March Roars

PI Charlotte Frayne is back and once again finds herself investigating not one but two cases - one involving the wrongly accused arrest of two Black boys for burglary and a case about the missing items of a rather peculiar well-to-do client.

Set a year after the first book Heat Wave (I temporarily skipped books 2 and 3) in 1937, Charlotte's life is much the same - busy helping at The Paradise Café when possible, helping her aging grandfather, her PI cases and finds some time for a bit of mild romance.

One of the things that stands out for me in this series is Jennings' attention to historical detail as she brings readers into 1930's Toronto and highlights some of the societal issues of the time. We get a peek at Toronto's House of Industry (aka poor house) as Charlotte digs deeper into the crimes and Jennings highlights that despite many Canadians' believing our country was a place of inclusivity, racial injustice was prevalent for people of colour.

This is an easy-going, page-turner of a story that boasts a couple good mysteries, an interesting cast you'll look forward to seeing again and again and a hearty dose of Canadian history. The Paradise Café series should be on all mystery buffs' TBR.

Disclaimer: My sincere thanks to Cormorant Books for providing me with a complimentary copy of this book which was given in exchange for my honest review.

My Rating: 4 stars

Author: Maureen Jennings

Genre: Historical Mystery, Canadian

Type and Source: Trade Paperback from publisher

Series: #4 in Paradise Café series

Publisher: Cormorant Books

First Published: Sept 14, 2024

Read: Sept 2 - Sept 6, 2024

Book Description from Amazon.ca: “A grave injustice.” Those are the words in the letter sent to Charlotte Frayne, P.I., on a cold March morning.

The newspapers have reported on the arrest of two Black teenagers in a burglary, but did the pair actually commit the crime? Not according to the letter’s sender, Mrs. Olivia Brodie. A resident of the Toronto House of Industry — “the poor house” — Mrs. Brodie was running an early morning errand when she witnessed, on the morning of the crime, two men behaving in a suspicious manner near the burgled home: two white men.

Meanwhile, Charlotte is investigating another theft — this one at the home of a woman on the opposite end of the social hierarchy. As she juggles her investigations, Charlotte finds unexpected links between people and personal histories, along with more than one “grave injustice.”