Author: Barbara

Avid reader/reviewer of historical romance and historical mysteries.

An Unexpected Pleasure by Candace Camp

On By BarbaraIn Barb's Reviews, Victorian Era (1837-1901)Leave a comment

An Unexpected Pleasure (The Mad Morelands, #4)Barbara’s rating: 4 of 5 stars

Series: The Mad Morelands #4
Publication Date: 1/15/18 by HQN Books (first published 7/28/2005)
Number of Pages: 432

The Moreland family is off on another wild and exciting adventure and this time Theo is the one at the center of things. Is he a murderer? Well – hang on to your hats and read the book to find out. The entire Moreland clan is on hand and it was fun to get to visit with all of them. There were wonderful visits with The Greats – twelve-year-old twins Con and Alex– who are featured in the next two books.

Theo Moreland, the heir to a dukedom, has always been a restless soul. He doesn’t know what he’s looking for, but he’s traveled all over the world and still hasn’t found it. He’s home in England, but he’s feeling restless and unsettled, yet he makes no effort to plan his next expedition. That is so unlike him.

Megan Mulcahey comes from a large Irish-American family. While they aren’t wealthy, they do well enough. Megan is a successful reporter and she had to work hard to get there and to be able to write the kinds of stories she does. The only cloud in her life is the fact that her brother, Dennis, died ten years ago in the jungles of South America. He was murdered and they know who did it – but he is an English Lord and there is nothing they can do – especially from New York.

One night, Megan’s sister, Deirdre, has a dream about their brother Dennis. She’s had these dreams all her life and her father knows that they are prophetic. Dennis appeared in the dream begging for help – he needed something very precious recovered. That dream set them off on a mission to find this English Lord, to recover the precious item that had been taken from Dennis, and to see that this English Lord gets his punishment.

Megan and her family soon decide that the best way to infiltrate the Moreland household and find proof against Theo, is for Megan to pose as a tutor for the young Moreland twins Con and Alex. Megan doesn’t actually expect, as a female, to be hired for the position, so she is shocked when the duchess offers her the position.

Megan doesn’t expect to like the Moreland family – and certainly not Theo. However, that is exactly what she does – she likes them all very much – and she’s strangely drawn to Theo. He murdered her brother; how can she possibly be attracted to him?

The investigation takes many twists and turns before the mystery can finally be solved and Megan and Theo finally get their HEA.

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

Lady Takes the Case by Eliza Casey

On By BarbaraIn Barb's Reviews, George V - 1910- 1936, Historical Mystery, Other1 Comment

Lady Takes the Case (Manor Cat Mystery #1)Barbara’s rating: 4 of 5 stars

Series: Manor Cat Mystery #1
Publication Date: 11/26/19
Number of Pages: 304
*** 3.5 stars rounded up to 4 ***

This book covers a lot of firsts – I believe it is the first book by the author, it is the first book in this series and it is my first read by this author. I have to admit I was a bit hesitant to request this book because I wasn’t sure if I was going to get a talking, magical cat or – well – something else. Happily, it turns out it is just a normal cat doing normal cat things and the sleuthing is left up to the two ladies.

The mystery itself isn’t too challenging to figure out, but it was interesting to see how the resolution unfolded. Historical mysteries are my favorite sub-genre and this fit right into that mold – although 1912 is a bit later than my normal reading period. I enjoyed the setting – a period when young ladies are trying to figure out what to do with themselves; the beginnings of the suffragette movement, etc. Given that, I think it will be fun to see Lady Cecilia work her way through what she wants for herself and her life – while solving mysteries, of course. In order to satisfy my reading requirements though, I’ll need a love interest for Cecilia and I didn’t see that. I did see one potential, though inappropriate, possibility in a private investigator who makes a brief appearance. We’ll just have to see what happens in the romance department before I decide whether to continue, long term, with the series.

The Blake family, like many others of the time, are titled and rich in properties, but poor in the money to actually support those properties or the lifestyles that go with them. If they don’t come up with a solution soon, they will be forced to sell their beautiful estate, Danby Hall. The family, Lady Cecilia, Lord Patrick (Viscount Bellham), and Lord Avebury are going along with Lady Avebury’s plan to marry Patrick off to an American heiress. Patrick is one of those lovely, sweet, befuddled people who is always lost in his own world of scientific (botany) experiments. He’s a very handsome young man, just oblivious to the world around him.

The Blake’s are hosting a house party with the American heiress, Annabel Clarke, as the guest of honor. It turns out the lady is quite a demanding, temperamental diva and is quite full of herself. Yet, she charms Patrick and he seems totally smitten. Cecilia notices some strange undercurrents among the guests, but they are a varied lot and some have old enmities. Most of the guests, however, don’t even know each other. That makes it really hard to figure out what is going on when a guest suddenly dies in the middle of dinner one evening. It seems he was poisoned and the heiress is sure that it was meant for her.

Lady Cecilia has always been curious about what was going on, but when it seems Patrick is the prime suspect, she is determined to solve the mystery. I love that Cecilia and Jane become instant friends and both have an insatiable curiosity. They work well together – one covers the upstairs folks and the other covers the belowstairs folks.

There was a lovely epilogue that sets up the next book, Lady Rights a Wrong, and that will be interesting to see. I’ll certainly read that addition to the series to see if a romance is added in and then I’ll decide whether to continue with the series or not.

This was a fun read and I think the author did a nice job of creating an interesting mystery with red herrings and distractions.  I believe that Eliza Casey is a pseudonym for a multi-published author, but I don’t know which one.

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