Deception on Sable Hill

For a novel with “mystery” in the series title, I was expecting a bit more mystery than appears on the back cover copy. Basically that's it—women getting slashed, by a guy who seems to know society people intimately but who hates them. No clues to put together. No explanation of motive, no mention of how the culprit would know these women so intimately. The number of victims even seemed to change depending on who was mentioning it. No detail as to how a stranger could enter, slash/kill, and vanish so skillfully without a soul seeing them. Zero explanation about how a policeman could be close enough once to get stabbed but not see or hear anything.

All the page space was mostly about two romances.

Hope House was brought up as a potential plot point and dropped without explanation when a mishap occurs on the way there (like a side note on how to get a character in a particular place, perhaps?)

A doctor views a victim and talks about the extreme loss of blood but then says “oh, she'll live” very confidently and sends her on a carriage ride before bothering to stitch up her wounds. If she was that critical, she wouldn't survive without being stitched up before being bounced in a conveyance; and he seems to have forgotten infection when speaking so confidently. Infection killed at least twice as many folks back then as injuries did.

It's published by Zondervan, a famous Christian house, but speaks a generic “faith in God or lack thereof” in just a couple of spots; no mention of Jesus as the reason for faith. Two outright profanities and one mention of a certain neighborhood being “Godforsaken.” Patent lie, but the supposed-believer seems to think it true because of the crime and poverty rate. Overall disappointing.