Book Review: Written in Blood by Sheila Lowe (Claudia Rose #2)

Stars: 2 out of 5

Pros: Claudia herself is an interesting main character

Cons: Just about everything else

The Bottom Line:

Court case, private school

Lead Claudia to danger

But book does not work

Needed a Rewrite or Two

I’ve been intending to get back to Sheila Lowe’s Claudia Rose Mysteries for a while now.  Yet another case of too many books, not enough time.  But, since I’m starting off 2025 looking at various older books I haven’t gotten to yet, I was happy to slot Written in Blood, the second, in my January schedule.  That was, until I started to read it.

Claudia is a hand writing expert who is often called on to testify in court.  As this book opens, she’s been hired by Paige Sorensen to verify the signature of her late husband on his will.  He was a much older man, and his adult kids are trying to claim the inheritance as their own.

Part of the contested inheritance is the Sorensen Academy for Girls, an exclusive school for rich girls in Los Angeles.  Paige is currently the headmistress, and, after the court case, she asks Claudia to help out with one of the young teens who just enrolled.  Claudia thinks that graphology, a therapy involving hand writing, may help.  But Claudia quickly finds that there is plenty of drama at the school.  When two people disappear, she is determined to figure out what is going on.  Can she do it?

Now, you might be thinking this sounds like one of my typical cozies.  And, at some point in the book’s publishing history, it might have been.  (Given one publisher, I’m sure it was.)  I can assure you that the Kindle version I read (purchased in 2024) is not cozy.  I’ve read police procedurals that were lighter on the sex, violence, and language than this book had.  Honestly, it was a real turn off.  The book didn’t need those elements.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t my only complaint with the book.  The pacing was way off in this book.  It took forever for the real story to get started.  Then, we got some twists that made no sense in the context of the story.  I was trying desperately to figure out how what was revealed at the end made any sense given what had come before.  Yes, there might be some assumptions I was making that I shouldn’t be making.  But given some of the obvious errors that were in the book, it could also be that the author just didn’t think things through.

This is the second book in the series, but you could jump in here.  We do get a little development of Claudia and her new relationship, which I appreciated.  In fact, I do like Claudia herself.  I just wish the case were better.

I have a few other books in the series, but not the next one.  We’ll see if I decide to continue with the series or not.  Written in Blood is making me reconsider that.

Here are the rest of the Claudia Rose Mysteries.