Winter at Death's Hotel by Kenneth Cameron

While the cat was away, the "mouse" was playing.  Louisa Conan Doyle, the wife of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, had an accident in their NY hotel and wasn't able to go with Arthur on his American book tour.  She took advantage of being a woman of the 1800’s without her husband. She was getting to play detective, and it wasn't a murder in one of her husband's books.

Before Arthur left, though, he warned his wife about getting involved in this murder investigation and also about the social implications of her going out alone, but Louisa wasn't one to listen to her husband when she had something on her mind that she "HAD" to do.  Louisa knew she saw a murder victim walking out of their hotel the first day they arrived, and she wanted to make sure the police knew she had information. 

Despite Louisa's being told to stay out of this investigation by her husband as well as the authorities, she pursued it.  She said she must let everyone know what she knew and that she could help them find out where the murder took place, who was involved, and who the murderer was.  

Was it pure luck that she had fallen down in the hotel and was not able to go on the tour with her husband?  She thought it had been luck because now she would be able to help solve the murder, but the New York Police Department wasn't feeling lucky.  

Louisa wanted justice served and just couldn't understand how New Yorkers and Americans could take murders and disappearances so lightly. She took on the Police Department as well as the hotel manager and the hotel detective to set them straight. 

Louisa was a great character and a character very much ignoring the rules set for a proper English lady or any lady in the 1800's.   I laughed at her antics and her bravery. She just wouldn't give up.

The other characters included policemen, hotel guests, and the hotel owners.  The book was right on for the time period and its social protocol both in and out of the police station. 

I thoroughly enjoyed WINTER AT DEATH'S HOTEL.  I enjoyed the characters, the detailed descriptions, and definitely the humor and the storyline. The ending had the murder solved, but it was a comedy of errors.  

WINTER AT DEATH'S HOTEL is an enjoyable, change-of-pace mystery with a marvelous, entertaining, and determined main character. 5/5

This book was given to me free of charge without compensation by the publisher in return for an honest review.