A recent historical novels review by the Historical Novels Society gave a nice thumbs up to my book.
As an historian and a novelist, I did my best to make Relative Fortunes a satisfying work of historical fiction as much as a compelling mystery. I wanted to immerse readers in the Manhattan in the 1920s that Julia Kydd encounters—its exuberant elegance as well as its darker understory of Jazz Age misogyny, injustice, and oppression. That’s why it was particularly sweet when Elizabeth Caulfield Felt, writing for the Historical Novels Society, called the novel “a terrific mystery.”
Felt praised how historical themes of oppressive patriarchy, affecting rich women as well as poor, were “deftly interwoven” with the core mystery surrounding the death of an outspoken suffragist. Deepest thanks to Felt and the Historical Novel Society for such gratifying recognition.
