Flora’s Secret – by Anita Davison – Enjoyable and A Nice Surprise – I look forward to reading more books by Anita Davison

Since mysteries are one of my favorite genres I was excited at the opportunity to read a book by an author whose work is new to me.  That’s why I selected this historical fiction by Anita Davison, Flora’s Secret.

Flora’s Secret is the story about a young governess, Flora Maguire, who is accompanying her charge Eddy Vaughn as they journey home to England on the maiden voyage of the Minneapolis.  Any hope for smooth sailing is quickly abandoned when Flora finds a dead body at the bottom of stairway.  Is it an accident or murder?  Spunky Miss Maguire is not one to be easily deterred and will do whatever she can to get to the bottom of this man’s untimely death.  Thrown into the mix is a shipboard romance with a fine gentleman Mr. Bunny Harrington. 

I really enjoyed this book.  The main characters well developed, interesting and very likable.  The author did a great job in describing people and scenes.  She gave enough details for the reader to imagine the scenes, but not too much.  The characters, Flora and Bunny, where very likable; people I would want to know.  I’m hopeful their story will continue in another book.  Other characters were intriguing and it was fun to try and figure out who the good guys were and the bad guys were. 

While this book is not from a Christian writer and publisher, I appreciated the fact that the story was told and developed without profanity and sexually explicit scenes.  It's clean historical fiction, a mystery with a bit of romance, that focused on developing characters and the storyline.  This was the first book I’ve read by Anita Davison and I look forward to reading more of her books. 

I would like to thank NetGalley and Aria Publishers for the opportunity to read Flora’s Secret by Anita Davison.  I was under no obligation to give a favorable review.