Persevere! Amusing yet startling!

A Lark's Tale: a Regency Cozy by Lynn Messina   

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

So I enjoyed Messina’s cosy Regency style mysteries, the Beatrice Hyde-Clare series.

Lark’s Tale however is something else. At first I felt confounded by it. I couldn’t get a handle on the story. It was as slippery as an eel, much like Mr Twaddle-Thum. It did my head in.

Verity Lark is a gossip columnist, a chameleon. Nobody knows who she is. She’s a master of disguise, so much so, even she forgets who she is. I certainly did.

I think this is the first book I’ve read in a long time where I’ve had to take notes

Verity btw is the Duke of Kesgrave half sister by the courtesan La Reina (and that complex!) That’s not an alter ego, that’s fact.

Let’s look for instance at some of Verity’s disguises, or maybe I should say Verity’s alter egos.

*Mr Twaddle-Thum the gossip columnist ( most important)

*Robert Lark another reporter, with a house and housekeeper—Verity herself. Writes occasional serious columns

*Mr Quales an opportunistic landlord

*The turnip  rustic

*Dudley Tiffin, scion of the H. Tiffin and Son dynasty: Official Bug Destroyers to His Majesty and the Royal Family.

George Hogarth, goldsmith 

Archie Jones, excessively fond of onions

Old Turnip

Phantom

You can see my confusion!

Beatrice Hyde-Clare married the Duke of Kesgrave much to some members of the ton’s horror. Those who spread gossip about them were ejected from Almack's. Verity called one The Almack pariah. Kesgrave had his pound of flesh.

Madelyn Norton was one of those wretches. “One moment her crisp little [entrée] card was tucked firmly in her grasp, the next it was cruelly torn from her fingers.” Banished, she’s determined to make her way back into the fold. That’s why she conceived of the idea of becoming Mr Twaddle-Thum and much to Verity’s disgust broadcast her lies high and wide. So Verity, unknown to her, is now a target.

Cut back to the opening scene in Madelyn’s bedroom and it seems there are three people in her bedroom that night, (unknown to her) with guns. Needless to say after this Madelyn repairs to the country.

Verity sees that the Duchess of Kesgrave is paying attention to a murder of a man at the Western Exchange emporium and yet the scene was reported as being attended by Constable Jones: the apprehension of Francis Altick for the murder of William Gorman and the attempted murder of Sebastian Holcroft. No mention of the duchess. Curious.

Even more curious is the involvement  of Holcroft the Holy. (That had been one of Mr. Twaddle-Thum’s coinages.)

So we run from murder to mayhem, there’s also Lord Colson Hardwicke who seems to be one step (mostly) ahead of Verity. But wait! Is this the same degenerate drunk from another time? Hmm!

A wild gallop around London sleuthing and more, and I loved every minute! I’m looking forward to more of verity and more of the mysterious Hardwicke.

A BookWhisperer ARC via NetGalley.                                              

Many thanks to the author and publisher.

Please note: Quotes taken from an advanced reading copy maybe subject to change