The Killing Way, by Tony Hayes.  In a Gilded Cage, By Rhys Bowen. 

I read historical fiction, and one of my pet peeves is "Valley Girl Victoriana" - the writing about historical characters as if they were moderns, as if how people thought about the world, and how they  expected to live, was exactly the same a hundred years ago as it is today.  As if the only difference between Anne Bradstreet and Carrie Bradshaw were the kind of shoes they could get!

"In a Gilded Cage" is Valley Girl Victoriana.  I won't bother to summarize it;  I will mention one of the many things that made me want to pitch the book across the room. 

Picture this:  It's 1904, and the detective heroine is talking to the headmistress of a girls school.  This woman is middle class and "venerable" with "steel-gray hair". (She would probably have been born in the 1840's.)  She says "Yes, I think she and Lydia were tight." (Page 178.)   

"Tight" meaning "close friends" or "spent a lot of time together" is slang from the 1950's - it saw a lot of use the 1980's.  (I looked it up in the Oxford English Dictionary, which records when words were first used in print.)  It had an entirely different meaning in the 1900's - one any author writing about that period should have known.  What's next?  I honestly expected the author to include a 1904 judge turning down a request saying  "I'll have to check it with my peeps, bro, cause my homies ain't down with that!"  I don't recommend "In a Gilded Cage."

"The Killing Way" is much better.  Set in post-Roman withdrawal Britain - somewhere in the mid-400's I think - the narrator is Malgwyn, a maimed farmer/soldier who has taken up manuscript copying after he loses an arm. 

His war leader was Arthur.  When Arthur is on the verge of being voted High King,  a young woman is murdered, and Merlin is blamed.  Arthur's enemies call for Merlin to be executed.  If Arthur agrees, he has lost a friend and supporter. If he doesn't, he will be seen as unfair, and unfit to be king.  Arthur comes to Malgwyn, asking him to find the true murderer.

"The Killing Way" is a good story, well told. And the author respects his readers enough to do the research. Recommended.