Review of A Necessary Death by Terri Karsten
Title: A Necessary Death
Publisher / Publication date: Wagonbridge Publishing (September 15, 2025)
Language: English
Format / # of Pages: Paperback and e-book, 271 pages
Genre: Cozy historical mystery
ISBN/ASIN: paperback: ISBN 9781953444202 / ASIN 1953444202
e-book ISBN 978-1953444219 / ASIN B0FLDWVCJW
Reviewed by: Janice P Kehler MSc MA
A Cozy Mystery with an Evocative Turn of Events and plenty of Food for Thought
As a reader, I love making a fuss over the title before I start reading. “A Necessary Death” raised all sorts of questions with no obvious answers. Also, this cozy mystery, backgrounded by historical factoids, offered up a different kind of epigraph. Each untitled chapter began with the heading ‘In which,” followed by an evocative turn. For example, “In which mushrooms, not murder, are suspect or “In which an ultimatum is given, and a promise kept.” As the first pages pass by, the reader soon becomes immersed and entrained by these fragmentary insights as the sights and sounds of the period pile up. My favorite is “the horse in the next stall whickered…” or the antics of the likes of Abner, ‘a sly, greedy, cock-of the-walk,’ who engages with Penelope, who must clean the rundown tavern and prepare meals from meager essentials.
Penelope, recently widowed, is travelling with her brother-in-law towards an unwanted future for her daughter and son. She is a feisty, principled woman without means, walking a fine line with her controlling brother-in-law and her subdued sister from Boston. Their travel is abruptly delayed, and as Penelope works to pay her way in a local tavern, she becomes embroiled in helping a local sheriff, Mr. Tucker, who owns the tavern, solve the mysterious death of the local Parson—hardly a man who resonates with the idea of the necessary death.
By the end of the book, the mystery solved, Penelope and Mr. Tucker show an extraordinary insight into the social fabric of the future. With a broad stroke that jumps from the past to the present, as lessons of the past mingle with the sensibilities of the future. Patience proves productive, proclaims Penelope as she concludes that even the most thoughtful gesture cannot change the world. Penelope’s resolution embraces a necessary death, a disquieting ending that seems to offer some satisfaction for the reader. This ending offers readers plenty of food for thought, including several colonial-era recipes that combine the author's love of history with experimental cooking. Bon appétit!
Terri Karsten has been a writer and educator for many years with a keen interest in the past. Her novel, A Mistake of Consequence (2015, B.R.A.G. Medallion Honoree) takes readers into Colonial America. Her second novel, When Luck Runs Out (2017) is an orphan train story for middle grade students. In 2020, Terri published The Legend of Goshado: A Japanese Folktale (a picture book) and Mindy Saves the Day (an early chapter book). Speaking engagement topics include indentured servants in Colonial America, colonial cookery, orphan trains, and writing workshops. She lives in the shadow of the Missisisippi River Bluffs.
