Barbara’s rating: 5 out of 5 Stars
Series: Beatrice Hyde-Clare Mystery #12
Publication Date: 11/3/23
Period: Regency

The adventure continues with this wonderfully entertaining twelfth entry in the Beatrice Hyde-Care Mystery series. Often times a series with this many books begins to falter a bit and lose some of its edge, but not this one. There is full-on entertainment on every page and a murder to solve as well. As always, the pages are filled with lively banter between Bea and Kesgrave and the antics of other recurring characters. We make a delightful discovery – Kesgrave has a half-sister — and we are treated to the most delightfully improbable murder suspect you could ever want to meet. That suspect just happens to be Kesgrave’s former mistress, Penelope, and she is outrageous, entertaining, and over-the-top, but not vulgar. You are going to get a kick out of her!

This book begins just as A Lark’s Flight is ending. In case you didn’t know (I didn’t) there is a spin-off series, A Verity Lark Mystery, that features Kesgrave’s illegitimate half-sister. I was so excited to find out about the spinoff series that I went right out and bought both books in the series – and I’m hoping for many more of those as well. Should you think this is extraneous information and not pertinent to this book – you are incorrect, but you’ll need to read the book to see how.

Bea is in quite a pique! Kesgrave has lied to her and in typical insecure Bea fashion she has stewed, overanalyzed, and blown it into what she calls The Great Fabrication. Not only did he lie, he didn’t come to their bed. She’s up, dressed, and looking for a confrontation with him when she sees him in their entryway embracing a woman! Not just any woman either – it is his former mistress. Oops – now you’ve done it Kesgrave. Except – the woman is there to see Bea and not Kesgrave. Hmmmmm.

Mrs. Penelope Taylor, a breathtakingly beautiful, highly sought-after courtesan who happens to have been Kesgrave’s first mistress, is begging Bea to help her. Mrs. Taylor’s best frenemy was murdered – in Penelope’s own bed – and the magistrate is bound and determined to see Penelope convicted and hung. He may be Penelope’s dear friend, but he’ll see justice done. Only Bea can help her.

Did the murderer get the right victim or did he mean to kill Penelope instead – after all, it was her bed? With a number of suspects to sift through, very few clues, and the magistrate hot on their heels, can they solve the murder and keep Penelope from New Gate? You’ll just have to read the book to find out.

When you mix an indecorous, detecting duchess with an indulgent, helpful duke and then add an outrageous, entertaining, and over-the-top former mistress along with a determined magistrate, you have all the ingredients for a wonderfully entertaining tale. I have loved this series since the beginning and each new entry seems to be better than the last. I highly recommend this book – and this series. I love the characters, the banter, the irreverence, the humor, and the agility of Bea’s mind. I hope you will love it as much as I did.

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

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