I'm taking this down a star because I did not like one of the characters, and not any of the bad guys...

The mystery man slips a note under Lady Philomena Dunbridge's door urging her to go meet with a man in a Penny Arcade Theater. When she arrives, she finds him with his throat slit & then hustled out of the theater by the "manager". Outside she watches as the most corrupt cop in NY City comes & takes the dead man away, where he is later found at the docks.

When Phil goes back the next day to speak with the manager, he is not the same man who led her away and is then accosted by a man selling mistletoe, who threatens her to ming her own business.

The murdered man turns out to be a reporter who was investigating violence by the Black Hand but also working to uncover a series of similar bombings & fires in a prime area of the City, where Tammany Hall was seeking to build a new courthouse.

Phil is kidnapped & rescued, but not before hearing the voice of someone she knows giving orders to kill her; the local Madame of the elite has her office bombed; a society reporter is wanting Phil to help but is impatient for the scoop and nearly ruins all of Phil's hard work; and of course Preswick & Lily are there tp help Phil sort things out & run errands.

The book held my interest, but there was decidedly less humor in this than the two previous. ( )

Miss Fisher meets Downton Abbey in this critically acclaimed mystery series from New York Times bestselling author Shelley Noble.

Roasted chestnuts from vendor’s carts, fresh cut spruce trees lining the sidewalks, extravagant gifts, opulent dinners, carols at St Patrick’s Cathedral, a warm meal and a few minutes shelter from the cold at one of the charitable food lines . . .
It’s Christmas in Gilded Age Manhattan.
And for the first time ever an amazing giant ball will drop along a rod on the roof of the New York Times building to ring in the New Year. Everyone plans to attend the event.
But the murder of a prominent newsman hits a little too close to home. And when a young newspaper woman, a protégé of the great Jacob Riis and old Vassar school chum of Bev’s, is the target of a similar attack, it is clear this is not just a single act of violence but a conspiracy of malicious proportions. Really, you’d think murderers would take a holiday.
Something absolutely must be done. And Lady Dunbridge is happy to oblige in A Resolution at Midnight, the third book in this best selling series.
This book was truly a delight to read. I am completely in love now with all the characters and can not wait to go back and read books one and two. A must for any fan of well written historical fiction mysteries. ( )

NYC, early-20th-century, gangsters, amateur-sleuth, reporter, murder, murder-investigation*****

Lady Philomena, the young Dowager Countess of Dunbridge, with the help of her maid Lily, and the family butler Preswick have previously been tapped for assistance by a shadowy representative of an unknown group (presumably working for good). Amid the hullabaloo approaching Christmas, she is told to meet someone who turns out to have been murdered. It seems that the victim worked at the same newspaper as Lady Phil's society friends, but no one has been told of his demise despite his body having been removed by the police. Let the sleuthing begin! An interesting mystery with delightful characters!
I requested and received a free ebook copy from Macmillan-Tor/Forge Books via NetGalley. Thank you! ( )

Lady Philomena Dunbridge, handsome Sgt Adkins, undercover superspy Mr. X, her butler, Preswick and lady’s maid Lily are investigating the murder of NY Times reporter in a very glamorous 1907 New York. Everyone is exciting about the brand new ball dropping on New Year’s 1908 for the first time. Phil was sent to a movie house with instructions to meet a reporter and get information from him but when she sits down next to him, he falls over dead. This is now her new murder investigation and it uncovers corruption in high levels of NY. She makes new friends before a very exciting ending on top of the Times Building during the Ball drop. ( )

A Resolution At Midnight is the third book in the Lady Dunbridge Mystery series by Shelley Noble.

Philomena Amesbury(Phil), Dowager Countess of Dunbridge, Preswick, her butler, and Lily, her maid, have all gone their separate ways to do their last-minute Christmas shopping. When Phil returns to the Plaza, she finds a note telling her to go to the Theatre Unique at 1:15 and sit in the last row. Phil’s not sure who sent the message but feels that it is her Mr. X for who Phil has worked for before. Upon arriving at the designated spot, she doesn’t smell Mr. X’s exotic tobacco aroma but does sense the smell of death. Soon there is a scream, and an unknown person quickly escorts Phil out of the theatre. Phil makes her way around to the front of the theatre and notices the arrival of Sgt Becker, her nemesis, and a corrupt police officer. Since Becker is out of his district, Phil is sure there must be a cover-up in progress, and that feeling is reinforced when she sees the mortuary van arrive to take the body before the police can conduct an investigation.

Soon, Phil will learn that the body is that of the New York Times reporter, Tommy Green. Green had been working on a story about the Black Hand gang. The gang had been terrorizing individuals and bombing businesses in more impoverished neighborhoods.

Phil goes with her friend Bev to the Times Building to have lunch with Marty Rive, a reporter, hoping to break into the man dominated newsroom. Phil would like to obtain information on what Green was working on but knows that anything she might share with Marty would send her off, putting her in danger and Phil. Hopefully, no threat will come to Phil, and she will be able to enjoy the first time of the ball descending on New Year’s Eve.

The story is well-written and plotted and historically accurate. The characters are well-developed, believable, and enjoyable. The character that I enjoyed the most is Just A Friend. The young boy sells newspapers outside the Plaza and always seems to be there when Phil can use some help. There are plenty of red herrings that kept me guessing until the end.

I will be watching for the next book in this delightful historical mystery series. ( )