Now that this book is finally available for sale, it's time for me to share a couple of my favorite passages. It's amazing to me how such a dark mystery can have such great LOL moments. Most of them are Emily's lines. Of course. Like this one:

"I have received a request that, though on the one hand would give me great pleasure in its execution, would also require me to be...social...and nice to those I am not at all interested in. In short, other people.”
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"I agreed to do as you wish, didn't I?" Emily asked.
"You did," Anne said. "And with such good grace and humour, one might have mistaken you for a great lady yourself."
"Well, greatness is something one is born with," Emily said. "I suspect I was born with rather more than most."
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"Missus!" Hattie yelled into the house, her eyes still fixed on Branwell and Charlotte. "That small lady from Haworth is here to see you, and she has a sort of man with her."
"My name is Miss Charlotte Bronte--" But Charlotte was cut off before she could introduce Branwell.
"Miss Charlotte Bronte, she says!" Hattie yelled at the top of her voice.
"And my brother, Mr. Branwell Bronte." Charlotte couldn't help but finish her introduction, even though she knew what was coming next.
"And this other feller is her brother!" Hattie shouted.
There followed a short and intensely awkward silence as Hattie remained exactly where she was, staring at Branwell and Charlotte in turn as they waited for a response from within the house.

Great scene :D
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Original review follows:

"Chilling" and "addictive" sum it up perfectly. This second entry in the Bronte Mysteries series is one thrill after another. Bella Ellis deftly weaves biographical details and larger than life personalities in the midst of a truly spine-tingling plot.
There's so much to enjoy here, from the thoughtful portrayal of all three Bronte sisters (and their brother), to the well crafted atmosphere of secrecy and tension on the Yorkshire moors. Although many readers may quickly pick up on which character they shouldn't trust, the speedy pace and well written sense of peril ensure they'll be glued all the way to the last page.
The characterizations were delightful, and I found myself highlighting passages again and again. Emily is my favorite, with her staunch outsider status and utter disregard for subtlety. I find myself laughing out loud at some of the things she says, and wondering whether she means to be funny or not. At times like those it was easy to forget that an author is putting words in her mouth.
There's something about the Brontes' lives that lends itself to this type of book, that makes it not ridiculous. Their short, difficult lives somehow combine believably with the dire situations that the author gives them to unravel, and the fact that the reader knows where their lives are headed adds gravitas to the story.

Content note: Heavy references to superstition, paganism, and ritual.

Thanks to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for this advance review copy. ( )

December 1845 at Top Withens Hall, owner Clifton Bradshaw discovers the bones of a child in the chimney breast in his late wife's room.
Meanwhile at the Haworth Parsonage the Bronte sisters are busy with their individual writings. But eager for a new case for their detecting business, Bell Brothers and Company solicitors they are determined to discover the name of the child found and the guilty party.
A slow paced and enjoyable Victorian mystery with the clues slowly exposed. A well-written story also about the interactions between the various members of the Bronte family.
Another very good story in this series which can be read as a standalone book.
An ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. ( )

Another thrilling adventure with the 'detecting' Bronte sisters, this time providing Emily with the bones of Wuthering Heights after the discovery of human remains at Top Withens:

‘Pa says it must have been my mother,’ Liston said dourly. ‘He said he reckoned it was her spirit fighting her way back out of the cold grave and into our home to scream us awake.’

I do enjoy the relationships between the Bronte siblings, including troubled Branwell, and the author has clearly done her research, but unfortunately this story fell victim to 'second book syndrome' for me - the plot is different but the standard Victorian tropes and references to the Brontes' own novels made this a slow read. And the villain of the piece, the 'madwoman in the attic', was obvious from her jarring introduction.

Still, Charlotte, Emily and Anne really come to life - although perhaps not with 100% historical accuracy - amidst the misery and melodrama. Emily is wonderfully blunt and asocial, preferring nature to society, and Anne is represented as the level-headed mediator, concerned with how readers will take the realism of her writing over the romances of her sisters: 'Your thoughts, your feelings, your sentiment, as you put it, will ring true with those who read it,' Emily tells her. (I am a latecomer to Team Anne, so I appreciated this praise!) And I love the nod to biographers reading far too much into fictional characters and storylines too - ‘Clearly you both need reminding that we are attempting to write fiction and not our autobiographies,’ Emily sighed, shaking her head. ‘We are the architects of Gondal and Angria. If we cannot conjure up something truly remarkable, then we should not try at all.’

More of the same but good fun. ( )

If you’ve never read a novel by one of the Brontë sisters, it doesn’t matter. There is plenty to enjoy about the Brontë Mysteries by Bella Ellis without figuring out the innumerable references to ‘Wuthering Heights’, ‘Jane Eyre’ and ‘The Tenant of Wildfell Hall’. ‘The Diabolical Bones’ is second in the crime series after the impressive first, ‘The Vanished Bride’. This one is better, and darker.
When bones are found interred in the walls of a local house on the moor, the three detecting sisters and reluctant brother Branwell set out to confirm the child’s identity so it can be respectfully buried. There are few clues; the location of the find, the father and son who live in the house, the age of the child, and a medallion found with the bones. Top Withens, the remote house concerned, is said to be Emily’s inspiration for the house of the Earnshaw family, Wuthering Heights.
Ellis has constructed a convincing world for the sisters; the parsonage, their blind father, housekeeper Tabby, the villagers in Haworth and wider circle of acquaintances. The charm of this portrayal of the Brontës is the strength of the series. Branwell’s presence is key as in 1852, lone women could not venture out as the sisters do here without the company of a man. The portrayal of the sisters is fascinating, the dynamic between the three, the shared history and understanding of each other, the irritations and the love, their intellectual capabilities, their doubts and bravery. Each has differing strengths which lend weight to the investigations. Emily is impulsive and inspired, Anne is calm and logical, Charlotte is clever but insecure. As Anne says, ‘Detecting does seem to involve a great deal of time looking for something that might not exist.’
It is winter and freezing cold and as the sisters wrap themselves in cloaks to adventure outdoors, the atmosphere is dark and Gothic. Social issues are addressed; the exploitation of orphan children, the plight of urban and rural poor, the prejudice against Irish immigrants, the privilege of wealth.
Of course, the reward when reading crime novels is to spot the murderer early in the tale. I admit to thinking ‘surely it’s not…’ This plot is well constructed; read it and see if you spot any early clues. The story skips along at a fair pace and when I put the book down, I was always longing to read just another chapter.
The series is fast becoming a favourite. Brilliant escapism.
Read more of my book reviews at http://www.sandradanby.com/book-reviews-a-z/ ( )

I fell under the spell of the first Brontë Sisters mystery, The Vanished Bride, and it didn't take long for a repeat performance with this second book, The Diabolical Bones. I am very well acquainted with the Brontës, their writings, and the Haworth area, and author Bella Ellis does a phenomenal job of bringing both the times, the physical setting, and the characters to life. If you love being immersed in an historical mystery, this is the one for you-- and you don't even have to be a Brontë fan to enjoy yourself.

The book begins with one of Emily's poems, a perfect choice for the weather in The Diabolical Bones, then moves swiftly to sole survivor Charlotte thinking back on this particular investigation, which gives it a bittersweet start. You might want to wrap up for an Arctic expedition when you read this book, because the sisters walk for miles and miles and miles in the bitter cold, biting winds, and deep snows. You're also going to be picking up interesting little nuggets of information about why yew trees are usually found in English graveyards, the Pendle witches, and villagers' attitudes towards Christianity and the "old stories" and superstitions.

Do you know why so many people in the small towns and villages were both so religious and so superstitious? Seems like a contradiction, doesn't it? Well, they thought of it as wearing your "belts and braces (suspenders)": Christianity was your belt, and the old stories and superstitions were your braces. You needed both to survive a world that often seemed to be dead set against you.

One oddly worded sentence in The Diabolical Bones told me who the villain was, but that did not take away any of my enjoyment of this book, and it's not all serious business. The loving relationship the sisters have. Their camaraderie. Their stealing lines from each other for their writing. It's all pitch-perfect enjoyment that I highly recommend.

(Review copy courtesy of the publisher and Net Galley) ( )