Mystics, marriage and menace!
Lady Anne and the Menacing Mystic (Lady Anne Addison Mysteries #4) by Victoria Hamilton
Lady Anne Addison is in Bath staying with her mother, Lady Barbara, Countess of Harecross. Anne is preparing for her marriage to the Marquess, Lord Darkefell. Although she's reluctant to make her engagement known because she doesn't want to become the focus of Bath society' much to her mother's disgust. There's enough gossip circulating around town with unsuspected people suddenly becoming engaged. Anne doesn't want to join the list. And there seems to be a lingering thought that marriage will mean surrendering her freedom, that she might become something less. Despite Darkefell's reassurance.
The presence of a mystic, whose become society's latest fad, comes to Anne's notice. Her dearest friend Lydia Bestwick, wife of Lord John, Darkefell’s younger brother. Lydia appears to have fallen under her sway. Lady Anne is determined to expose the woman as a charlatan. However she does seem to know some disturbing information about Anne.
As always Anne is headstrong, focused sometimes blind to people's reactions. She charges in, sometimes to her own detriment. Lady Anne without Darkefell ... mmm I admit to missing the cut and thrust of their relationship. Still! Fortunately the redoubtable Mr. Boatin, Darkefell's secretary has come to town to attend to business for the Marquess, to look into renting a house that will become Darkefell and Anne's Bath base, and to attend to some business of his own.
There's complex issues behind story. Anne has quite a time sorting through things. These are dark times and scandalous secrets are in danger of being exposed. The plot wound down a tortuous track, but once on the path all the rest fell into place.
A solid Gothic read that thoroughly intrigued me, even if Darkeville, whom I adore, is mostly out of the picture.
A Beyond the Page ARC via NetGalley
****
The presence of a mystic, whose become society's latest fad, comes to Anne's notice. Her dearest friend Lydia Bestwick, wife of Lord John, Darkefell’s younger brother. Lydia appears to have fallen under her sway. Lady Anne is determined to expose the woman as a charlatan. However she does seem to know some disturbing information about Anne.
As always Anne is headstrong, focused sometimes blind to people's reactions. She charges in, sometimes to her own detriment. Lady Anne without Darkefell ... mmm I admit to missing the cut and thrust of their relationship. Still! Fortunately the redoubtable Mr. Boatin, Darkefell's secretary has come to town to attend to business for the Marquess, to look into renting a house that will become Darkefell and Anne's Bath base, and to attend to some business of his own.
There's complex issues behind story. Anne has quite a time sorting through things. These are dark times and scandalous secrets are in danger of being exposed. The plot wound down a tortuous track, but once on the path all the rest fell into place.
A solid Gothic read that thoroughly intrigued me, even if Darkeville, whom I adore, is mostly out of the picture.
A Beyond the Page ARC via NetGalley
****
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