Well, surprise upon surprise!
A Stroke of Malice (A Lady Darby Mystery # 8)
by Anna Lee Huber
Sebastian Gage and Lady Kiera Derby are all set to enjoy Twelfth Night Ball revels courtesy of the Duke and Duchess of Bowmont at their palatial castle Sunlaws in Scotland. They're an unusual couple whom like so much of "the nobility [didn't] marry for love, but married for wealth and connections." Taking lovers is par for the course. They have a spawned family of legitimate and illegitimate children who are close and supportive, accepted and loved as one.
Keira is pregnant and has been looking forward to working on a portrait of the Duchess before going into seclusion. The last thing she and Gage want is a murder to solve. When on a ghost tour through the castle as part of the Twelfth Night romp, a body is discovered, Kiera and Gage's sojourn becomes an investigation into what happened, at the bequest of the family. Assured full disclosure by them, Gage and Kiera find the opposite. Secrets and half truths become blockages to solving who the corpse might be.
Gage's valet Anderley is dispatched to the Bowmont's son-in-law's estate near Haddington to help sort things out, despite cholera raging through that area. There's some thought the body might be Lord Helmsfield's. That needs to be verified. Bree, Kiera's maid lends a supportive hand to the task.
When Kiera finds herself at risk, it's obvious that things are becoming dangerous and secrets have a way of causing harm.
Sunlaw Castle is atmospherically just the place for a Gage and Darby mystery to present itself. I drank in the heightened descriptions of this sprawling place, complete with not the so secret passages leading "into the catacombs beneath the ruins of Kirkbryde Abbey." With a rumoured ghostly friar and the various staircases leading all over the place like Hogwarts rising from the mists of time, this is a bone chilling setting. Fabulous!
I was riveted by Gage and Kiera's process towards unravelling the mystery surrounding the dead body. I was charmed as always by their personal interactions, and as new twists kept being added to the ongoing story of Kiera and Gage, I was enthralled.
Later, Kiera and Gage head for Edinburgh to await the birth of their child. Despite wanting to stay away from further mysteries at this stage, the story intimates that this just may not be the case.
A Berkley Group ARC via NetGalley
*****
by Anna Lee Huber
Keira is pregnant and has been looking forward to working on a portrait of the Duchess before going into seclusion. The last thing she and Gage want is a murder to solve. When on a ghost tour through the castle as part of the Twelfth Night romp, a body is discovered, Kiera and Gage's sojourn becomes an investigation into what happened, at the bequest of the family. Assured full disclosure by them, Gage and Kiera find the opposite. Secrets and half truths become blockages to solving who the corpse might be.
Gage's valet Anderley is dispatched to the Bowmont's son-in-law's estate near Haddington to help sort things out, despite cholera raging through that area. There's some thought the body might be Lord Helmsfield's. That needs to be verified. Bree, Kiera's maid lends a supportive hand to the task.
When Kiera finds herself at risk, it's obvious that things are becoming dangerous and secrets have a way of causing harm.
Sunlaw Castle is atmospherically just the place for a Gage and Darby mystery to present itself. I drank in the heightened descriptions of this sprawling place, complete with not the so secret passages leading "into the catacombs beneath the ruins of Kirkbryde Abbey." With a rumoured ghostly friar and the various staircases leading all over the place like Hogwarts rising from the mists of time, this is a bone chilling setting. Fabulous!
I was riveted by Gage and Kiera's process towards unravelling the mystery surrounding the dead body. I was charmed as always by their personal interactions, and as new twists kept being added to the ongoing story of Kiera and Gage, I was enthralled.
Later, Kiera and Gage head for Edinburgh to await the birth of their child. Despite wanting to stay away from further mysteries at this stage, the story intimates that this just may not be the case.
A Berkley Group ARC via NetGalley
*****
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