Review of The Lost Souls of Saint Oda's by Kelly Jarvis
The Lost Souls of Saint Oda’s is the latest installment in Jess Armstrong’s Ruby Vaughn mystery series, and it provides all the drama and excitement readers have come to expect. This novel, set in 1923, brings Ruby, the disgraced American heiress turned “lady detective,” to Belgium where she hopes to find her mother who miraculously survived the sinking of the RMS Lusitania. When she arrives at the hospital at Saint Oda’s priory, she is told her long-lost mother escaped and drowned in a still pool of water, but Ruby's inquiries reveal several recent deaths and disappearances of hospital patients. A host of suspicious doctors, tight-lipped priests, the ghost of a missing child, and a strange supernatural feeling permeating the isolated area all lead Ruby into an occult-based murder mystery that will keep readers turning pages well into the night.
This is Armstrong’s fourth Ruby Vaughn book following The Curse of Penryth Hall, The Secret of the Three Fates, and The Devil in Oxford, and fans of the series will find much more than an exciting murder to solve. They will also rediscover Mr. Owens, Ruby’s octogenarian boss who thinks of her like a daughter, and Ruan, the Cornish Pellar who stole her heart. Ruby and Ruan have lived through several traumatic experiences together, and The Lost Souls of Saint Oda’s pushes their growing relationship even further as Ruby deals with the loss of her mother and Ruan relives his experiences in the Great War. The love and longing between Ruby and Ruan are my favorite parts of the series, and this latest adventure exposes new information about their romance and lays the groundwork for more exciting things to come!
At the end of the book, Armstrong includes an author’s note touching on her research about the horrors of living in occupied territories during and after the war and calling out for an end to the cycle of human violence. A somber strain of reality runs through the asylum setting of the novel, but despite Ruby’s half-hearted contention that romance is “the stuff of fairy stories, not real life,” The Lost Souls of Saint Oda’s offers readers the enduring hope that love and understanding can be a balm to pain. Ruby, Ruan, and Mr. Owens all come to terms with their own mortality throughout the course of the book, and in doing so, they embrace all life has to offer. The tender moments of this novel moved me to tears, and I look forward to Jess Armstrong’s next book so I can learn more about Ruby, Ruan, and Mr. Owens as they make their way toward a surprising new adventure.
If you love your mysteries with a side of folklore, Jess Armstrong’s works are for you! I couldn’t put this one down! You can find it here.
Kelly Jarvis teaches writing and literature at Central Connecticut State University, works as the Contributing Writer and Correspondent for The Fairy Tale Magazine, and is a Recurring Columnist for Eternal Haunted Summer. Her poetry and fiction have also been featured in A Moon of One’s Own, Baseball Bard, Blue Heron Review, Corvid Queen, Enchanted Conversation, Forget Me Not Press, Mermaids Monthly, The Chamber Magazine, The Magic of Us, and the World Weaver Press Anthology Mothers of Enchantment: New Tales of Fairy Godmothers. Her debut novella, Selkie Moon, was selected as a semi-finalist in the 2025-2026 Speculative Fiction Indie Novella Championship, and her Gothic historical romance, Sea and Stars, is the winner of a Literary Titan Gold Book Award. Visit her at https://kellyjarviswriter.com/
