A Dream of Death

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Average customer rating 4 (2 comments)

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A Dream of Death has an interesting premise and setting. Kate travels from Ohio to the Isle of Glenroth. If she had not promised her deceased husband, Bill that she would take care of Elenor if anything ever happened to him (I bet she is regretting it now) she would never set foot on remote island again since it is where her husband died in a sailing accident. Kate owns an antique shop in Jackson Falls, Ohio that her mother is currently watching while she is away. DI Tom Mallory is the only other guest at Elenor’s Glenroth House Hotel and Kate finds herself attracted to him. Elenor’s murder gives the pair the opportunity to spend more time together since Kate is determined to investigate despite being told several times to leave the case to the professionals. I admit to having a hard time liking our main character, but I am hopeful for improvement. Her behavior was off-putting at times as she jumped to conclusions and make sudden decisions based on little evidence or facts. Kate’s behavior reminds me of a younger woman instead of someone in their 40s (now, I am assuming she is in her 40s since she has two children in college. We are never really told her age). There are some lovely secondary characters that I liked, and I felt bad for Bo (such a sweet man). The Isle of Glenroth is a unique and beautiful setting. I loved the descriptions of this Scottish island. I found this sentence compelling “Isle of Glenroth rose before me like Brigadoon materializing in the Highland mist”. The mystery was clever and thought out with misdirection that will send readers down the rabbit hole. There is a lack of clues to help readers in solving the crime. I like how the two hundred year old unsolved murders were worked into the story. It added depth to A Dream of Death. I appreciated that all threads of the whodunit were wrapped up at the end of the book. The paranormal element was miniscule. I wanted more of it and I did not like how Kate wrote it off (disappointing). The “romance” between Kate and Tom was lacking. It needed more development or build up earlier in the book so what happened at the end would make more sense. The author was overly descriptive of food, clothing and mundane details (like washing hair, drying it with towel, combing it behind ears, putting on lotion, etc.). My favorite phrase from A Dream of Death is “don’t let your yesterdays define you”. A Dream of Death is a good beginning to A Kate Hamilton Mystery series. A Dream of Death has an intriguing mystery, quaint Scottish isle, disappearing antiques, a dashing inspector and a determined antiques dealer.

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Kate Hamilton has returned to the Isle of Glenroth off the coast of Scotland, something she swore she would never do after the death of her husband three years ago. She’s come in response to a plea for help from her sister-in-law, Elenor, but Elenor won’t say more until after the Tartan Ball she is hosting for island residence the night Kate arrives. Elenor makes a couple of shocking announcements during the ball and then turns up murdered the next morning. Kate sees parallels to a 200-year-old crime from the island’s past that has recently been brought to back to prominence thanks to a bestselling novel. The police dismiss the similarity as a coincidence, but is Kate on to something? I was hesitant to pick up this book because of all the books already on my to be read mountain range, but I’m glad I did. This book has a lot going on with a possible ghost, an old house, and the mystery from the past that might be leading to the murder in the present all coming into play. Coupled with the dreary weather, and I got a Gothic feel as I read this book. That atmosphere is enhanced by characters who are all strong, giving us plenty of suspects with motives and secrets all their own. With everything going on, the pace never lags, and I was frustrated every time I had to put the book down. Even though Kate isn’t at home for this book, we still got a glimpse of her family, and I hope we get to see more of them in future books. Kate owns an antique shop, and her knowledge of antiques came into play here in an interesting way. This is a strong debut that needs to be on your to be read list.