Henrietta and Inspector Howard Mystery Series by Michelle Cox

 

 

Join Us for this Series Spotlight Tour from Mar 16 to April 3, 2020!

SERIES DETAILS:

Series Title:  Henrietta and Inspector Howard by Michelle Cox

Category:  Adult Fiction (18+)

Genre:  Historical Mystery

Publisher:  She Writes Press

Release dates:   April 2016; April 2017; April 2018; April 2019; April 2020

Tour dates: Mar 16 to April 3, 2020

Content Rating: R: Books 1-2 do not have any sex scenes,
though there is sexual reference, Books 3-5 do have explicit sex scenes
(tasteful). There is periodic swearing and violence, but not a lot.
There are some dark themes (though not graphic examples) of suicide,
prostitution, mob involvement, rape, drinking, homosexuality.

SERIES DESCRIPTION:

A GIRL LIKE YOU: Beautiful Henrietta Von Harmon works

as a 26 girl at a corner bar, Poor Pete’s, on Chicago’s northwest side.
It’s 1935, but things still aren’t looking up since the big crash and
her father’s subsequent suicide. Left to care for her antagonistic
mother and seven younger siblings, Henrietta is persuaded to take a job
as a taxi dancer at a local dance hall. Henrietta is just beginning to
enjoy herself, dancing with men for ten cents a dance, when the floor
matron suddenly turns up murdered. The aloof Inspector Clive Howard then
appears on the scene, and Henrietta unwittingly finds herself involved
in unraveling the mystery when she agrees to go undercover for him in a
burlesque theater where he believes the killer lurks.


Even as Henrietta is plunged into Chicago’s grittier underworld, she
struggles to still play the mother “hen” to her younger siblings and
even to the pesky neighborhood boy, Stanley, who believes himself in
love with her and continues to pop up in the most unlikely places,
determined, ironically, to keep Henrietta safe, even from the Inspector
if needs be. Despite his efforts, however, and his penchant for messing
up the Inspector’s investigation, the lovely Henrietta and the
impenetrable Inspector find themselves drawn to each other in most
unsuitable ways.

Buy the Book:

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A RING OF TRUTH: In this second book of the series, Henrietta and Clive delightfully rewrite Pride and Prejudice―with a hint of mystery!



Newly engaged, Clive and Henrietta now begin the difficult task of
meeting each other’s family. “Difficult” because Clive has neglected to
tell Henrietta that he is in fact the heir to the Howard estate and
fortune, and Henrietta has just discovered that her mother has been
hiding secrets about her past as well. When Clive brings Henrietta to
the family estate to meet his parents, they are less than enthused about
his impoverished intended. Left alone in this extravagant new world
when Clive returns to the city, Henrietta finds herself more at home
with the servants than his family, much to the disapproval of Mrs.
Howard―and soon gets caught up in the disappearance of an elderly
servant’s ring, not realizing that in doing so she has become part of a
bigger, darker plot.

As Clive and Henrietta attempt to discover the truth in the two very
different worlds unraveling around them, they both begin to wonder: Are
they meant for each other after all?

Buy the Book:

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A PROMISE GIVEN: This third book in the Henrietta and

Inspector Howard series provides a delightful romp through the English
countryside and back.


Anxious to be married, Henrietta and Clive push forward with their
wedding plans despite their family differences, made worse now by
Oldrich Exley’s attempts to control the Von Harmons. When the
long-awaited wedding day arrives, there is more unfolding than just
Clive and Henrietta’s vows of love. Stanley and Elsie’s relationship is
sorely tested by the presence of the dashing Lieutenant Harrison
Barnes-Smith and by Henrietta’s friend Rose―a situation that grows
increasingly dark and confused as time goes on.



As Clive and Henrietta begin their honeymoon at Castle Linley, the
Howards’ ancestral estate in England, they encounter a whole new host of
characters, including the eccentric Lord and Lady Linley and Clive’s
mysterious cousin, Wallace. When a man is murdered in the village on the
night of a house party at the Castle, Wallace comes under suspicion―and
Clive and Henrietta are reluctantly drawn into the case, despite
Clive’s anxiety at involving his new bride and Henrietta’s distracting
news from home.

Delicately attempting to work together for the first time, Clive and
Henrietta set out to prove Wallace’s innocence, uncovering as they do so
some rather shocking truths that will shake the Linley name and estate
forever.

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IndieBound ~ Kobo ~ Google Store

A VEIL REMOVED: Murder is never far from this sexy couple . . . even during the holidays!

Their honeymoon abruptly ended by the untimely death of Alcott Howard,
Clive and Henrietta return to Highbury, where Clive discovers all is not
as it should be. Increasingly convinced that his father’s death was not
an accident, Clive launches his own investigation, despite his mother’s
belief that he has become “mentally disturbed” with grief. Henrietta
eventually joins forces with Clive on their first real case, which
becomes darker―and deadlier―than they imagined as they get closer to the
truth behind Alcott’s troubled affairs.



Meanwhile, Henrietta’s sister, Elsie, begins, at Henrietta’s
orchestration, to take classes at a women’s college―an attempt to evade
her troubles and prevent any further romantic temptations. When she
meets a bookish German custodian at the school, however, he challenges
her to think for herself . . . even as she discovers some shocking
secrets about his past life.

Buy the Book:

Amazon.com~ Barnes & Noble ~ Apple iBooks

IndieBound ~ Kobo ~ Google Store

A CHILD LOST: A spiritualist, an insane asylum, a lost little girl . . .



When Clive, anxious to distract a depressed Henrietta, begs Sergeant
Frank Davis for a case, he is assigned to investigating a seemingly
boring affair: a spiritualist woman operating in an abandoned
schoolhouse on the edge of town who is suspected of robbing people of
their valuables. What begins as an open and shut case becomes more
complicated, however, when Henrietta―much to Clive’s dismay―begins to
believe the spiritualist's strange ramblings.

Meanwhile, Elsie begs Clive and Henrietta to help her and the object of
her budding love, Gunther, locate the whereabouts of one Liesel
Klinkhammer, the German woman Gunther has traveled to America to find
and the mother of the little girl, Anna, whom he has brought along with
him. The search leads them to Dunning Asylum, where they discover some
terrible truths about Liesel. When the child, Anna, is herself
mistakenly admitted to the asylum after an epileptic fit, Clive and
Henrietta return to Dunning to retrieve her. This time, however,
Henrietta begins to suspect that something darker may be happening. When
Clive doesn’t believe her, she decides to take matters into her own
hands . . . with horrifying results.

Release Date: April 28, 2020!

PREORDER NOW:

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MEET THE AUTHOR:



Michelle Cox is the author of the multiple award-winning Henrietta and
Inspector Howard series as well as "Novel Notes of Local Lore," a weekly
blog dedicated to Chicago's forgotten residents. She suspects she may
have once lived in the 1930s and, having yet to discover a handy time
machine lying around, has resorted to writing about the era as a way of
getting herself back there. Coincidentally, her books have been praised
by Kirkus, Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, Booklist and many others,
so she might be on to something. Unbeknownst to most, Michelle hoards
board games she doesn't have time to play and is, not surprisingly,
addicted to period dramas and big band music. Also marmalade.



Connect with the Author:



website ~ facebook ~twitter ~ instagram ~ goodreads

Interview with Michelle Cox

1.  What authors who have inspired you:

As a kid, I enjoyed Julie Campbell (Trixie Belden), Jerry West (The Happy Hollisters), Louisa May Alcott, LM Montgomery (Anne of Green Gables), Catherine Cookson, and JRR Tolkein.

Later on, in college, I became enthralled with Charles Dickens and Fyodor Dostoyevsky, both great character writers.

From there I moved onto Anthony Trollope, whom I think, btw, is one of the most underrated English writers, and Jane Austen. There’s a lot of subtlety in Trollope and Austen, which I think I needed to be older to understand and appreciate.

2.  What or who inspired the Henrietta and Inspector Howard series?

My protagonist, Henrietta Von Harmon, is based on a woman whom I met in a nursing home on Chicago’s northwest side. She had tons of stories about living and working in Chicago in the 1930s and ‘40s and described herself as having “a man-stopping body AND a personality to go with it!” Even then I thought that would make a great novel. So when I was looking for story ideas for a new mystery novel I was mulling over, she immediately came to mind. So, much of what happens in Book 1 of the series, A Girl Like You, is actually true.

3. Why do people love your books?  

I think they’re popular because they are so visual. Literally, hundreds of readers have written to me to say that my books “read like a movie” and ask when it will be out on Netflix. Good question!

4. Best piece of advice for writers:

Write every single day without fail. It’s not enough to be creative or to be a good storyteller. To really be a writer you have to have discipline and show up every single day to do the work. It’s a lot like exercise; you can’t wait until you “feel” like doing it or feel inspired, you just have to do it, or you’re not going to get anywhere.

5. What’s a little-known fact about you?

I survived a tornado when I was two years old. Our house was completely destroyed, but the story goes that my aunt saved me and my baby brother as we were sliding across the floor by grabbing us each by an arm and running with us to my grandmother’s cellar next door. It was definitely like something straight out of The Wizard of Oz.

6. What are you reading now?

I just finished Mourning Dove by Claire Fullerton, which was amazing. Set in the 1970s in Memphis, it is an achingly beautiful coming-of-age story. Fullerton’s prose is almost lyrical and is pitch-perfect. Highly recommend.

TOUR SCHEDULE:

Mar 16 – Working Mommy Journal – series spotlight / giveaway

Mar 16 - Rainy Day Reviews – series spotlight / guest post / giveaway

Mar 16 - Hall Ways Blog – series spotlight / giveaway

Mar 17 – Corinne Rodrigues – series spotlight / giveaway

Mar 18 – I'm Into Books – series spotlight / giveaway

Mar 18 - Mystery Suspense Reviews – series spotlight / guest post

Mar 19 – Rosepoint Publishing – series spotlight / giveaway

Mar 20 – Bookmark and fork – series spotlight / giveaway

Mar 23 – Book Corner News and Reviews – series spotlight / giveaway

Mar 23 - T's Stuff - series spotlight / author interview / giveaway

Mar 24 – eBook Addicts – series spotlight

Mar 24 - The avid reader – series spotlight / author interview / giveaway

Mar 25 – Locks, Hooks and Books – series spotlight / author interview / giveaway

Mar 26 – Jazzy Book Reviews – series spotlight / guest post / giveaway

Mar 27 – Cheryl's Book Nook – series spotlight / giveaway

Mar 30 – A Madison Mom – series spotlight / giveaway

Mar 31 – @momfluenster – series spotlight / giveaway

Mar 31 - Dab of Darkness Audiobook Reviews – series spotlight / author interview / giveaway

Apr 1 – StoreyBook Reviews – series spotlight / author interview / giveaway

Apr 1 - 411 on Books, Authors, and Publishing News - series spotlight / author interview / giveaway

Apr 2 – Library of Clean Reads – series spotlight / author interview / giveaway

Apr 3 – fundinmental – series spotlight / giveaway

Apr 3 - My Chaotic Ramblings - series spotlight / author interview / giveaway

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