Week of Jan 24.

This week was my spiritualism/seances week, totally unplanned.

The first book I read was Spirits and Smoke by Mary Miley.

Miley is continuing her second series that takes place in 1930’s Chicago. In this one, a seemingly random event, the death of a banker from a ‘smoke’ cocktail turns into bank fraud, the Chicago gangs, and of course murder and spiritualism. The characters are first rate, the setting is fabulous, and the mystery was fun. One of the best books I’ve read in a long time.

I also read City of Shadows by Victoria Thompson.

The spiritualist in this book is not so benign as in the Miley Mystery. Madame Ophelia has a con going to bilk widows out of the funds their husband have left them. But not to worry. Elizabeth Bates, her brother Jake, the Old Man and other current and former con artists are on the case.

Great fun.