Deception at Sable Hill by Shelley Gray

Deception on Sable Hill is book two in the Chicago World's Fair Mystery. We meet Eloisa Corstairs in the previous book where she was violated by Douglas Sloan. It is not necessary to read the previous book as the events that happened to Eloisa are summarized in the beginning of this book. She keep all this pain to herself. She felt she was ruined. I felt bad for the character that she was not able to share this pain with her mother. Her mother only seemed to care about Eloisa marrying the right person, a person of her same station in life, a person with as much prestige and wealth as the Corstairs. Her mother never caught on that her daughter has suffered greatly at the hands of Douglas. Even the servants sensed that she had gone through great pain. I particularly liked her personal maid Juliette who was more like a personal friend than a maid. I am hoping that her life will be explored should there be a third book in this series.

There was a police detective who knew what happened to Eloisa and he helped her overcome many of her fears. They grew to care a great deal for each other but can they overcome the social obstacles? Sean Ryan was from a poor Irish family with no money. Could he possibly have a future with the beautiful Eloisa Corstairs?

The mystery in the novel was the Slasher who seemed to be targeting young women of wealth and prestige. I felt that this storyline was not developed enough to hold avid readers of mystery and suspense. The slasher was revealed at the end of the book and was not the person that I suspected.

Thanks to Netgalley and Zondervan for providing me an e-copy of this book to review. This book is due to be released on April 7, 2015.