A missing lord, a punctilious official, and Napoleon’s return!

Rarer Than Gold (A Chance Inquiry #2) by Holly Newman         

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Newly weds Sir James Branstoke and his bride, Lady Cecilia have changed their honeymoon plans and travelled into Kent to Summerworth Park, an estate Sir James had recently purchased from his cousin.

Ensconced with their plans for refurbishment,  they definitely didn’t expect to become involved in a missing, presumed dead, neighbor and acquaintance, Baron Aldrich. Nor did they foresee they’d be assisting the dead lord’s wife, Lady Elinor, with investigating the matter.  Furthermore they had no notion they’d be falling down the proverbial rabbit-hole of dangerous coincidences and mis-directions.

Intrigue indeed! Havey-cavey happenings at the inn where they’re staying, near where Aldrich’s coach has fallen off a cliff! Cecelia and Elinor are nearly robbed by an intruder in the dead of night, possibly after a letter Elinor received from Aldrich. Then they’re accosted by a rigid, sanctimonious military person, one Captain Andrew Melville. There’s rumors of stolen gold and weapons, and at the center might be the secretive fanatical spymaster, Lord Candelstone. If it’s him, he’s as usual spinning  threads on his intelligence web, leaving his agents dangerously isolated, without known support.  Indeed using them carelessly, more as cannon fodder, as pawns on a chessboard, rather than valued operatives to be protected and supported where possible.

I gather James and Cecelia had a perilous run in with Candlestone’s operations in an earlier novel, a situation that nearly cost Cecilia her life. (I’m definitely going to read that as the hints about how they met sound intriguing.)

I enjoyed Cecilia and James’ relationship, their understandings about each other. I particularly appreciated Cecilia’s attitudes to those who would snub Lady Elinor because she comes from a mercantile family. How Cecelia dealt with such persons was satisfying.

The story appeared to start slowly, but once I fell into the writer’s rhythm, and the breadth of the intrigue, I found myself firmly entrenched in this Regency mystery set around 1815.

An Xpresso Book Tours ARC via NetGalley