The strength of Kuhn's fiction is the setting of each novel and her attention to detail. I knew nothing about the Great Dismal Swamp. I appreciate learning much about escaped slaves living in the swamp, their society, customs and rituals. They became experts on the trails and islands in the swamp. Some had cabins while others lived underground. They learned to evade the slave catchers as well as the deadly cottonmouths. An Author's note gives additional historical information.

The setting is woven into a murder plot. Rees is a reluctant sleuth yet a methodical one. He has a thoughtful way of pursuing his ideas, noting clues and inconsistencies to ultimately reveal the murderer.

While this novel is part of a series, it reads rather well on its own. To fully understand the tension between Rees and his wife we see in this novel, read the previous one, A Circle of Dead Girls.

I received a complimentary digital copy of this book through Partners in Crime Virtual Book Tours. My comments are an independent and honest review.

Will, a weaver, married into Lydia's Shaker faith and has found himself occasionally restless but never so much as now. This is the latest in an intriguing series but will be fine as a standalone because Kuhns provides good background (but not too much for those who have read the earlier books). His friend Tobias, a former slave, beseeches him to help retrieve his wife Ruth from the South. Lydia, using the argument that they can pose as a couple with two slaves on the return, insists on going with them (she's also keeping an eye on Will, whose own eye was turned a bit by a circus performer in the last book). Unfortunately once the trio arrives in the Great Dismal swamp and find Ruth, they also find themselves embroiled in the murder of Scipio, an escaped slave who had a number of enemies. Will is very much an outsider but somehow manages to solve the crime. This isn't, to be honest, the best of the series but it's an ambitious effort to take Will outside his comfort zone and explore the issues which faced escaped slaves. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. I'm looking forward to the next one.

This is the ninth title in Eleanore Kuhns' Will Reese series, but the first I've read. That being the case, I want to note right off that I was able to comfortably follow both the action of this novel and the trajectory of the series nonetheless. Kuhn has a deft touch and can provide background information without being heavy-handed.

The central problem of this novel is fascinating. In 1800, a white man, Will Reese, joins his Black friend, Tobias, on a journey to "the great dismal," a swamp which is home to small communities of escaped slaves. Will's wife, still distrustful of him after an unconsummated dalliance he had with a circus performer decides to accompany them. Once there, a murder occurs and Reese, who has had some experience as an amateur detective, feels he can't leave until it is solved.

The central mystery is solid, but what really makes this novel a gripping read is its presentation of the tensions of life in the slave-owning south. Will has skin privilege (he gets a last name, Tobias doesn't, among other things) and is naive enough to be regularly surprised by Black characters' distrust of him. The Black population in and around the swamp is interestingly varied, giving a sense of the many different statuses a Black person, escaped or free, might hold at this time. The village in the swamp houses both free Black and runaway slaves. A canal is being built nearby and the working crew includes both slaves "rented out" to the canal builders and escaped slaves, whose runaway status is ignored (perhaps only until the end of the work season, when they can be turned in for a reward). There's more interaction between the slave population on a nearby plantation and those (free and escaped) living in the swamp, than one might expect.

Will, no spoiler here, does solve the murder, he and his wife gradually warm to one another again, and a pair of potential couples in the swamp make progress of one kind or another in their relationship. This is a title that will have readers thinking along two lines simultaneously: the book's central plot and the variety of complicated power relationships between Black and white, and Black and Black, at that time.

I received a free electronic ARC of this title from the publisher via NetGalley. The opinions are my own.

This review was done for Historical Novels Review Magazine and per their policy I cannot post it until after the review is published in February. After it is published online, I will come back and update my review.

1800 Maine. Will Rees is asked by old friend Tobias, to travel to Virginia to help bring his pregnant wife Ruth back to the north. On arriving at the Great Dismal Swamp, place of a small community of absconded slaves, they are soon embroiled in a murder, and Tobias is the main suspect. But then there is another murder, can Will discover the motives and the murderer.
An enjoyable and interesting slow-paced historical mystery with its well-rounded main characters.
Another good addition to this series.
An ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

In 1800 Will Rees the weaver leaves the North to help his friend Tobias retrieve his female lover who is trapped in the South. The slaves are hiding in the Great Dismal swamp and murder is lurking among them. Will Rees has to solve the murders and help keep the escaped slaves safe. Nothing is as it seems. Complicated historical mystery with interesting background on the fugitive slaves. Excellent reading.

I liked this book so much I began reading the series! The characters are very engaging and the author knows her time period. The whole series is fantastic for those who love historical mysteries with a little romance thrown in. Would definitely recommend to my customers.

Will Ryan, the Shaker weaver of Eleanor Kuhns' murder mysteries set in the late 18th century, learns in the newest that Black Lives Matter.

The Mainer heads South to Virginia's Great Dismal Swamp to help his enslaved friend retrieve his wife. Rees' wife insists on making the journey as the couple tries to get over a problem caused in the last book by Rees' fascination with a circus performer.

A murder in the village hidden in the swamp is a puzzle to solve. The setting is a good history lesson.

The Dismal Swamp was populated by hundreds of slaves, some rumored to have sheltered after a shipwreck, others to have escaped from plantations.

Life in the swamp is a struggle against snakes, insects, hunger and slave hunters.

The Reeses and readers learn about the lives of human beings too Black to pass for white.

This is the latest instalment in a long running series that was new to me. Will Rees, our hero, is a former Revolutionary War soldier in America who has earned a reputation for solving murders relying on brain rather then brawn. Now it is 1800 and though living in Maine, Will is persuaded by his old friend and former slave Tobias to head south to Virginia to help bring back Tobias's pregnant wife, Ruth to the North where they will both feel safe. Ruth is living amongst a community of self-sufficient absconded slaves in the Great Dismal Swamp, hiding from recapture and other brutality. But death and murder raises its head, not once, but twice - and, if it hadn't been for Will, nearly a third time. The historical background and atmosphere is accurate, bringing back to our attention at a very timely moment a way of life 200 years ago in America when racial prejudice was rife. Enjoyable.