Consequences of Sin is being called an “Edwardian Mystery”. It introduces a Ursula Marlow to the reader. An Edwardian Mystery seems to be a novel set in England in the late 1800’s or early 1900’s and tells us quite a bit about what it was like to be a feminist at the beginning of the movement.

Ursula is a great heroine-she speaks her mind, usually without offending too much, even to her father-unheard of during this particular time in history. She has friends of questionable background (men, lesbians, other feminists who get themselves arrested) and doesn’t care. This is one lady who will put herself in harms way to help a friend in need.

Marlow is very atypical, she’s a heiress and an Oxford graduate. Consequences of Sin takes Ursula out of her more than charmed life when a fellow suffragette and friend wakes up next to the dead body of her girlfriend. She is not only accused of the murder, but arrested for it as well. Ursula noses around to find out all she can about the mystery to clear her friend. The further she gets into the investigation the more she realizes that her own father has a connection not only to the murder victim but several other murders as well.

Then her own father is murdered. To find out why and where it will all end and if she’s the next person on the “list” to die, Ursula follows the trail of leads on a shadowy expedition to Venezuela, where most of the story seems to have begun over 20 years before.

This isn’t my usual “cup of tea” in mysteries, but I found myself enjoying Ursula, her personality, how she could handle herself no matter what the situation and all the very interesting historical information.

The plot is action-packed, so the reading goes very quickly and it is written so well that you really don’t realize how much information you are taking in. Ursula is a very realistic character. What will be interesting to see, since this is the first of what is to be a series of Ursula Marlow Edwardian Mysteries, is how this feminist heroine grows and changes from novel to novel.

Will she continue to get involved in the murders of other feminists? Will she keep her rather questionable-for-the-times friends? Will the budding romance with Lord Oliver Wrotham lead to marriage?

I for one am very interested to find out.