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This book is about a woman who lived and thrived in the back country of New Mexico in the mid-1800s. And if this end up being turned into a series (which the ending seemed to suggest in my opinion), I would not be adverse to keep reading. It didn't work quite as well for me but I've got a stinkinng cold which probably impeded my sense of humour. To be rejected for books in a library, to be denied education and a career, if you so wish to have… Yet they are able to get away with murder.
Kind of odd in that it's a historical mystery romance without quite enough romance to be a romance, and not really enough mystery to be a mystery.As she tries to decide if her mother’s horrific story is accurate, Violet has many amusing adventures. Several chapters are pretty much nothing more than just Violet thinking variations of the same things again and again. By 8 they were on horseback and not tame well-mannered horses but any available even half broke horse carrying messages between the ranch house and cowboys in camps. I’m a big fan of historical fiction, mysteries and uplift, so this was the perfect mix of genres for me. We was a-ridin’ along single file, Miss Agnes in the lead, when we heard a snort up on the mountain above us.
The story follows Violet Hamilton, a twenty eight year old woman whose mother disappeared ten years earlier.Ten years after her mother Lily goes missing from Hastings Pier, twenty-eight-year-old Violet Hamilton engages a private investigator to find out what happened. We follow her as she finds out information about her mother she really doesn't want to know as well as her avoidance of suitors. Violet's mother disappeared when she was younger, but had informed her of what duties a wife would have to perform, and she wanted no parts of it.
Finding the solution to the mystery of her mother’s disappearance provides Violet with grounds for believing she has what it takes to become a detective. There's plenty of misdirection, but like any well-written mystery, it allows the reader to play detective, giving clues along the way. A Victorian era mystery and a humerus coming of age story all rolled into one narrative and Violet is a rather inquisitive and funny character. Cleaveland's style is warm, dry, and droll in this memoir of cattle herding on the New Mexico open range in the early 20th century.Violet, though, is persistent and has soon managed to convince him that she can interview prospective female clients and even carry out investigative work for him. Violet was unmarried because she didn't want to be married, but her father tried every day to introduce her to a new suitor. She trained as a journalist in Hastings and has worked in PR for many years, promoting museums, galleries, palaces, gardens and even Dolly the sheep. Faith Hogan‘Eleanor Oliphant for historical fiction fans, with a dash of detective work and mystery thrown in. It is a book for those who want to meet the kind of people who made a home in the near desert country of the American Southwest.
Not only does she behave like she’s FAR better than anyone else, she also continually talks down to people, is incredibly rude, and quite simply acts like a privileged brat most of the time. Having decided that marriage is not for her — based on her mother’s terrifying (and hilarious) description of marital relations — she stubbornly rejects every suitor that comes her way. Treated with both pity and alarm, she’s fed up of being constantly compared to her beautiful absent mother, yet keenly feels her absence – especially when it comes to advice on finding a career available to women, and to courting an appropriate man.As I walked home, with my first payment from my first real employment in my pocket, I felt ten feet tall. But Violet is unimpressed with his lack of professionalism, and his assumptions about Lily seem set to defame her rather than save her. It’s a highly entertaining, joyful book and I’m so hoping to meet Violet again maybe as a fully fledged detective!
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