Matters of science and mystery!

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Murder at Queen's Landing (A Wrexford & Sloane Mystery #4)
by Andrea Penrose       

A further step into the lives of Lady Charlotte Sloane and the Earl of Wrexford. This time murder plays a part and the pair find themselves tapping at the doors of the powerful East India company. The wonderful Weasles are growing and developing but still maintain there delightful urchin ways. Tyler, Wrexford's unconventional valet is still as acerbic as ever. Others are being added to their coterie, and I am charmed. Penrose dots her pages with well humored incidents, easing the tensions.
A clerk is murdered down by the docks, and almost at the same time Charlotte's friend, the brilliant mathematician Lady Cordelia, and her brother, Lord Woodbridge, disappear from London. Unusual! To all appearances the two aren't connected but as things move on that viewpoint changes. It appears Cordelia and Woodbridge might be in the thick of some nebulous unsavory circumstances. But what"
Charlotte and Wrexford's relationship edges towards something other than friendship.
The perfidy off the East India company introducing opium to China to open up trade is well documented and Penrose has used this to advantage in rather nail biting Regency thriller. As is the well researched background to trading based on international arbitrage. The invention of a computer like machine to help in trading and more, highlights the Achilles heel of new developments where good and evil use vie. I highly commend her closing author's notes for a clearer look at these issues.
Once more we're given a fabulous Sloane and Wrexford novel, where in Penrose's words, she's woven "an important development in Regency science/ technology as a main element in the mystery."

 A Kensington Books ARC via NetGalley
Please note: Quotes taken from an advanced reading copy maybe subject to change

*****

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