Electricity is new. It has just been featured in a dazzling and highly successful display at the Crystal Palace, so why does one of the inventors kill himself? The Inventor, part of the Penny Green Mystery series, is by Emily Organ. There are several men working on improving the filament ... so, was he being accused of patent theft? Or something else? This is a fun, hard to put down series. Nice bits of history of the Victorian era, too.

Death at the Chateau Bremont, by M.L. Longworth is the first in the Provencal Mystery series, and came as a recommendation from Canadian Reader. When an important person falls from an attic window it is assumed to be an accident. Or maybe suicide. And so the rumors start. Antoine Verlaque must figure out which are true and which are not. Was someone angry with the victim? Who benefits from his death? Things get more complicated once the brother dies and there is no question, it's definitely murder. Good mystery, with beautiful descriptions of the countryside and food, reminiscent of the Bruno books by Martin Walker.

Reading Hermit With Dog