A House Divided

November 1, 2021
The third installment in Cutler's popular Matthew Rowsley historical mystery series will delight fans. Estate manager Matthew and his wife, Harriet, are faced with challenges when Lady Croft dies, leaving them in charge of Thorncroft House, the family estate. A diverse group of guests has been invited for Lady Croft's funeral, but after they arrive, a terrible blizzard strikes. Then a well-dressed but nearly frozen woman begs entry. She introduces herself as Lady Stanton but won't say where she's come from or where she's going. She's barely through the door when she begins insulting the women and flirting shamelessly with the men. Then small items begin to go missing from the household, and one of the maids is found dead. Are these coincidences, or is Lady Stanton responsible? Trapped in the blizzard-stricken house with their guests, Matthew and Harriet must determine whether the maid's death was an accident and figure out just who Lady Stanton really is. A gripping locked-room mystery with a suitably twisty plot, Cutler's latest also offers an intriguing look at social customs and gender roles during the Victorian period.

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September 5, 2022
Set in 1861 England, Cutler’s solid if unspectacular fourth whodunit featuring husband-and-wife Matthew and Harriet Rowsley (after 2021’s Death’s Long Shadow) finds the couple with mixed feelings about having accepted an invitation to visit Clunston Park, the home of a well-to-do cousin of Matthew’s that he isn’t close to. Harriet, a former housekeeper who’s risen in the world, fears the disapprobation of the snobby guests she expects to be in attendance. Her expectations are met, and she’s even chastised for interfering with a cricket match after making a diving catch of a ball that was about to hit several infants playing near the cricket pitch. The stakes rise after flooding cuts off Clunston Park from the outside world, and one of the guests, whose jewels have gone missing, is found throttled to death. Though the Rowsleys instantly dismiss the notion that the victim’s young maid is guilty, they have a plethora of suspects and motives to sort through. A second death ups the ante. Cutler is better at creating sympathetic leads, particularly Harriet, a sexual violence survivor, than in resolving the murder mystery. Fans of other married sleuths, such as Anne Perry’s Charlotte and Thomas Pitt, may want to check this out.

October 1, 2022
Amateur sleuths Matthew and Harriet Rowsley solve a series of murders at a relative's country manor house in 1861. Although Col. Barrington and his wife, Lady Hortensia, did not unbend sufficiently to dance at their wedding, the Rowsleys are generous enough to attribute their kin's reluctance to physical infirmity rather than snobbery. Col. Barrington suffered a grave war injury, and on the eve of the Rowsley nuptials, his Lady was on the verge of presenting him with a son and heir. So the common-born pair agree to visit their noble cousins at Clunston Park for a weekend of cricket. The slights begin immediately on their arrival. The couple is assigned a dark, pokey bedroom when grander quarters are readily available. The gentleladies avoid conversing with Harriet, preferring to share the latest gossip with their social equals. True, Lady Pidgeon does spare her a few words. And Gr�fin Weiser, the widow of a Viennese count, seems inclined to treat the former housemaid as a confidante, earning the newcomer a sharp admonition from Lady Hortensia not to monopolize the noblewoman. When Biddlestone, a footman, refers to Harriet as Mrs. Faulkner, the name she used when she was in service, Matthew approaches his boiling point. But their ill-treatment by the Clunston household doesn't deter the principled pair from doing their best when disaster strikes, and they gamely pitch in to investigate the murders that send the weekend festivities into a tailspin. Snootiness appears a greater crime than murder in this offbeat cozy of manners.

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October 1, 2022
Cutler's Victorian-set series features Harriet and Matthew Rowsley. Harriet is the head housekeeper for a wealthy family, and her husband, Matthew, is the estate manager. They are also amateur sleuths who can't seem to avoid landing in the middle of murders (most recently in Death's Long Shadow, 2021). This time the corpses turn up at Clunston Park, the home of Matthew's wealthy cousin, where Harriet and Matthew have been invited for a house party among the aristocracy. Working-class Harriet is worried that the other guests at the party will snub her, and that's exactly what happens. Matters take a turn, however, after one of the guests and a servant are murdered and a flood prevents the local constable from reaching the estate, leaving Harriet and Matthew to find the killer. With twists and turns aplenty, Cutler's variation on the classic locked-house mystery combines the requisite cast of colorful characters--in particular, the amiable sleuths--with a vivid depiction of upstairs-downstairs life in the Victorian era.

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