Love these mysteries! They are fun. ( )

A solid 3-1/2 stars rounded up.

I enjoyed the back story of the orphaned sisters, Octavia who remains in Belgium, and Seraphine who leaves to marry and resettle in Wisconsin. Both are devoted to the lace making industry. The history of Belgian lace making is fascinating and I only wish even more time had been devoted to it. I have travelled to Bruges and visited the lace museum. I have watched the women weave their bobbins at dizzying speed. It is a sight to behold. I purchased a remnant of antique lace for a small fortune and look at it every day and remember my visit to the convent and the city of Bruges.

The story of the Belgian Walloon immigrants’ struggles in Wisconsin was also well told, informative and heartbreaking. The telling of their stories as part of the current story is powerful and allows the reader to become well acquainted with their history. Unfortunately I didn’t feel the modern day story was nearly as strong. Yes there is a mystery and it gets deeper and darker but there were too many tangents that I found distracting. I credit Ms. Ernst with being a good storyteller by tying it all together but still found some of it superfluous.

A minor point but some of the expressions, e.g. “Hunh”, “Holy Toboggans” just struck a discordant note. Thank you NetGalley and Midnight Ink for a copy ( )

The Lace Maker’s Secret is the ninth book in the Chole Effelson Mystery series.

This is a very enjoyable and interesting series, each book contains two stories. One being about Chole Effelson who works at Old World Collection as a curator of collections. The second being a historical story that the author skillfully ties into the Chole story.

In this book Chole is on her way to Green Bay, WI to visit the Heritage Hill State Historical Park, who wants to restore a Belgian-American home to how it would have been in the early 1900’s. She is also looking forward to seeing her old friend, Elise O’Rourke who is an expert on Belgian Lace. As Chole is nearing the Belgian Acres B&B, where she will be staying, she notices a summer-oven and having never seen one she stops and goes to inspect it. As she opens the door she is shocked to find a body. That body is soon identified as Hugh Lejune, a cousin of Sharon Bertrand owner of the B&B where Chole is staying. When Roy Galuska, restoration specialist, is found dead and then Elise goes missing, Chole knows she has to get busy searching for Elise and work to find the killer.

What I really enjoyed in this book(and others in this series) is the historical aspect of the book. The reader will follow Seraphine Lejune, her husband Jean-Paul, Etienne Lejune, Jean-Paul’s brother and Emelie, Etienne wife. Seraphine was very accomplished at making bobbin lace. These young folks come to America and settle near what would become Green Bay. The land that they were going to farm was virgin land and see what the two families had to go through to first provide shelter let alone being able to farm. In addition, they had to fight cholera and the great Peshtigo Fire of 1871. This gained no notoriety as it started on the same day as the Great Chicago Fire. This historical part of the book was extremely interesting and exciting to read what the early settlers had to endure begin their new lives in their new country.

A wonderful addition to this very exciting series. It is well-plotted and well written with wonderful characters.

I will be watching for the next book in this series. ( )