A Veil Removed ~ Audio Book Blog Tour Review & Giveaway

THE HENRIETTA AND INSPECTOR HOWARD SERIES

BY MICHELLE COX

Genre:  Adult Fiction (18+)

Category:  Historical Mystery

Publisher:  Michelle Cox

Release dates: November 2017; April 2017; April 2018; April 2019; April 2020

Content Rating: R: Books 1-2 do not have any sex scenes, though there is sexual reference, Books 3-5 do have explicit sex scenes (tasteful). There is periodic swearing and violence, but not a lot. There are some dark themes (though not graphic examples) of suicide, prostitution, mob involvement, rape, drinking, homosexuality.

BOOK FOUR: 

A Veil Removed

Narrated by: Jayne A Entwistle

Length: 15 hrs and 11 mins

Genre: Adult Fiction (18+)

Category: Historical Mystery

Publisher: Michelle Cox

Audio Book Release Date: April 17, 2020

Content Rating: R: Books 3-5 have explicit sex scenes (tasteful). There is periodic swearing and violence, but not a lot. There are some dark themes (though not graphic examples) of suicide, prostitution, mob involvement, rape, drinking, homosexuality.

Murder is never far from this sexy couple . . . even during the holidays! Their honeymoon abruptly ended by the untimely death of Alcott Howard, Clive and Henrietta return to Highbury, where Clive discovers all is not as it should be. 

Increasingly convinced that his father’s death was not an accident, Clive launches his own investigation, despite his mother’s belief that he has become “mentally disturbed” with grief.

Henrietta eventually joins forces with Clive on their first real case, which becomes darker―and deadlier―than they imagined as they get closer to the truth behind Alcott’s troubled affairs. Meanwhile, Henrietta’s sister, Elsie, begins, at Henrietta’s orchestration, to take classes at a women’s college―an attempt to evade her troubles and prevent any

further romantic temptations. When she meets a bookish German custodian at the school, however, he challenges her to think for herself . . .even as she discovers some shocking secrets about his past life.

 Buy the Book:
Amazon.com ~ Chirp ~ Apple
Kobo ~ Google Store

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Book Review: 

HALL WAYS REVIEW. Audio Book / Print Combo Review. Even though A Veil Removed is the fourth of five books in this series, I’m having a bit of reader remorse. I started with the fifth book, then jumped back to the first and read the first four in sequence. And now my journey is over. Ever the optimist, I’m holding out hope that a sixth book is in the works.

Did I mention I’ve now read all five of the books? *Sniffs. Dabs eyes.* While I think several of them stand alone, I don’t think A Veil Removed is one of them.  But I am glad the author didn’t spend the time on adding back-story and bring-to-dates because the book was already the longest of all five in the series, coming in at just over fifteen hours of listening. For those jumping into the series mid-stream, they will likely be confused. However, if you’ve read the series books, by the time you get here you are fully invested in the characters and know what you need to know about their background. And in this one, we go more in depth with Elsie and have more action with Henrietta and see Henrietta quite naturally falling into the role of a wealthy, sophisticated woman – and a ballsy one at that! Go Hen!

“This whole story had a flavor of egregious unbelievability to it.”

I just love the setting of 1930s Chicago, and one of the best parts of Michelle Cox’s writing is how she brings it to life through the dialogue. Add to that Cox’s glorious descriptions, and amazing narrator Jane Entwistle’s perfect performances, spending time between the pages is really like spending time in that bygone era. Speaking of the narration, Entwistle voices several new characters with an international flair, including a French chef (what? A man in the kitchen?) and Gunther, the gentle German handyman at Elsie’s college. She is quite a talented narrator, and I can’t imagine having any other partner when I read this series with my ears.

In A Veil Removed, romance scenes between Clive and Henrietta get a little steamier than the prior book, but the scenes are natural and not too graphic or over-the-top. The language is often coarse, as in the other books in the series, but it’s appropriate for the characters and situations.  Cox treats us to a new mystery that’s solved, resolution to an old one, a couple of big reveals and throws some new shade around a couple of characters who’ve thus far been in the background.  As has been typical for the Henrietta and Inspector Howard series books, A Veil Removed ends with a wide open, holy cow moment (actually, there are two: one each for Hen & Elsie). You don’t have to keep reading, but you’ll want to once those two intriguing bombs are dropped.

I must get on my soapbox a bit here:  I am not sure when it became a thing for authors to be required to not leave cliffhangers. Readers who think this is a cheat or trickery on the author’s part puzzle me. This is clearly a series, and authors are entitled to end each installment however they wish. Sure, I love a neatly tied-up package of plots, but I also like a little something to ponder and give me a reason to come back for more.  Michelle Cox masters the perfect ending balance by resolving what needs to be resolved and tempting us with what has yet to develop.

I highly recommend the series, and I recommend starting it with book one and binge reading through book five. But brace yourself if you do – you are going to miss this world and its characters when the series is done.

Though I bought my own print copy, thank you to the author and iRead Book Tours for providing an audio download in exchange for my honest opinion – the only kind I give. 

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OTHER BOOKS IN THE SERIES:

BOOK ONE: 

A Girl Like You
Click to read the Hall Ways Blog Audio Book Review!

Book Description:  Henrietta Von Harmon works as a 26 girl at a corner bar on Chicago’s northwest side. It’s 1935, but things still aren’t looking up since the big crash and her father’s subsequent suicide, leaving Henrietta to care for her antagonistic mother and younger siblings. Henrietta is eventually persuaded to take a job as a taxi dancer at a local dance hall—and just when she’s beginning to enjoy herself, the floor matron turns up dead. When aloof Inspector Clive Howard appears on the scene, Henrietta agrees to go undercover for him—and is plunged into Chicago’s grittier underworld. Meanwhile, she’s still busy playing mother hen to her younger siblings, as well as to pesky neighborhood boy Stanley, who believes himself in love with her and keeps popping up in the most unlikely places, determined to keep Henrietta safe—even from the Inspector, if need be. Despite his efforts, however, and his penchant for messing up the Inspector’s investigation, the lovely Henrietta and the impenetrable Inspector find themselves drawn to each other in most

unsuitable ways.

 Buy the Book:
Audible  ~Amazon.com
Chirp ~ Apple ~ Kobo ~ Google Store

BOOK TWO: 

A Ring of Truth

Click to read the Hall Ways Blog Audio Book Review!

Book Description:  

In this second book of the series, Henrietta and Clive delightfully rewrite Pride and Prejudice―with a hint of mystery! Newly engaged, Clive and Henrietta now begin the difficult task of meeting each other’s family. “Difficult” because Clive has neglected to tell Henrietta that he is in fact the heir to the Howard estate and fortune, and Henrietta has just discovered that her mother has been hiding secrets about her past as well. 

When Clive brings Henrietta to the family estate to meet his parents, they are less than enthused about his impoverished intended. Left alone in this extravagant new world when Clive returns to the city, Henrietta finds herself more at home with the servants than his family, much to the disapproval of Mrs. Howard―and soon gets caught up in the disappearance of an elderly servant’s ring, not realizing that in doing so she has become part of a bigger, darker plot. 

As Clive and Henrietta attempt to discover the truth in the two very different worlds unraveling around them, they both begin to wonder: Are they meant for each other after all?

Buy the Book:
Audible  ~Amazon.com
Chirp ~ Apple ~ Kobo ~ Google Store

BOOK THREE: 

A Promise Given

Click to read the Hall Ways Blog Audio Book Review!

This third book in the Henrietta and Inspector Howard series provides a delightful romp through the English countryside and back. Anxious to be married, Henrietta and Clive push forward with their wedding plans despite their family differences, made worse now by Oldrich Exley’s attempts to control the Von Harmons. 

When the long-awaited wedding day arrives, there is more unfolding than just Clive and Henrietta’s vows of love. Stanley and Elsie’s relationship is sorely tested by the presence of the dashing Lieutenant Harrison Barnes-Smith and by Henrietta’s friend Rose―a situation that grows increasingly dark and confused as time goes on. 

As Clive and Henrietta begin their honeymoon at Castle Linley, the Howards’ ancestral estate in England, they encounter a whole new host of characters, including the eccentric Lord and Lady Linley and Clive’s mysterious cousin, Wallace. When a man is murdered in the village on the night of a house party at the Castle, Wallace comes under suspicion―and Clive and Henrietta are reluctantly drawn into the case, despite Clive’s anxiety at involving his new bride and Henrietta’s distracting news from home. Delicately attempting to work together for the first time, Clive and Henrietta set out to prove Wallace’s innocence, uncovering as they do so some rather shocking truths that will shake the Linley name and estate forever.

Buy the Book:
Audible  ~ Amazon.com
Chirp ~ Apple ~ Kobo ~ Google Store

BOOK FIVE: 
A Child Lost
Click to read the Hall Ways Blog Audio Book Review!

A spiritualist, an insane asylum, a lost little girl . . . When Clive, anxious to distract a depressed Henrietta, begs Sergeant Frank

Davis for a case, he is assigned to investi-gating a seemingly boring affair: a spiritualist woman operating in an abandoned schoolhouse on the edge of town who is suspected of robbing people of their valuables.

What begins as an open and shut case becomes more complicated, however, when Henrietta―much to Clive’s dismay―begins to believe the spiritualist's strange ramblings. Meanwhile, Elsie implores Clive and Henrietta to help her and the object of her budding love, Gunther, locate the whereabouts of one Liesel Klinkhammer, the German woman Gunther has traveled to America to find and the mother of the little girl, Anna, whom he has brought along with him. The search leads them to Dunning Asylum, where they discover some terrible truths about Liesel.

When the child, Anna, is herself mistakenly admitted to the asylum after an epileptic fit, Clive and Henrietta return to Dunning to retrieve her. This time, however, Henrietta begins to suspect that something darker may be happening. When Clive doesn’t believe her, she decides to take matters into her own hands . . . with horrifying results.

Buy the Book:
Audible ~ Amazon.com
Chirp ~ Apple ~ Kobo

MEET THE NARRATOR : Jayne Entwistle was born in the North of England and lived in a myriad of places (Vancouver, San Francisco, Tucson, Sequim, Seattle) before landing in Los Angeles. She is an avid improviser who hitched her space-work wagon to Patrick Bristow’s company, Improvatorium, where she studied, taught, directed and performed improv. She is an award-winning audio book narrator best known for her narration of the Flavia de Luce series by Alan Bradley. She also received the 2015 Odyssey Honour Award for The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place by Julie Berry and the 2016 Odyssey Award for The War that Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley.   When not inhaling books for work or pleasure, Jayne works in film, television and commercials. The biggest star she has ever worked with is Shaquille O’Neal. He is quite literally THE biggest star she has ever worked with. Ever. He’s really big!

MEET THE AUTHOR: Michelle Cox is the author of the multiple award-winning Henrietta and Inspector Howard series as well as “Novel Notes of Local Lore,” a weekly blog dedicated to Chicago’s forgotten residents. She suspects she may have once lived in the 1930s and, having yet to discover a handy time machine lying around, has resorted to writing about the era as a way of getting herself back there. Coincidentally, her books have been praised by Kirkus, Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, Booklist, and many others, so she might be on to something. Unbeknownst to most, Michelle hoards board games she doesn’t have time to play and is, not surprisingly, addicted to period dramas and big band music. Also marmalade.

Website    Facebook   Twitter 
Instagram   Goodreads

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ENTER THE GIVEAWAY! 

$100 Amazon Gift Card courtesy of Michelle Cox,

author of the Henrietta and Inspector Howard Mystery Series 

(ends Nov 8)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour Schedule:

Aug 31 - Bookish Paradise – series spotlight / guest post / giveaway

Aug 31 – Hall Ways Blog – audiobook review of A Girl Like You / giveaway

Aug 31 - Rockin' Book Reviews – audiobook review of A Girl Like You / guest post / giveaway

Sep 1 – Lamon Reviews – audiobook review of A Girl Like You / giveaway

Sep 1 - Rebecca Graf on Medium - audiobook review of A Girl Like You

Sep 2 – Bookriot – audiobook review for A Child Lost / author interview / giveaway

Sep 2 - Rajiv's Reviews - audiobook review of A Girl Like You / giveaway

Sep 2 - Library of Clean Reads - audiobook review of A Girl Like You / giveaway

Sep 3 – Locks, Hooks and Books – audiobook review of A Girl Like You / giveaway

Sep 3 - Amy's Booket List - audiobook review of A Girl Like You

Sep 4 - Rebecca Graf on Medium - audiobook review of A Ring of Truth Sep 4 - Rajiv's Reviews - audiobook review of A Ring of Truth / giveaway

Sep 7 – Rockin' Book Reviews – audiobook review of A Ring of Truth / giveaway

Sep 7 – Books for Books – audiobook review of A Girl Like You

Sep 7 - Rajiv's Reviews - audiobook review of A Promise Given / giveaway

Sep 8 – Sefina Hawke's Books – series spotlight

Sep 8 - Rebecca Graf on Medium - audiobook review of A Promise Given

Sep 9 – Jazzy Book Reviews – series spotlight / guest post / giveaway

Sep 9 - Rajiv's Reviews - audiobook review of A Veil Removed / giveaway

Sep 9 - Library of Clean Reads - audiobook review of A Ring of Truth / giveaway

Sep 10 - Amy's Booket List - audiobook review of A Ring of Truth

Sep 10 - Rosepoint Publishing - audiobook review of A Girl Like You

Sep 11 – Books for Books – audiobook review of A Ring of Truth

Sep 11- Rebecca Graf on Medium - audiobook review of A Veil Removed

Sep 14 – Hall Ways Blog – audiobook review of A Ring of Truth / giveaway

Sep 14 – Rockin' Book Reviews – audiobook review of A Promise Given / giveaway

Sep 14 - Rajiv's Reviews - audiobook review of A Child Lost / giveaway

Sep 15 – Olio By Marilyn – audiobook review of A Girl Like You / giveaway

Sep 15 - Rebecca Graf on Medium - audiobook review of A Child Lost

Sep 16 – Rockin' Book Reviews – audiobook review of A Veil Removed / giveaway

Sep 16 - Library of Clean Reads - audiobook review of A Promise Given / giveaway

Sep 17 – Locks, Hooks and Books – audiobook review of A Ring of Truth / giveaway

Sep 17 - Amy's Booket List - audiobook review of A Promise Given

Sep 18 - Books for Books – audiobook review of A Promise Given

Sep 18 - From the TBR Pile - audiobook review of A Girl Like You

Sep 21 - Books for Books – audiobook review of A Veil Removed

Sep 21 – Hall Ways Blog – audiobook review of A Promise Given / giveaway

Sep 22 - Rockin' Book Reviews – audiobook review of A Child Lost / giveaway

Sep 22 – Olio By Marilyn – audiobook review of A Ring of Truth / giveaway

Sep 23 – Book Corner News and Reviews – audiobook review of A Veil Removed / giveaway

Sep 23 - Library of Clean Reads - audiobook review of A Veil Removed / giveaway

Sep 24 – Locks, Hooks and Books – audiobook review of A Promise Given / giveaway

Sep 24 - Amy's Booket List - audiobook review of A Veil Removed

Sep 25 – Books for Books – audiobook review of A Child Lost

Sep 25 - From the TBR Pile - audiobook review of A Ring of Truth

Sep 28 – Hall Ways Blog – audiobook review of A Veil Removed / giveaway

Sep 28 - From the TBR Pile - audiobook review of A Promise Given

Sep 29 - Locks, Hooks and Books – audiobook review of A Veil Removed / giveaway

Sep 30 – Olio By Marilyn – audiobook review of A Promise Given / giveaway

Sep 30 - Library of Clean Reads - audiobook review of A Child Lost / giveawaySep 30 - From the TBR Pile - audiobook review of A Veil Removed

Oct 1 – Olio By Marilyn – audiobook review of A Veil Removed / giveaway

Oct 1 - History from a Woman’s Perspective  - audiobook review of A Girl Like You

Oct 1 - Amy's Booket List - audiobook review of A Child Lost

Oct 2 – Locks, Hooks and Books – audiobook review of A Child Lost / giveaway

Oct 2 - From the TBR Pile - audiobook review of A Child Lost