I can't really recommend this book. :-/ ( )

First Line: The crossing from Holyhead to Dublin had been relatively calm, but just as the Irish coast came into view, a contrary wind blew up.

Mary Wollstonecraft is on her way to Mitchelstown Castle in County Cork to be a governess to Lord Kingsborough's daughters. To her, it is humiliating-- a fate most devoutly not to be desired. But with debts to pay and a pack of siblings who constantly turn to her as a source of money, she has no other option. She wants to work out the year she contracted for, to avoid having anyone find out just how much she lied about her qualifications, and to keep out of castle politics by writing a novel. Mary lives to write.

She doesn't even get off the ship before something happens. A young Irish sailor who'd just given her a letter to deliver to someone falls overboard and drowns. Mary could swear that she caught a glimpse of a knife-wielding man standing by the young Irishman, but with the weather being so foul, she must be mistaken.

Life at Mitchelstown Castle is not easy. The oldest daughter can't stand Mary at first, and the unhappy, self-centered Lady Kingsborough finds the proud and stubborn Mary difficult to deal with. When two more people at the caste die, Mary believes those two deaths tie into the death of the sailor, and she won't rest until she finds justice for all three.

At first I found Mary a bit of a handful myself. She is a very passionate young female who has a tendency to eye all the available young men in her vicinity. She spends so much time on visiting the nearby cottagers as well as on her investigation that I wondered where she found the time to teach those young girls anything, but she manages to get everything done. Mary's ability to get right up the noses of those aristocrats dancing attendance on Lord and Lady Kingsborough endeared her to me.

As for solving the mystery before Mary? Not a chance! The list of suspects was so long that I just buckled up and enjoyed the journey. Wright does an excellent job of depicting the people and the era in which they live. Having known a few things about Wollstonecraft (besides the fact that she's the mother of Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein), I liked how the author used the facts to create a lively, engaging character that I hope will take center stage in many mysteries to come. ( )

This tale stars the young Ms Wollstonecraft working as a nanny and trying to solve a murder while pushing the envelope for women in the touchy Anglo-Irish atmosphere of 1786 County Cork. She was definitely a woman before her time, but much of the story is about class distinction, English dominance and Irish rebellion. Although there were many fine characters in the story, I couldn't help thinking many of them were superfluous. If more feeling had been invested in the main character, perhaps I would have cared more for her causes. There were many instances of stereotypes that I felt did not add to the story, and some red herrings that made me wonder where the author was going. A wonderful plot that was somewhat disappointing in performance. ( )

I don't generally read mysteries but the blurb from this book made it sound like something I would be interested in and I have always been fascinated with Mary Wollstonecraft. So, I requested it from Early Reviewers. I have to say I was very disappointed in this book. I just could not get into it after several tries. I finally ended up reading about 3/4 of it and then putting it down. I like books where I become emotionally invested in the characters and I just didn't feel anything for the characters in this book. Maybe if it was a longer book it could have been fleshed out more and had more character development, but as it stands I wouldn't recommend this book at all. ( )

From the Back Cover:

Mitchelstown Castle in County Cork, seat of the notorious Anglo-Irish Kingsborough family, fairly hums with intrigue. The new young governess, Mary Wollstonecraft, witnesses a stabbing and attends a pagan bonfire at which the illegitimate sprig of the nobility is killed. When the young Irishman Liam Donovan, who hated the aristocratic rogue for seducing his niece, becomes the prime suspect for his murder, Mary - ever a champion of the oppressed, and susceptible to Liam's charm - determines to prove him innocent.

My Review:

I don't read a lot of mysteries but as a historical fiction lover I'm trying to add a few historical mysteries to my diet. I enjoyed this book, although I don't think there's anything remarkable about the mystery aspect of it, and it doesn't have that suck-you-in, heartpounding factor of a thriller. What drew me to it were its historical setting in eighteenth-century Ireland and its real-life heroine, Mary Wollstonecraft.

Hands down the best part of this book is Mary. Mary's a gem of a character. Normally a heroine in a historical fiction novel who is ahead of her time in thought and action would be unrealistic, but Mary really was that kind of woman! In fact, her first book, Thoughts on the Education of Daughters, makes an appearance in this story.

Smarting from a failed love affair, indebted and responsible for her sisters' welfare, Mary leaves London behind and takes a one-year assignment as a governess to a noble Irish family, though she has serious reservations:

"Governesses, she had heard, constituted one of the largest classes of insane women in asylums. The thought was not at all comforting."

But desperate times call for desperate measures, and this gig as a governess is temporary. Mary has plans, she's going to be being an authoress, and the Kingsboroughs provide plenty of inspiration:

"I haven't penned a novel," she said. "But I do have one in mind."

And she had, yes. She had begun a novel in her head. One of the characters would be a lady who loved her dogs more than her daughters. A lord who hunted, womanized, pitchcapped unhappy peasants, and drank his way through life...

She found it promising. She imagined the faces of her dumbfounded employers as they read her first novel. Mary, a Fiction, she would call it."

Yet even as she disdains her aristocratic employers, she can't help but be drawn into their drama. And with a sympathetic heart and a passion for justice, she gets drawn into the poor tenants' lives, too. When a member of the Kingsborough family is murdered and the handsome, rebellious tenant Liam is accused and forced to flee, thus threatening the livelihood of his family, Mary takes action. And there's never a dull moment with Mary, for Mary's not entirely grounded in reality. A daydreamer with a vivid imagination, Mary gets a little carried away. She creates a romantic fantasy in her mind and becomes determined to reveal the identity of the true killer and earn Liam's undying love and gratitude in the process.

There are suspects galore: the Master, the Mistress, the land agent and his wife, a poet, a former governess, jilted lovers, angry peasants, etc. And as in all good whodunits, none of them are guilt-free, all of them having had a part to play in the events leading up to the murder, if not the actual murder itself.

This was a sharp and sassy little romp and I look forward to reading more of Mary's adventures, the next of which is already in the works. The author provides some good background information on this fascinating woman and I can't wait to read about some of the more pivotal events in her life. Until then, I leave you with one of my favorite Mary quotes from Midnight Fires:

"Mary vowed once again to remain a spinster. Babies and books were not a good mix." ( )