Nicole Rayburn 1, 2 & 3

This is the book I mentioned last post, the one by the same author as Lost Colony.

The Hanging Tree is the first of six (so far) historical mysteries featuring non-fiction history writer Nicole Rayburn. 

In this first adventure, Nicole is staying at a writer's retreat for a week. She wants to come up with a new book idea after publishing some of her history non-fiction. (She specializes in the Alfred the Great era.) Her agent suggests she try writing fiction and while at the retreat, she learns about its ghost story, where a girl in the 1600s was hanged for witchcraft from a tree that still stands on the grounds. 

Nicole delves into research on Alys Bailey, the supposed witch. 

The book runs in alternating sections. A few chapters will be from the present day and then it will flip to 1639-1640. Nicole is always first person POV, whereas everyone else is 3rd person. Nicole and Alys are the most frequent voices, but each's love interest gets a few chapters. 

Alys's story is that she's basically getting pushed out of her home because her parents are dead and her older brother has just married. His new wife isn't exactly keen on Alys. Alys joins the household of the just-married new lord, who married into his position and is new to both the household and this area. His wife is a Puritan bitch, who's so off her rocker, she's disappointed her new husband doesn't beat her because she thinks that's what a godly man would do. Alys and the husband find solace in each other, and I'm sure you can see where that would lead to witchcraft accusations. 

In the present, Nicole is dealing with her own mysteries. There are hints at the haunting maybe being true, but it's definite that someone is messing with her research. She and Kyle team up to solve the mystery, which ends up with a few surprising reveals at the end. 

The second book is set later in the pandemic. Nicole and Kyle stayed together during the whole thing, so their relationship is strong. 

Or is it? 

Kyle takes Nicole to a friend's fancy B&B-type of place, which overlooks an island that contains the ruins of a church and an abbey-turned-residence. Nicole is thrilled by the historical significance and unearths yet another mystery from the past to inspire her next book.

The present day chapters are Nicole's researching the new mystery, and dealing with Kyle's sudden drama. His ex-wife was in a bad accident and still has him listed as her next of kin. As the story unfolds, we learn she was with Kyle's ex-best friend, Len, who was introduced last book and is a complete shit. And she's pregnant. Kyle is a bit too much of a nice guy and keeps getting pulled away to help the ex, dealing with the police side of the accident (the other driver was killed, there are signs the ex wasn't the one driving though it was made to look that way, etc.), and the ever-increasing drama leads Nicole to question their future, especially after a phone call from the ex. 

The chapters from the past are far more interesting. We're back in 1540 this time, during the age when Henry VIII is killing monks and nuns and stealing from them. Isobel Devlin finds herself married to the man who forcefully took Montrose Abbey, though she doesn't realize the depths of what he did right away. She's happy at first and they're as steamy as the couple in the first book. (Not like romance novel steamy, but there are multiple sex scenes in these books.) Once she finds herself pregnant, she starts to learn some backstory on her new husband from her terrified midwife. Isobel unravels her mystery while dealing with a bitchy best friend and hiding the truth from her husband, who gets scarier the more she learns. The mystery that Nicole first hears of is that the abbey caught fire and Isobel disappeared, never to be seen again. So it's fun to see how Isobel goes about everything she does. 

This one's present day is 2021, so there are still pandemic elements going on. 

Kyle's aunt has just died and left him her home, which confuses him, as he thinks it should have gone to his sister. He and Nicole, now married and expecting, are tasked with going through her things and trying to decide what to do with the house. Nicole once again gets a mystery handed to her on a plate. There was a ghost ship/shipwreck right outside the house in the late 1700s. 

The couple go through Kyle's aunt's things and find more clues to the shipwreck mystery, while Kyle also deals with minor aftermath from the events of the previous book. Asshole Len makes another appearance. Thankfully, that's not the main present day mystery. That involves figuring out what happened with his aunt's secret baby. 

Back in the past, Elisheba Keenan is being dragged from town to town by her gambling addict alcoholic husband. When she begs him to stop gambling for the night, he ends up selling her. Yep, you could sell your wife back in 1783. She's purchased by a man that turns out to be ship's captain Gabriel Randolph. The ship, of course, is the Aurora, the one who wrecked behind Kyle's aunt's house. Elisheba, now Ellie, is tasked with caring for the captain's sick daughter, Violette. I loved all these chapters, though the ending for the family might be a little too happy? It feels on the unlikely side. 

The book ends with a cliffhanger about Kyle's family, so I'm excited to see where that goes, but taking a break from these for a short time. I have the next one to read and then the fifth ties in another of the author's characters from a completely different historical mystery series. I'm probably going to have to read all of those before tackling the fifth Nicole book. 

I enjoyed all three of these immensely, though that is mostly due to the historical chapters. Alys, Isobel and Ellie are all fabulous characters. Nicole and Kyle are okay, though their drama is much less interesting. I don't dislike either of them. It's just hard to compare to historical women.