A Poisoned Season by Tasha Alexander

It’s not often that one can see such a drastic difference in an author’s work from one book to the next, but that is the case with Tasha Alexander’s second novel. Her first, a Victorian mystery, And Only to Deceive, was full of contrived situations and glaring factual errors, the main one being howler monkeys from South America cavorting at an African campsite. Her main character, Lady Emily Ashton, was agreed to be “a complete ninny” by most of my local book group. Despite all of these flaws, there was still something appealing about the book. Evidently, that’s what led me to slide Alexander’s second book off the shelf recently.
It’s another mystery featuring Emily Ashton, who, surprisingly, is no longer a ninny. Indecisive, yes, but she’s much more sensible in A Poisoned Season, which as the title suggests, is about victims poisoned in an unusual way, as well as a cat burglar and a secret admirer. Connecting all of them are artifacts from Marie Antoinette and a nasty man claiming to be her descendant and heir to France’s throne. Since I don’t know a lot about that subject, I have no idea if the monkey business is repeated.
There are still flaws, such as the back stories of returning characters needing to be refreshed. The author doesn’t clearly explain who people are, as if she expects her readers to remember them all from the first book, no matter how much time has passed. The action grows repetitive in the middle of the novel, similar mysterious accidents happen too frequently and lose their effect. But overall, there’s been a leap of improvement between the two books and the series shows a lot of potential. I look forward to reading the further adventures of Emily Ashton, as long as she leaves ninnydom behind.

William Morrow 2007 308 pp. ISBN 978-0-06-117414