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Kerry J Charles: Dulcie Chambers Mystery Series

Kerry J Charles is another Cozy Mystery author who I am adding to the most popular and recommended Cozy Mystery series page on my site. Charles has worked for some very prestigious places: Harvard University, the Smithsonian, and the National Geographic Magazine. Her duties have ranged all the way from researcher to editor. She has her Master’s degree in Art History and uses her art knowledge when writing this Cozy series.

Dulcie (Dulcinea) Chambers is the main character/sleuth of the Dulcie Chambers Mystery Series, and she is the curator of the Maine Museum of Art. I have read both of the first two Cozies in this series – both of which focused on crimes that involved the art world. However, these are mystery books, not  “how-to, step-by-step” type of books that get bogged down with the details of the art theme.

Dulcie is an unusual sleuth in that she is somewhat of an introvert. She functions well in the nine-to- five duties of her job, but she isn’t crazy about the after-hour functions her job requires her to perform. However, Nicholas Black (police detective) makes some of these after-hour functions more positive for Dulcie – even though these “functions” revolve around murder. (Lucky for Dulcie that Nick needs help with the artistic details!)

Because Dulcie and Nick grew up in the town, they both have some knowledge of the people. Dulcie and her brother, Dan, grew up in the fishing boat area and Nick comes from “across the tracks” (so to speak) and has a very privileged background. So, between them both, they pretty much have the citizens of Portland, Maine covered!

The characters are well-developed and smart; even the very minor characters have backstories. I enjoy Kerry J Charles‘ writing style. Her writing seems polished and smooth.

I appreciate the author writing these Cozies without using the “300 page rule” – which sometimes makes books seem very padded to me. Sorry, I know a lot of you feel like 300 is the ideal page count. (Thank goodness Agatha Christie didn’t have to stretch her books to today’s almost obligatory page count!)

Kerry J Charles interjects a possible love interest for Dulcie – which has its ups and downs. But since this is a Cozy Mystery series and not a romance mystery series, it’s just enough romance for me.

If you’re looking for a new Cozy Mystery series that features smart people and good writing >>>I recommend the Dulcie Chambers Mystery Series by Kerry J Charles.

If you are interested in reading some of the other entries about highly recommended Cozy Mystery series, you can find them at the Most Recommended Cozy Mystery Series page on my site.

PS: As several people have mentioned in the comments, the first entry in this series is free on Kindle, so if you have one, that’s definitely a great way to check the series out!

Comments

  1. Thank you for the recommendation. Just download the first book for free ( Kindle). Can’t wait to give it a try

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  2. I’m glad you mentioned the 300-page rule. I’ve noticed for a while that this does seem to be a rule for cozies and it results in a lot of padding. I actually like when I pick one up that’s under 300 pgs.

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  3. I hadn’t heard of this series, which is why I enjoy your blog so much! Thank you for the recommendation. I will check it out!!!

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  4. Thanks Danna for bringing an author to our attention. I’m going to check it out. Have you or our readers noticed a familiar pattern in many cozy mysteries -in that the female sleuth is married to, engaged to or meeting a future romance with the police detective on the case. Very often that happens. Interesting.

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    • Rob, yes, I’ve certainly noticed that situation, and I’m sure many other readers have as well. I think it’s at least partially a convenient way for sleuths to get information and become involved in cases in later entries in a series.

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  6. Hi Danna –
    Thanks so much for the wonderful review! I love art, museums, Maine, and mysteries which is why I put them all together. I’m glad you mentioned the “300 page rule” as well. An editor recently told me that my work is within the “Literary Mystery” category (along with Cozy), explaining that the story and characters drive the length. Personally, I just want to tell a story and hope everyone enjoys reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!

    Speaking of writing, I’m currently working on Book #6 in the series. No release date yet but it will be sometime this winter. More to come…!

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    • Kerry, thank you for writing such a wonderful book, as well as taking the time to comment here! Yes, I admit that I do have a fondness for a more “compact” series, as it makes reading a book fit into my schedule a bit easier. Longer than 200 and it seems like a lot of books start to have a lot of “fluff” or “filler” – a topic we have actually discussed on the blog before.

      And I’m definitely glad to hear that you’re working hard on book #6!

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  7. I’m not familiar with this author or her novels, but this series sounds so interesting to me. Another add to my TBR list so I don’t forget! I was disappointed, though, that my local library doesn’t have any of these books, and the inter-library system for my State only has two of them in eBook format only. Hardbacks and paperbacks are always my first choice. (I only use my Kindle for prequels or novellas.) The author wrote on her Goodreads blog, however, that she is working with her publisher to have her novels come out in paperback! Yeah! FYI, while searching for her novels on Amazon, I noticed that book #1, An Exhibit of Madness, is FREE on Kindle, and the next four are CHEAP! Great deals. I already ordered the Kindle An Exhibit of Madness, it’s under 200 pages. You can’t beat that deal.

    Thanks for sharing, Danna.

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    • Sharon, it’s certainly good news that she’s working on getting these out in paperback format! To be honest, ever since my eyesight started going bad, I’ve really preferred Kindles since I can control the size of the font >>> so I wasn’t even aware it wasn’t available in physical copies yet!

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      • Hi everyone- Just FYI, all of the books in the series are currently in paperback as well as ebook format. Amazon, B&N, and others have them available to order. Thanks again for the interest and enjoy!

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        • It’s really great when an author responds on this blog. 🙂

          Ms. Charles, if you’re still reading this section of the blog, perhaps you could answer my question about why aren’t your books in any libraries? Could you please convince some libraries to add them into their inventory?

          I’m sure you’d have plenty of appreciative readers.

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  8. What a tantalizing write-up about the Dulcie Chambers Mystery Series. It sure piqued my interest.

    However, it appears this might be a self-published series (author’s address is the same as the publisher address). I checked worldcat and none of these titles are available in any US libraries, thus it’s impossible to get through ILL

    If the series is popular, it shouldn’t be difficult for the author to convince some libraries to carry it……especially those libraries located in her surrounding area (Maine). I know the library in my city supports local authors and have their books in the library’s inventory, even those that are self-published.

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    • I have read and enjoyed this series using the free Kindle app from Amazon on my laptop. The books are not too expensive – I think that I started this series when the first book was offered for free.

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  9. Looks like another great series for my list. I agree that sometimes mysteries appear padded to reach the page count. I’ve found that novellas work best for my mysteries which are usually around 50,000-60,000 words and about 150 pages.

    Ann

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  10. If you haven’t read any of Peter Bartram’s Colin Crampton mystery series I believe they would come under the cozy mystery genre. They are set in Brighton, England and many of them are free (they are mostly novellas). I am quite addicted to them.

    Ann

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  11. About a year ago I purchased ‘Portrait Of A Murder’, a Dulcie Chambers Mystery. Has the first book of the series been renamed? Planning to read this book next… just curious as to if it’s the same as ‘An Index of Madness’.

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  12. Oh thank you for the wonderful recommendation. I got my copy. My own series coming out this November turned out ‘literary’ too (in addition to cozy), so I know exactly what Kerry is referring to (ha, we both have research backgrounds which shows in our writing)…and I am glad the author chimed in with that because I have been wanting/searching for more mysteries with the literary bent.

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  13. I am currently reading the fifth book. I see here that number 6 is due out – or was due out last winter. Will it be available soon? This series is so pleasant! I love the book length, the characters are great and the stories have me guessing right up to the end pretty much. I can follow the clues and have an idea who is behind it but not until quite late in the story and that makes it so much fun to read. I hope to see many more in the series!

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  14. I love this series and have read all 5. I saw that a sixth book was due out in December 2018, but can find no information on this book. Do you know if it was published or if it will be published in the future?

    Reply

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