Rose MelikanCritiques

I bought this in a pack of 3 from The Book People quite a while ago and it got lost in my overflowing bookcase. When I noticed it, whilst rearranging (stroking) my books one day, my interest was piqued so I thought it was time for a spot of historical fiction.

The book started well as we join Mary Finch whilst she makes her way via coach to visit an uncle she has never met. I got the impression straight away that she is a confident, brave, intelligent young woman and couldn't imagine many women travelling alone at the end of the 18th Century. On the way, her coach is stopped by a blockage in the road: an injured man. Mary volunteers to stay with this man whilst the coach goes on to raise the alarm and bring help. Mary is shocked to find that the man is carrying a watch identical to hers which belonged to her father, identical but for the initials engraved upon it: those of the uncle she is travelling to meet.

As Mary continues her journey, she is joined by Captain Holland who seems to latch on to her. I was naturally suspicious of him and my suspicions increased when he accompanied Mary to her uncle's house, but thankfully he was there when they encountered a band of smugglers taking up residence. It left me wondering whether he saved Mary or whether it was all a big set up so she would take him into her confidence. Then it all got a bit confusing with a bucketload of characters thrown in and a narrative that confused my brain as to which time period I was supposed to be in.

I really enjoyed the code-breaking storyline but I did lose track of all the characters and wished I'd written them down. Mary has two men vying for her attention: Captain Holland and the exotic foreigner, Mr Paul Déprez. Do both of them have honourable intentions? I then got a bit waylaid with Captain Holland's visit to Sir William. It was here that I felt the time period slipped as Sir William's daughter, Charlotte, could have just stepped out of the 1920's with her mannerisms and expressions. I'm not quite sure what value this family added to the story as it only resulted in confusing me.

With a strong beginning and end, it was quite a good little story; I just felt like it lost its way in the middle and had a tendency to be a little boring. On its own, it's not one I'd recommend but I'll see how I feel when I read the next two books in the series, although I do think it will be a while before I pick the next one up.

Rose Melikan has written a contemporary Gothic mystery, paying homage to the historical genre but with a bit of a tongue in cheek. In The Blackstone Key, she weaves issues of class and money with smugglers and spies. There were secret codes, double agents and lots of fun characters. I especially like the main character. Mary Finch was as feisty as she might be at the end of the 18th century, not satisfied with her lot in life at a boarding school. She is ready for adventure and inserts herself in places where women would not normally be included simply by tagging along.

And...when I went to grab the image code, I discovered this is a series! None of them get rave reviews but I wouldn't mind spending time with Mary Finch again.

It was good. It had it's lengths. It is in British English spelling but it contains some clearly US English words/phrases - that threw me a few times.
I will certainly read the third Mary Finch novel as well, just not right away.

Enjoyed this book. Loved the mystery!

I found this book quite slow to start with, I felt as though I'd got a third of the way through the book before it actually started to get interesting. I'm glad I stuck with it though because it was a good story. I enjoyed the sense of mystery and it was interesting to read about a period of history that I don't know too much about.

I was a bit disappointed to find after I started reading that this was the second book in a series, as there were several points in the book that referred back to previous events that obviously happened in the first book. Luckily this didn't have any major impact on my enjoyment of this book.

Another adventure presents itself to Mary Finch and she must decide whether or not to spy on Susannah's new husband. Captain Holland makes many appearances as his work also runs parallel to Mary's adventure. This was an easy mystery to read set in the late 1700s.

The Blackstone Key turned out to be a Georgian period adventure-romance that reminded me in many ways of a Georgette Heyer romance. A young woman, Mary Finch, is summoned by her uncle and, since she's a orphan working as a school teacher and said uncle is rather wealthy, she decides to throw caution to the wind and set off without even responding to the letter. Whether this was a good idea or not is debatable as Mary experiences just about every high and low possible -- and some that seem rather impossible. This was a far-fetched but fun read and I will definitely pick up another Melikan book sooner than later.

http://webereading.com/2012/08/girls-having-adventures.html½

the third instalment in the onging story of Mary Finch and Captain Robert Holland, this time the story sees Mary in France, during the French Revolution, married, in name only, to an American artist, trying to uncover what's going on with an inventor in Paris.

You know I'm pretty sure that's why she was in Paris, however I'm not 100% sure This felt like the author had done a lot of research about the period in France and needed to get Mary there, damn any stretches of logic that there may have been. The bad guy was almost twirling his moustaches near the ned and I honestly wasn't impressed. The first book I found every enjoyable but this one left me feeling cold.

I did get occasionally distracted from the plot by other things and it could have moved a bit quicker but overall I enjoyed this story. Mary and Captain Holland are still trying to find a way to be a couple given the constrains of their lives in this period and Mary is chaffing at the restrictions she's finding from her role in society.

Mary is called upon to look into some slightly suspicious behaviour with a friend's husband, finding that her friend is unhappy in the marriage only helps her in wanting to get involved.

It didn't get me as caught up as the first book but I enjoyed it overall.½

This was a nice book with some unexpected twists and turns in the story. I liked the ending even though it might have been a bit predictable. I'm not going to activly search for the 'next' books in this serie, but if any of them would wander upon my path I wouldn't be averse to reading it!½

While occasionally this story lagged a bit overall it had interesting echoes of Daphne Du Maurier and other writers like that. Our heroine, Mary Finch, leaves teaching to meet her estranged wealthy uncle and along the way finds herself nursing a dying man which leads to being embroiled in mystery and peril and a friendship which might lead to love.

Written by a history scholar the details are well done and there is attention to the propriety of some of what Mary does, even if she does have a tendency to blunder in where angels might fear to thread!

I enjoyed it, made me want to go back and re-read some Daphne Du Maurier, which I devoured when I was a teen.

I can say that while it was not majorly important to read in order, I think it would have been nice to know Mary and company a little bit better before The Mistaken Wife. Especially the scoop between Mary and Captain Holland - not to mention, learn more about Cuthbert Shy, the man behind Mary's spy adventures, the man who knew everything and everyone. Anyhow, I think I would have reacted better if I stayed on English shores a little while longer and not lunge across the ocean to spy on France.

Historical fiction is a hit-or-miss for me, and The Mistaken Wife will be more "miss" than "hit" for me this time around. I still might check out the 1st two books to see if I'd like them better, but quite frankly I'm not sure if this time period suits me.

Mary Finch travels to her uncles and on the way she meets a dying man who warns her she is in danger and has her uncles watch. She is aided by the dashing Captian Holland and Paul Deprez who both seem to be after her attentions. This book starts really well, but then for most of the middle section of the book the story seems to lose it's sparkle. The last section of the book picks up again and all ends well. Mary is quite likeable and to me seemed like a Miss Marple type character but a younger version. Captian Holland is very dashing and has all the ladies swooning after him, and I think we haven't seen the last of Deprez. An ok read but could have been a lot better as I think the story lost the plot abit in the middle.

I just didn't care that much.

Great blend of mystery and historical events. Melikan is well versed in historical detail. Good romantic element as well. The hero is easy to like and Mary is an intriguing character. Leaves plenty of space and opportunity for the next installment of the series. (I think we will be seeing Deprez again.) The book really makes the reader think about how incredibly difficult it was to deal with the class structure of the time and how one was judged by lineage and wealth. I am trying to figure out why I gave it four and not five stars. There was something about it that is keeping me from giving it 5 but I can't put my finger on it.

Rose Melikan's 'The Blackstone Key' harkens back to women's novels of the mid-twentieth century - think Victoria Holt and Mary Stewart without the romance and suspense. Melikan's strong point is the background and historical accuracy, but her plot and characterization are not as well done. Her heroine Mary Fitch, a teacher in a ladies' academy, is traveling alone to visit an estranged uncle. Along the way she encounters the winsome British artillery officer, Captain Holland, and a murder victim, who seems to have a connection to her uncle Edward. Add to this a mysterious deserted house, White Ladies, smugglers, a sophisticated West Indian planter and his unsettling henchman, and a stereotypical comic chaperone, and we have a standard mid-1950's set up. It's not so much a question of what 'The Blackstone Key' does wrong, as what it fails to do right. It lacks that spark that makes the characters come alive; unfortunately I found it to be more ordinary and slow moving than sparkling or exciting. However, no one novel can possibly please all readers. So I suggest that a potential reader glance over the first chapter; that should give her a fair idea of the rest of the book. For me, it was a workman like novel that failed to hit the entertainment mark.

‘The Blackstone Key’ is a 1790s-set spy/smuggler yarn with a pretty young girl as the heroine. Definitely not a bodice-ripper, but this is nevertheless a class of novel we have seen many times before. The heroine amazes all with her intelligence, insights and ability to see what everyone around her cannot, all the while worrying about her place in the world and what will become of her.

The story rolls along and is well-plotted, keeping us guessing until the end (well, near the end, anyway). The characters are well drawn, if a little stereotypical (but I think that may be the point here – this is an adventure yarn, as the blurb says, in du Maurier style).

Many Napoleonic and Victorian thrillers, when not set in battles, are placed in London. Although this book has a London-based denouement the majority of the action takes place in a country village and this is depicted quite nicely.

Certainly sold as adult fiction, I think this will appeal more directly to older teenagers.

In late-eighteenth-century England, a teacher at a girls’ school has little hope of finding adventure, but that’s exactly what Mary Finch does when she embarks on a journey to visit her estranged uncle. Along the way, she passes a man who’s had a carriage accident and is now dying; as she tries to help him, he raves to her about mystery and danger. She then discovers that he has somehow gained possession of her uncle’s watch. Thus Mary is catapulted into a very big adventure indeed, involving smugglers, coded messages, and treason. She meets many interesting characters, including more than one potential love interest – but whom can she really trust?

I picked up this book with absolutely no idea what to expect, but I was very pleasantly surprised. The book was a page-turner that I couldn’t put down, and main character Mary was funny and likeable. Several of the secondary characters were excellent as well, and there were a few Heyer-esque moments that made me smile. There were a few historical points that bothered me, though: for one thing, Mary spends way too much time traveling with single men. Ladies who weren’t loose women would never have done so. On the other hand, Mary’s social class was pretty vague – she obviously wasn’t rich, but I couldn’t tell whether she was a member of the gentry or the working classes, and I suppose that might have made a difference. Despite the occasional lapse, though, I enjoyed this book a lot. Apparently a sequel is expected in the summer, and I’ll most likely pick it up when it comes out.

Mary Finch, a schoolteacher, receives a letter from her uncle, inviting her to visit him. On her way there, she encounters a Mr. Tracey, injured from a carriage accident, lying in a ditch at the side of the road. In his possession is a watch belonging to Mary's uncle. Her arrival at her uncle's house leads to a mystery and adventure involving everything from smugglers to European politics. Along the way, Mary is assisted by Captain Holland, but she can't help finding herself attracted to Mr. Paul Deprez, a handsome gentleman from the West Indies.

The author is a scholar of late-18th and early-19th century political history, and she does a wonderful job of explaining the politics of the period, without dumbing things down. The coded messages were an added plus to this well-crafted book. Where the author is less knowledgeable is in the area of social history; there were certain things that a few of the characters did that made me think, "that would never have happened back then" (I read quite a lot of history and historical fiction). The characters in and of themselves are well-drawn, though I thought the elderly Mrs. Tipton was a bit of a caricature (she's an elderly, eccentric termagent with a tongue sharper than a knife).

Other than that, this is an entertaining, lighthearted, and fun read. The author doesn't make 1795 England into a trip to Disneyworld the way that Lauren Willig does in her Secret History of the Pink Carnation series. I'm looking forward to reading further books in Melikan's series. I'd love to find out what happens next.