The Vanishing Thief, by Kate Perker, is the first in her A Victorian Bookshop Mystery series. Store owner Georgia Fenchurch belongs to the Archivist Society, a secret band of private investigators. This time a man has been abducted, or so a neighbor claims. Was he? And if so, why? Lots of interesting little twists, good characters. And, in a nice tie in with a book I'm reading about servants, a wonderful description of one servant, who did just what she was supposed to do .... disappear when her duties were done!

The work was hard, the hours long, the rules strict, but it was something so ingrained in British society that it delayed the acceptance of labor saving devices (from the vacuum to electricity and much more) for years. Servants: a Downstairs History of Britain from the Nineteenth Century to Modern Times, by Lucy Letherbridge is a carefully researched and well written study. There were servants for every chore, big or small, to the point where the master or mistress of the house was pretty much helpless without them! Later, factory work was considered preferable because the hours were set, your time off was yours, and there was no "expectations" for your behavior. (This was a surprise as I've read about conditions in the factories)! The wars changed everything ... servants were fewer and often came from another country. In the 1960's biographies from former servants became popular. (Many of the period pieces we enjoy on TV, etc., get it wrong). Oh, and to tie in with the comment made in the recommendation above? One description of a servant was that she was "pleasantly unobtrusive". Indeed, there would be curtains, or hidden doors, or passages behind book shelves so a servant could vanish from sight quickly.

Reading Hermit With Dog