Dear Miss Hermione Books in Order

The Dear Miss Hermione books move Casey Daniels into Victorian mystery under the name Anastasia Hastings, and the result is a series with a different rhythm from her modern cozies. These stories begin in London in 1885, when sensible Violet Manville is left with an unusual job. Her aunt Adelia, who is secretly the famous advice columnist Miss Hermione, goes off on her own adventures and leaves Violet to answer the letters.

That desk job does not stay safe for long.

The letters are the series engine. What begins as advice about domestic worries and social problems quickly opens into deeper trouble, desperate women, missing girls, strange institutions, and murder. Violet is a strong lead for this kind of story because she is practical, observant, and much less sentimental than the world around her expects her to be. Her dreamy half sister Sephora gives the series a different energy, and the household's capable housekeeper, Bunty, rounds out the team nicely.

The first books show how flexible the setup can be. Of Manners and Murder sends Violet from the advice column into the aftermath of a suspicious death in the countryside. Of Hoaxes and Homicide expands the world by drawing her toward a disturbing spiritual group and another dangerous disappearance. The point is not just solving one crime. It is watching Violet learn how much power, and risk, can come from being the unseen woman behind a trusted public voice.

These are historical mysteries, but they are written to move. The pleasures are familiar ones: sharp dialogue, social rules that matter, good use of setting, and a heroine who keeps noticing what everyone else is willing to excuse.

If you like Victorian sleuths but want something lighter on literary fuss and stronger on readable story, Dear Miss Hermione is easy to enjoy. The advice-column angle gives the books a strong identity, and Violet is the sort of investigator who grows more interesting the more responsibility she takes on.