1896, and college professor Concordia Wells, is distracted by the ill-health of her sister Mary but this is compounded by the college being troubled by money problems, malicious pranks, and arson, all topped by the suicide of the bursar.
An enjoyable mystery, well-written, and likeable characters. I look forward to reading more. ( )

This was a charmingly written set of mysteries within one story. The clues were perfectly pitched to engage the reader. By the end, I had arrived at some of the answers myself. The characters and period were well presented and the editing was good. ( )

I am required to say: This audiobook was provided by the narrator at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review courtesy of AudiobookBlast dot com. So I’m really, really happy to be able to also say that the narration was far and away the best part of this book. The plot and story had a fair number of issues fighting with nice characterization and fun dialogue (and a setting of Hartford, Connecticut – my backyard), but the reading – by Becket Royce (and now I want to be named Rebecca so I can go by Becket) – was one of the best I’ve listened to in a while. Character accents were present without being overwhelming; humor was nicely accentuated; best of all were moments such as when the text mentions someone giving an unladylike snort… and Becket Royce complies. I have a new go-to narrator.

So, now, the book itself. I should be slamming it with three or even two stars. I saw just about everything coming light years away – what was wrong with Mary, and which of the two men courting our heroine Concordia Wells was a bad’un, and the secret behind the enameled dagger. This is not because I was being clever – I’m never clever at guessing who dunnit and whatnot – but because all of this was telegraphed with great clarity.

The plot also relied heavily on clichés. If you haven’t ever read a book or watched a television show before, this might be a spoiler: when someone told Concordia that there was something very important they had to tell her – but they didn’t want to tell her now, they would meet her tomorrow … well, really, how many books or tv shows have there ever been where that setup actually resulted in the person showing up at said meeting and imparting the very important message? (I should start a list.) (I’m very surprised not to be able to find this on tvtropes.com; it’s almost “Lost In Transmission”, but not quite...)

(view spoiler)[Something that was odd about that situation was: “The doctor was of the opinion that [Sophia] had not been outside [in the rain] for long.” But … she was an hour late for her meeting with Concordia, which is why the latter went looking for her (in the rain). If she wasn’t attacked on her way to meet C, then when? Was she dragged outside after being conked? (hide spoiler)]

The writing - in terms of well-chosen words strung together to form pleasing sentences free of grammatical errors - wasn't perfect. There was at least one example of “lay” for “lie”. And the scary, scary note left pinned with a dagger - “Beware – next time a real stabbing could happen!” – really isn’t very scary. But aside from these quibbles and the larger problems mentioned above, I was happy listening to Dangerous and Unseemly – which is a great title, by the way. As mentioned, the dialogue was very nice in places, lively and life-like, and particularly fun to listen to. Blessings on author and reader for the fact that it was “mischievous”, not “mischievious”! I can forgive a lot for that.

I enjoy a good historical mystery. (Does this class as a cozy? I guess this is a cozy.) I enjoy books set in boarding schools and colleges – such enclosed, self-contained environments. And I enjoy books set around theatre productions, particularly Shakespeare of course, and D&U features a student production of Macbeth. (I know someone who would be quite irked at the pronunciation “McBeth”; I forgave it.) (One line regarding that play started a little plot bunny for me: “Lady Macbeth still had a tendency to giggle during her sleepwalking scene…” That could totally be worked in.) I can’t really say this was a great mystery - the disparate parts of the plot (what happened to Concordia's sister, the death(s) at the college) didn't necessarily play well together.

I couldn’t help wondering if the author is a fan of L.M. Montgomery. Our heroine Concordia is a ginger, and puts up the familiar lament that a red-haired lady can NOT wear pink. And at one point she admires dresses with “gigantic puffed sleeves” and elbow cuffs. ( )

I am required to say: This audiobook was provided by the narrator at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review courtesy of AudiobookBlast dot com. So I’m really, really happy to be able to also say that the narration was far and away the best part of this book. The plot and story had a fair number of issues fighting with nice characterization and fun dialogue (and a setting of Hartford, Connecticut – my backyard), but the reading – by Becket Royce (and now I want to be named Rebecca so I can go by Becket) – was one of the best I’ve listened to in a while. Character accents were present without being overwhelming; humor was nicely accentuated; best of all were moments such as when the text mentions someone giving an unladylike snort… and Becket Royce complies. I have a new go-to narrator.

So, now, the book itself. I should be slamming it with three or even two stars. I saw just about everything coming light years away – what was wrong with Mary, and which of the two men courting our heroine Concordia Wells was a bad’un, and the secret behind the enameled dagger. This is not because I was being clever – I’m never clever at guessing who dunnit and whatnot – but because all of this was telegraphed with great clarity.

The plot also relied heavily on clichés. If you haven’t ever read a book or watched a television show before, this might be a spoiler: when someone told Concordia that there was something very important they had to tell her – but they didn’t want to tell her now, they would meet her tomorrow … well, really, how many books or tv shows have there ever been where that setup actually resulted in the person showing up at said meeting and imparting the very important message? (I should start a list.) (I’m very surprised not to be able to find this on tvtropes.com; it’s almost “Lost In Transmission”, but not quite...)

Something that was odd about that situation was: “The doctor was of the opinion that [Sophia] had not been outside [in the rain] for long.” But … she was an hour late for her meeting with Concordia, which is why the latter went looking for her (in the rain). If she wasn’t attacked on her way to meet C, then when? Was she dragged outside after being conked?

The writing - in terms of well-chosen words strung together to form pleasing sentences free of grammatical errors - wasn't perfect. There was at least one example of “lay” for “lie”. And the scary, scary note left pinned with a dagger - “Beware – next time a real stabbing could happen!” – really isn’t very scary. But aside from these quibbles and the larger problems mentioned above, I was happy listening to Dangerous and Unseemly – which is a great title, by the way. As mentioned, the dialogue was very nice in places, lively and life-like, and particularly fun to listen to. Blessings on author and reader for the fact that it was “mischievous”, not “mischievious”! I can forgive a lot for that.

I enjoy a good historical mystery. (Does this class as a cozy? I guess this is a cozy.) I enjoy books set in boarding schools and colleges – such enclosed, self-contained environments. And I enjoy books set around theatre productions, particularly Shakespeare of course, and D&U features a student production of Macbeth. (I know someone who would be quite irked at the pronunciation “McBeth”; I forgave it.) (One line regarding that play started a little plot bunny for me: “Lady Macbeth still had a tendency to giggle during her sleepwalking scene…” That could totally be worked in.) I can’t really say this was a great mystery - the disparate parts of the plot (what happened to Concordia's sister, the death(s) at the college) didn't necessarily play well together.

I couldn’t help wondering if the author is a fan of L.M. Montgomery. Our heroine Concordia is a ginger, and puts up the familiar lament that a red-haired lady can NOT wear pink. And at one point she admires dresses with “gigantic puffed sleeves” and elbow cuffs. ( )

If I remember correctly, this made it onto my radar when I spotted one of the newer books in the series on Smashwords (although the author needs to do a bit of cleanup – Smashwords lists books 2 and 3 on one K.B. Owen page and book 1 on another). The cover intrigued me, I liked the excerpt, and the price wasn't bad.

Miss Concordia Wells is a junior instructor at Hartford Women's College in 1896. The college is going through some bad financial times, so it's not entirely a shock when the bursar is found dead, an apparent suicide. Her death turns out to be just the start of a very hard year, however. The president and lady principal of the college become targets of threatening notes and pranks. Also, Concordia learns that her sister is suffering from a mysterious illness. Concordia's personal life is further complicated by her attraction to Julian Reynolds, who occasionally teaches at the college.

The things I liked most about this book were Owen's writing and the fabulous sense of time and place. There were tons of historical details. Sometimes I felt like Owen was being too obvious about her research, as if she was cramming in every interesting detail she'd learned, but I enjoyed it enough that it mostly didn't matter.

There were two main mysteries: Concordia's sister's illness and the possible misuse of funds at the college. Unfortunately, Owen wasn't always very subtle about dropping hints. For example, when it was mentioned that a door had a tendency to stick, I knew that someone would soon find themselves trapped in the room. I figured out most of the book's “revelations” well before the ending, so I spent a good deal of time waiting to see if there would be any surprise twists (there were, but only a few).

It took ages for Concordia to figure some things out. I realized what was wrong with Mary, her sister, after two very important details were revealed, but Concordia didn't learn the truth until nearly the end of the book. It was frustrating when Owen dragged things out further by not allowing readers in on the conversation that made everything clear to her, especially since there weren't really any additional twists to warrant it.

Some of the details of the primary mystery, the stuff going on at the college, were a surprise to me, but, after a few things were settled, I figured the rest out fairly easily. Again, Concordia took a bit longer than I did to put everything together. That's the main reason why I didn't like this mystery more – I felt like I was constantly waiting for characters to realize the obvious.

I had the same reaction to Concordia's possible romances. She constantly fretted over her attraction to Julian Reynolds, even while he did things that upset her, like being too open about his interest in her after she'd already told him that he needed to stop because it could hurt her reputation. David Bradley, on the other hand, was never anything other than gallant, kind, and easy to talk to, and there were moments when she clearly felt physically attracted to him. Even so, she insisted she only saw him as a friend and continued to tremble over Julian. The two attempts to make David look bad were weak, at best.

Although I felt that the book's mysteries were generally too obvious, and I sometimes had trouble remembering who all of the many characters were, I liked the setting and Owen's writing enough that I might continue with this series. I'd like to see how the college manages to recover from the events of this book, and it'd be nice to see how Concordia's familial and romantic relationships turn out.

(Original review, with read-alikes, posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) ( )