The Woman in the Camphor Trunk

An Anna Blanc Mystery, Book 2

De: Jennifer Kincheloe

Narrado por: Moira Quirk

Los Angeles, 1908. Ex-heiress Anna Blanc is precariously employed by the Los Angeles Police Department, reforming delinquent children and minding lady jailbirds. Badly. What she really wants is to trap criminals and be alone with the delicious Detective Joe Singer—both pursuits that could get her fired. If she loses her income, she’ll be on the street. While hunting truants in Griffith Park, Anna and Joe discover the body of a young John Doe. With Anna’s job on the line, Joe warns her away, but Anna can't resist. She's on the case.

Meanwhile, Anna begins getting strange floral arrangements from an unknown admirer. Following the proverbial petals leads her to another crime--one close to home. Suddenly pitted against Joe, Anna must examine her loyalties and solve the crimes, even if it means losing the man she loves.

Inspired by true events.

©2017 Jennifer Kincheloe (P)2017 Jennifer Kincheloe

Start With A Head, End With A Body

Basically a good story, but, the main character is way too selfish and head strong. Anna Blanc wants people to treat her like the wealthy socialite she was born while she acts like she pleases without regard for others. Accustomed to having someone else pay the bills, she is unable to think ahead that she must pay for things herself. Unfortunately, her quirks became tiresome throughout the story. Too cutesy for my taste. I was gifted this from Audiobookworm for my honest review.

Fantastic!

I love Anna Blanc and her stories!! But I think the inventive, prefect narration brings it all together and up a notch. If I could, it would get 6 stars. Great job Jennifer Kincheloe and Moira Quirk!!

Anna Blanc Takes L.A.'s Chinatown by Storm

Assistant Matron Anna Blanc is an amazing detective, perhaps the best one on the L.A. police force in the early 1900s.
But she's a cartoon character who blunders her way into situations most young women would avoid. Like many detectives, she's so brilliant that she can see things clearly that others can not. But Anna, who is clearly on her own planet, always succeeds in making a mess of situations and finds herself back peddling. Here, she tackles a murder in L.A.'s Chinatown with her usual insight, and 'bull in a china shop' eagerness. It's a fun and sobering story based on some historical events.

I received this audiobook at no-cost from Audiobookworm Promotions. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.

Good Mystery!

This is a fun story by Kincheloe! I love mysteries in general so I’m a big fan of reading different types of mystery genres. This is a good historical mystery novel. It transported me to the time period and the main character was hilarious! She was fun and awesome to read about. I love the detective skills and I felt that this could be realistic. Everything flowed well and I highly recommend for mystery fans. I give it a 5/5!

Narrator Quirk has a great voice. She does so well with all the characters and I love love love this! Her tone and accents are great! The production value is good. Everything flows smoothly and nothing is off. I give the audio a 5/5!

Charming heroine & exciting setting

"As a teen, Anna had indeed broken in to drink the communion wine, because she needed the extra holiness."

I've not been so madly in love with a heroine in a long time as I am with Anna Blanc. I gushed about her in my review of Kincheloe's first book, The Secret Life of Anna Blanc, and this second historical mystery featuring our plucky, daring, poised, naive, sweet, reckless girl was so satisfying and exciting.

I tend to drop serial historical mysteries because at a certain point it feels like the interpersonal stuff with the main characters gets frozen at a certain point to ensure that readers can drop into new releases without wondering what they missed. Possibly this could happen with Kincheloe's series if it goes on for ten more books but so far, I'm really impressed with how much had changed for Anna in this book.

The events of the first book are deeply reflected in Anna's life in this book, and I loved it. The book blurb gives a little away, so I won't recap, but I will say that Anna's decisions aren't waved off in favor of keeping her a socialite-with-a-secret. Her secret came out in a big way in the first book, and Anna is now disowned and struggling to make ends meet on her police matron's salary.

The historical detail in this book was as rich and detailed as The Secret Life of Anna Blanc; with Anna's sheltered life, there's much she doesn't know, and it allows the reader to learn with her. Kincheloe does it deftly, too, so it's not one painful info dump after another; it feels more organic and natural. The setting for this book is Chinatown, with the discovery of a dead woman stuffed in a trunk. It's a horrifying murder that threatens to unleash greater violence, from the criminal gangs that run opium and gambling dens to white mobs motivated by racist fears, and Anna and the police are frantic to quietly solve things without setting off any riots.

What was most interesting slash torturous for me in this read was Kincheloe's handling of Anna's romance with Detective Joe Singer. I don't think it gives anything away to say that Anna is firm -- as she was in the previous book -- that she doesn't want to be under the thumb of any man, even one she's wildly fond of; and as a result, she rebuffs Joe. While I hated this, I also admire it, because Anna is so consistent (even when she's not), and it made for an interesting secondary thread throughout the story. (I've been so deep in romance novels, it was painful for me when things didn't resolve with a neat HEA but when I took a breath, I appreciated that, too!)

I alternated between reading this book and listening to the audiobook. As with the first book, this one is read by Moira Quirk and it is marvelous. Quirk just is Anna but she also does the other characters -- including love interest Joe -- beautifully. Now that I'm listening to more audiobooks, I can appreciate what Quirk does well: her pacing is great (no need to speed up the book), her accents and male voices aren't cringe-y, and she's consistent in her characterizations. She just perfectly captures Anna's naivete and compassion.

I knew I was a fan after the first book; I'm now an Anna Blanc devotee after this one. (I've already finished the third book so now I am a slavish fangirl and can't wait for the fourth book to come out!)