Spring of Hope is the fourth Gaslight historical mystery by Cora Harrison. Released 1st March 2022 by Severn House, it's 240 pages and is available in hardcover and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

This is an engaging and well written historical mystery featuring historical characters and a framework of actual historical events and people. It's set in 1859 in and around London environs and Dickens has befriended English civil engineer Joseph Bazalgette who is working on London's intractable sewage problem and the resulting dangers to the general population. His friend Wilkie Collins (yes, that one) has domestic issues in the form of a servant and her daughter who are terrified of something/someone from their past.

I was impressed that the author managed to weave the fiction around the bones of historical events so skillfully that it wasn't always clear where fact shaded into fiction. She's clearly very adept at research and giving the writing verisimilitude of the period without being at all impenetrable or awkward to modern ears.

The pacing was relaxed, but I didn't find it overly slow and never found my interest waning. The climax and denouement were satisfying and well written. It was enjoyable enough to me that I fully intend to seek out the three previous books. The background is presented well enough that it worked well as a standalone story.

Four stars. Definitely one for readers who enjoy historical mystery.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes

This is a well-written cozy mystery featuring amateur sleuths Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens as they attempt to solve a murder that occurred during an engineering conference. This fourth book in the Gaslight series does not disappoint.

I received a free copy of this book from Severn House via Netgalley. My review is voluntary and my opinions are my own.

I love this series and I love Cora Harrison's historical mysteries
This was excellent, well developed, gripping, entertaining.
Well researched historical background, interesting characters, solid mystery.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I came to this as a great fan of the author's Mother Superior mystery series set in Cork in the 1920's, and was really worried that this change of period and scene would not work for me. But Cora Harrison's story telling wins through, and the bringing to life of Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins (who indeed befriended each other in real life) makes for good reading. The plot works, even if we can guess the villain fairly early on, and the sights and smells of Victorian England is readily brought to life. I look forward to more in this series - but also to the Irish set series from this author as well.

’Spring of Hope’ by Cora Harrison is the fourth in her Gaslight Mystery Series. Famous writers Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens are friends and often hold dinner parties for eminent Victorians, most recently for engineers. As London tries to recover from the ‘Great Stink’ of 1859, engineers such as Joseph Bazalgette try to find a solution to the malodorous sewage problem facing the city. When showcasing their ideas a gruesome death occurs. Was it an accident? Or is there more to it? Wilkie and Dickens take it upon themselves to investigate. Dickens needs a distraction from his complicated home life. Wilkie’s mind has been on his recently acquired young housekeeper and her delightful child. Her difficult past is making life in their household far from easy.

I liked that the author used real life characters in the story. Her fictionalised account of their lives made for a fascinating read. This is a very slow burn book and it takes until quite near the end of the book for an actual death to take place. There is a lot of build up, and much detail regarding sewage and the attempts to solve the problems with it.

The author cleverly takes the reader down one path, letting us think we have solved the crime, only to take a twist in the other direction. A good read for lovers of the Victorian era.

I was given this ARC to review.

Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens, as reimagined in Cora Harrison’s series set in mid-19th century London, are an unlikely, but intriguing pair. Dickens is an incorrigible meddler, and he drags a mostly reluctant Collins along as he investigates and probes the issues of the day. In Spring of Hope, the pair are involved in plans to solve London’s sewage problem.

Collins is portrayed as the highly romantic rescuer of a mysterious woman and child, and he alternately tries to keep her hidden, and investigate her history.

Quirky characters and an interesting historical setting keep this series intriguing.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

It's 1859 and Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins find themselves investigating a murder connected to the Great London Sewer System. And, Collins rescues a woman - Caroline Graves - from an abuser. She eventually becomes his mistress, I leaned quite a bit about the sewer and found myself poking around for more info about Collins. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. For fans of historical mysteries.

Another compelling journey into the darkness of English society in the 1850s with the genial Wilkie Collins and his friend Charles Dickens as they try to painstakingly untangle the various threads behind the death of a man during an engineering experiment. Was it a murder or an unfortunate accident?

Once again Cora Harrison offers us a well crafted whodunit, a worthy addition to her Gaslight Mystery Series full of interesting historical details, a vast and colorful fictional tapestry of Victorian England with a cast of exquisitely drawn characters, a clever plot that involves human trafficking, scientific progress, gender inequality, greed, ambition, violence against women, political shenanigans and murder. A Dickensian dish of human frailties during the great Industrial Revolution.

Highly recommended and to be enjoyed without any moderation whatsoever!

Many thanks to Netgalley and Canongate/Severn House for this terrific ARC

Many thanks to NetGalley and Severn House for this Advanced Reader Copy and the opportunity to review “Spring of Hope.” All opinions and comments are my own.

“Spring of Hope” is part of “The Gaslight Mysteries” series, and features Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens as amateur detectives. This one is more Collins than Dickens. And what it really is, is more a history lesson than a mystery. The main plot involves a description in excruciating detail of the early days of the updated London sewer system, in the guise of a bit of a mystery; the death of a man who finds himself at a sewer design contest exhibition. The secondary plot, which takes up a lot of the book, is the author’s flowery explanation of how Wilkie Collins met his eventual mistress, Caroline Graves and her daughter, romanticizing it as Collins rescuing her from a house he’s passing by.

During all this you’ll learn more than you will ever want to know about Portland Cement. And the solution to London’s sewage problem. And the book’s title. What you don’t get is much of a murder mystery. The book is almost over before we get to the event outlined in the prologue. Oh, we do get the author going through all the suspects, we get some red herrings thrown in, and we found out more about the victim. And Mr. Dickens and Mr. Collins put their heads together and figure out WHAT TO DO. By then I didn’t much care.

There’s a note to the reader that explains about all the real people in the book. There’s a whole bunch of them.

Keen And Vivid…
The fourth in the Gaslight Mystery series and another intriguing investigation for, the writers come amateur sleuths, Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens. With a keen and vivid sense of time and place and a vein of wry humour, this is an atmospheric tale of murder most foul with a wholly credible cast populating the plotline.

An interesting read about famous authors Charles Dickens and Willie Collins who team up to solve a murder amidst " The Great Stink" and his famous friends who gather for dinner at his home to discuss solving the horrific sewage problem plaguing London.

1859 Wilkie Collins has rescued a mother and her child from an abuser. But who is he. Meanwhile Collins and Dickens with various people become involved in solving London's sewerage problem.
The story is a very slow build up to the one murder late in the story.
Unfortunately this story did not keep my interest as with others in the series. Though it is a well-written historical story with its cast of varied and likeable characters.
An ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Wilkie Collins, on a dark and stormy night, rescues a woman and her child from a house where they are imprisoned. He takes them home and makes them his family. They settle in, but they will not tell him who their jailer was.

Then one night when Collins is entertaining his good friend Charles Dickens and a group of engineers searching for ideas to cure London of its sewage problems, the child hears a familiar voice that terrorizes her. But she will not identify the source.

"Spring of Hope" is the fourth in Cora Harrison's mystery series partnering Collins and Dickens. In this volume, Collins has just published "Woman in White", and Dickens is having to deal with family dynamics.

This entire series is filled with "I can't believe that!" passages that send the reader to the nearest search engine to learn that, yes, she's not making that up. It's historical but not all is fiction.