Saturday, April 11, 2020

Week 15 Review: A Stroke of Malice

From Goodreads:
Lady Kiera Darby and her husband Sebastian Gage are looking forward to relaxing with new friends at an exciting yearly soiree, but they soon learn that murder never takes a holiday in the latest riveting installment in this national bestselling series.

Scotland 1832. After enjoying a delightful holiday with her family, Lady Kiera Darby is looking forward to finishing her new friend, the Duchess of Bowmont's portrait, as well as attending the duchess's annual Twelfth Night party. Though she normally avoids such fashionable events, Kiera trusts the attention will not be focused on her, but rather her notorious hostess and her family. But upon their arrival at the opulent Scottish estate, Kiera and her husband and fellow investigative partner, Sebastian Gage, swiftly deduce that all is not merry in the duke's household. The family appears to be under a great strain, and someone seems determined to cause mayhem among the guests with a series of forged notes.

However, matters swiftly turn from irksome to downright deadly when the merrymakers stumble upon a decomposing body in the castle's crypt. This corpse is certainly no laughing matter, especially when it is identified as the duchess's son-in-law, the Earl of Helmsdale, who had purportedly traveled to Paris more than a month earlier. It is evident the man met with foul play, and Kiera and Gage step in to investigate, at the duchess's insistence. Kiera and Gage must swiftly reexamine the facts, for a ruthless murderer walks among them and may well be a member of the duchess's own family. Kiera soon discovers just how deep the killer is willing to dig to keep their secrets from ever seeing the light of day.

My Review:
I loved reading this book so much! I just love this world, of these characters investigating with less investigative tools than we modern folk are used to. Kiera is an engaging character, and this mystery was pretty important!

So that we met the Duchess's family, that was pretty awesome, because they were all pretty interesting characters! That any one of them could be suspect in the killing-which wasn't as cut and dried as the synopsis says, since they weren't sure that it was the Earl of Helmsdale. They just couldn't find an alternative that fit the facts.

One thing was that she and her sister didn't reconcile in this book. Which is a little sad, since Kiera is getting really close to giving birth. Hopefully it's in the next book, because I'm pretty sure that's when the birth is going to happen, and I don't want to have a continued rift between the sisters over wrong words and hurt feelings!

We do learn a lot about these characters, the poor relationship between Helmsdale and his wife. The history she had with Marsdale. The father of one of the Duchess's children, that was unexpected reveal! There were so many people who could be suspects in the family, and then it made sense! It was a great ending, and wasn't too trying, given her state, and what happened to her in this book!

This was another really fantastic read, and I can't wait for more from this series!

Author: Anna Lee Huber
Series: Lady Darby Mystery #8
Read: April 9th, 2020
Source: Ebook.bike
Reason Why: Love her writing and this series, and it's a Historical Fiction 2020 Book, Prequel & Sequel Challenge 2020 Book and a WoW Book!
Publisher: Berkley
Published: April 7th 2020
5/5 Hearts
5/5 Books
5/5 Stars

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