To Slip the Bonds of Earth by Amanda Flower: Book Review

To Slip the Bonds of Earth is the latest release from best-selling author Amanda Flower. Kensington Books published this historical cozy mystery on March 26, 2024. Readers are introduced to Katharine Wright, the often-overlooked sister to Wilbur and Orville Wright. As the Christmas season approaches, Katharine awaits the return of her brothers from Kitty Hawk. The brothers worry about someone getting their hands on the plans the brothers have worked hard on. When the siblings attend a holiday party, one of the brothers takes the plans. A dead body is discovered around the same time the plans disappeared. Is there a connection?

I want to thank Kensington Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of To Slip the Bonds of Earth. All opinions presented here are my own.

Synopsis from Goodreads

December 1903: While Wilbur and Orville Wright’s flying machine is quite literally taking off in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, with its historic fifty-seven-second flight, their sister Katharine is back home in Dayton, Ohio, running the bicycle shop, teaching Latin, and looking after the family. A Latin teacher and suffragette, Katharine is fiercely independent, intellectual, and the only Wright sibling to finish college. But at twenty-nine, she’s frustrated by the gender inequality in academia and is for a new challenge. She never suspects it will be sleuthing…

Returning home to Dayton, Wilbur and Orville accept an invitation to a friend’s party. Nervous about leaving their as-yet-unpatented flyer plans unattended, Wilbur decides to bring them to the festivities . . . where they are stolen right out from under his nose. As always, it’s Katharine’s job to problem solve—and in this case, crime-solve.

As she sets out to uncover the thief among their circle of friends, Katharine soon gets more than she bargained. She finds her number one suspect dead with a letter opener lodged in his chest. It seems the patent is the least of her brothers’ worries. They have a far more earthbound concern—prison. Now Katharine will have to keep her feet on the ground and put all her skills to work to make sure Wilbur and Orville are free to fly another day.

My Opinions

To Slip the Bonds of Earth is a wonderfully written, historical cozy mystery. With around 300 pages, it is a quick and easy read.

I was unfamiliar with Katharine Wright until reading this book. Of course, everyone knows her brothers, Wilbur and Orville. Flower took her time researching Katharine, which is shown in this novel. Katharine is a woman who was ahead of her time in 1903. She wanted to be treated equally in her career as a teacher. She wanted to be independent of her brothers while running the Wright household after her mother’s passing at an early age.

While this book is set around the Christmas holidays, they are not the story’s focal point. They are more of an addition to the setting. I like that because I don’t always want to read a book full of Christmas. Does that make sense?

While To Slip the Bonds of Earth is not Amanda Flower’s first book, it is her first historical cozy. I am eager to visit with Katharine Wright again!

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