Month: May 2021

A Rogue’s Company – Allison Montclare

On By BarbaraIn Barb's Reviews, Historical Mystery, World War II Era (1939-1945)Leave a comment

A Rogue's Company (Sparks & Bainbridge Mystery, #3)A Rogue’s Company by Allison Montclair
Barbara’s rating: 5 of 5 stars

Series: Sparks and Bainbridge #3
Publication Date: 6/8/21
Period: Post WWII – 1946
Number of Pages: 352
** 4.5 Stars **

Goodness! I do believe I have found another historical mystery series to love. This author is new to me – and I’m so glad to have found her. I was a bit concerned about coming into the series on the third book, but that didn’t impede my enjoyment of the story in the least. The book is excellently written, the plot is well defined with the clues dribbled out just right, the villain(s) get their just desserts, and our two intrepid ladies from the Right Sort Marriage Bureau have solved another case.

If you just looked on the surface, you would never believe that Mrs. Gwendolyn (Gwen) Bainbridge and Miss Iris Sparks would ever be in the same room with each other, much less great friends and business partners. However, if you do look beneath the surface, you will see two broken ladies trying their very best to recover from the ravages of the war. Gwen lost the love of her life – her husband Robbie – and ended up in a sanitarium for a while – and she lost guardianship of her only child to her dastardly father-in-law. Iris did many things in the war while working for the government. Most of those things weren’t polite and they certainly weren’t nice. She’s trying her best to come to grips with that past, to curb her recklessness – and to curb her drinking. Each of them seems to provide the encouragement and support the other needs.

So many things are set in motion when Lord Bainbridge, Gwen’s father-in-law, returns after six months in Africa where he was checking up on Bainbridge, Ltd. assets held there. He is in a nasty temper all of the time, treats everyone badly – even his sweet grandson. Of course, none of this is new to any of them – he’s always been that way. Instead of taking time with his family, he is immediately off to his club – and the pattern continues.

Gwen has become healthier and more stable over the last months, and she’s wanting to retrieve her guardianship of her son away from Lord Bainbridge – and she wants to claim her inheritance as well – which is also controlled by Lord Bainbridge. Lord Bainbridge, of course, isn’t happy about any of that and has no intention of relinquishing control of anything to Gwen.

Gwen overhears and even participates in some strange conversations – she doesn’t totally understand them, but she’ll puzzle them out. Then, there is a murder of an African man behind Lord Bainbridge’s club. There is absolutely nothing to identify the man and nobody saw anything. Then, things get really intense when Lord Bainbridge is kidnapped.

OMGoodness! Can Iris and her less than savory friends manage to save Gwen? Lord Bainbridge? Then, of course, there is a big surprise – welcome or not????

It took me a bit to get into the story, but goodness gracious – when I did – it was Annie Get Your Guns! I loved it! I loved the characters and can’t wait to see what the future holds for them. I do worry about Iris’s love life though. I like the man she loves – and I think he loves her – but – with his profession, I can only see hurt in her future if he doesn’t mend his ways.

I can highly recommend this book and I hope you will love it as much as did.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an Advanced Reader Copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The Art of Betrayal – Connie Berry

On By BarbaraIn Barb's Reviews, Contemporary, MysteryLeave a comment

The Art of Betrayal (Kate Hamilton Mysteries, #3)The Art of Betrayal by Connie Berry
Barbara’s rating: 4 of 5 stars

Series: Kate Hamilton Mysteries #3
Publication Date: 6/8/21
Period: Contemporary
Number of Pages: 336

Connie Berry is a new-to-me author and although I came into this series on the third book, I don’t feel as if I’ve missed anything by not having read the previous books in the series. The writing is excellent and the mystery is compelling. As you meet different characters, you begin to feel something isn’t right with them, but you don’t know what it is – and won’t until the end when all of the players – good and bad – are sorted out. I thoroughly enjoyed all of the characters and am looking forward to another visit with them in the next book.

I don’t know if Kate Hamilton, an antique dealer in the USA, had left England after the last book or not, but, if she did, she is back now. Her good friend, Ivor Tweedy, had to have both hips replaced and he couldn’t just close his shop, so Kate left her best friend Charlotte in charge of her Ohio business and planned to spend the month of May looking after Ivor’s shop. As a widow with grown children, she didn’t have family to worry about, so spending time in the small Suffolk village of Long Barston wasn’t a problem for her.

Kate is rocking along managing Ivor’s shop and expanding her relationship with Tom Mallory, a detective inspector with the local constabulary. Evidently, something that happened in one of the two previous books cost Tom a promotion to DCI and he now has to report to a real jerk. Hopefully, that jerk will go away in the next book or two and Tom can get his promotion.

Kate is at The Cabinet of Curiosities, Ivor’s antiquities shop, when a lady identifying herself as Evelyn Villiers came into the shop with a rare and very valuable Húnpíng stoneware jar found in the Han dynasty tombs of early imperial China. Then, the new client dropped an even bigger bombshell – she wanted to sell several additional pieces of Meissen pieces. Kate was a bit leery of the lady – could she have stolen the goods and was just trying to fence them through Kate?

Later, at a local festival, a woman staggers into the crowds and dies. She had been stabbed – and the lady was none other than Evelyn Villiers. Right on the heels of that, Tom is called out to a break-in at Ivor’s shop. The only thing taken was the Húnpíng jar.

The Villiers family tale is a sad one. Eighteen years ago, the husband died while stopping his headstrong teenage daughter from eloping. Then, the mother, blaming their daughter, Lucy, for the death sent her daughter off to live with an aunt. The daughter ran away after about a year and nobody has seen her since then. Does the current death really start eighteen years ago? Are the theft and the murder related? Where is Lucy?

I thoroughly enjoyed this mystery. There are plenty of hints and red herrings dropped throughout the story, and they’ll just keep you guessing. You’ll think you know – but do you really? If you love mysteries, I hope you’ll give this book a try.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an Advanced Reader Copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.