a new case—and this one brings the war in Europe dangerously close to home.
Determined to make a life for herself, Regina “Reggie” Van Buren bid goodbye to fine china and the man her parents expected her to marry and escaped to Boston. What she never expected to discover was that an unknown talent for sleuthing would develop into a business partnership with the handsome, yet shy, Hamish DeLuca.
Their latest case arrives when Errol Parker, the leading base stealer in the Boston farm leagues, hires Hamish and Reggie to investigate what the Boston police shove off as a series of harmless pranks. Errol believes these are hate crimes linked to the outbreak of war in Europe, and he’s afraid for his life. Hamish and Reggie quickly find themselves in the midst of an escalating series of crimes that seem to link Boston to Hamish’s hometown of Toronto.
When an act of violence hits too close to home, Hamish is driven to a decision that may sever him from Reggie forever . . . even more than her engagement to wealthy architect Vaughan Vanderlaan.
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Release Date: May 28, 2019
OTHER BOOKS IN THE SERIES
MY REVIEW
Revisiting the world that Hamish DeLuca and Reggie Van Buren inhabit is such a treat. After getting to know the pair, seeing them delve into the vibrancy of 1930s Boston, in Murder at the Flamingo, Rachel McMillan’s Murder in the City of Liberty offers the perfect follow-up—more murder and mystery, more exploration of history and culture, more relationship tension and character growth. I’m here for it all, and I loved it.
Hamish and Reggie have been sleuthing together for a couple years now, and their newest case for baseball player Errol Parker brings with it the reality of racism, especially in light of World War II. The danger enmeshed in the grittier, darker side of the era’s Boston proves ever-present as the pair draws closer and closer to the truth.
Yet, the primary focus of Murder in the City of Liberty is not the mystery the title suggests, but instead, the relationships—Hamish and Reggie with one another, as well as the characters surrounding them. Friendship, family, and romance (plus a rootedness to place) all play a part in this character-driven story, and McMillan writes it so well.
I definitely recommend Murder in the City of Liberty. (But do yourself a favor and be sure to read Murder at the Flamingo first.)
★★★★
I received a complimentary copy of this book and the opportunity to provide an honest review. I was not required to write a positive review, and all the opinions I have expressed are my own.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
EXCERPT
Boston
April 1940
There really never was a good time to drown. But this particular April had been unseasonably cold and promised spring long in coming. The slosh of the Charles River warmed by ribbons of June sun would have been preferable to the crusted sludge of leftover ice rimming the harbor, or so thought Reggie Van Buren as she bobbed up and down like a buoy.
A New Haven Van Buren ought to have perished an old, wealthy woman, tendrils of snow-white hair falling around a satin pillow, comforted in the knowledge that she would be interred in the family plot, her soul destined for paradise—not with water up to her nose, choking as it lapped in and out like a tide over her chattering teeth. But a New Haven Van Buren also might have had the propriety to insist upon the use of her given name and not the “Reggie” she so preferred. The Reggie she was just hearing now in a rather frantic yet familiar voice.
“Reggie!” Hamish DeLuca’s panicked voice reached into the hollow dome of her cement cave. “Reggie!”
“I was st-stupid. I s-slipped.”
She treaded poorly, her arms feeling like gelatin, her form rather lacking the swimming skills she had learned informally alongside her family’s schooner on Regatta Day. Reggie strained to rise above the lapping water. She took turns treading and raising herself as high up on her toes as she could. Rotating and wondering why she failed to complete the ballet classes her parents enrolled her in as a child. Standing on tiptoe might have added inches to her height and allowed her to clear her mouth of the water. As it was, her calf muscles strained. She said something that came out in a series of bubbles before glugging, rising upward, and noticing for the first time how the fog from her icy breath rippled over the water. If she couldn’t understand herself, how would he?
“S-slipped,” she said again, trying to make him out in shadow. “H-Hamish.” She tried again. Funny, usually he was the one with the stutter. Hamish DeLuca with the stutter and the bit of a handshake and that one pesky dimple and those big blue eyes. Her own eyes fluttered. Maybe she would never see him again. She would just slip under the water and rest her heavy eyelids. She blinked until a stream of torchlight buttered the dark walls, crystallizing the percolating water drips around her, and then the figure of her rescuer, whose blue eyes looked even more brilliant than usual in the eerie glow of the flashlight.
Hamish dropped to his knees. “Take my hand.”
“This didn’t turn out as I expected,” she chattered.
“Reggie, we don’t have much time.” His voice rippled as he looked frantically at her and then over to the grille she had stared at since she got into the mess, watching the water level rise and fall and rise and fall until it made her dizzy. She clung to his hand a moment.
“We should have gone with plan B.”
Hamish growled. “We didn’t even have a plan A.”
“You’re my hero, Hamish.” She patted his hand with her icy one. “It was so nice of you to come.”
“Reggie, just take my hand.”
“I’m stuck!”
“What?”
“M-my shoe.”
Hamish said something she was altogether certain she had imagined in her half-frozen and very soggy state. And then, of course, he recklessly jumped in to get her.
GIVEAWAY
To celebrate her tour, Rachel is giving away a grand prize of both book in the series. Enter below, and be sure to comment on the blog stops for nine extra entries into the giveaway.
No comments:
Post a Comment