Barbara’s rating: 4 out of 5 Stars
Series: A Verity Lark Mystery #2
Publication Date6/2/23
Period: Regency London
Number of Pages: 325

I enjoyed this interesting, fast-paced tale better than the first entry in the series. But I knew I would because that first book had to set up all the characters, the formats, the settings, and pay the proper amount of homage to the sister series, Beatrice Hyde-Clare while still managing to set up an interesting mystery. The first book seemed to fall a tad short in the mystery department and oversell in the sister series department. This book seems to have hit its stride with its many fewer mentions of ‘Her Outrageousness’ while still presenting an excellently delivered mystery. Oh! And lest I forget – Verity Lark meets – face to face – her half-brother – the Duke of Kesgrave. I think the author handled that part of the book wonderfully and left us all to guess what will happen next between brother and sister. We get a hint of what Kesgrave might want in the 11/3/23 release of A Murderous Tryst from the Beatrice Hyde-Clare Mystery series, but even that doesn’t tell us for sure. We’ll just have to put on our waiting shoes and pace the floors for a while.

In the first book, we met (and loved) Lord Colson Hardwicke, the disgraced son of a Marquess. Has he redeemed himself or was he never what people believed him to be? Verity was unsure at the end of the first book, so she’s still unsure at the beginning of this book, but she knows he intrigues her – and he challenges her. How dare he! Well, he didn’t realize it was a challenge, but Verity, being Verity, took it as a challenge and set off to beat him at his own game. Yes! You will definitely love both Verity and Hardwicke.

Northern England has seen much unrest among its population with the advent of the Luddites and people losing skilled jobs to machines. The upper echelons of the British government are afraid the unrest and insurrection are headed to London in the guise of the formerly peaceful Society of Yarwellian Philosophers and have placed a spy within the organization. Of course, the government being the government, they also placed a spy to spy on the spy. 😊 Who is Arnold Fitch? Is he a true patriot?

As one does, 😊 Verity is going about her normal information gathering and comes across the body of a man who has been stabbed to death, in his own bed, in a shabby rooming house. Hardwicke is in the room as well – but Verity is sure (isn’t she?) that he didn’t commit the murder. So, who did? Was it Arnold Fitch? If not him, who? There are lots of Yarwellians out there, would they murder a defenseless old man to protect their mission? Or, are those Yarwellians just exactly the peaceful society they claim?

Goodness, such excitement! You’ll be flipping pages as fast as you can read them to see what happens next. Then, Hardwicke disappears just when Verity has vital information to impart. Where can he be? How can she pass the information along to those who desperately need it? And what, in heaven’s name, is she supposed to do with the brother who has just knocked on her door? Enlist his help, of course.

This was such an engrossing, exciting, witty, and fun read! If you love intelligent, challenging, likable, and engaging characters along with a mystery that sucks you in, then you’ll enjoy this book. Happy Reading! Now, I just have to wait for what will seem like forever, for the next book to become available.

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Barbara’s rating: 3.7 out of 5 Stars
Series: A Verity Lark Mystery #1
Publication Date: 8/23/22
Period: Regency London
Number of Pages: 330

I enjoyed this tale, but that is because I am thoroughly familiar with this author’s other series, Beatrice Hyde-Clare Mysteries. As a matter of fact, the way I discovered this sister series is by reading the latest BHC mystery and seeing the blurb for this book. I love that there is a sister series – and that they are inter-related. It will be interesting to watch them unfold. If you have read none of the BHC books, this first book in the new series will probably leave you a bit befuddled. So, to help a little bit …

Beatrice Hyde-Clare is the six-season spinster who up and married the most eligible ton bachelor, Damien Matlock, the Duke of Kesgrave. The little Duchess of Kesgrave keeps solving murders – with her besotted husband’s full help and cooperation. This makes great fodder for the renowned gossip columnist Mr. Twaddle-Thum who likes to refer to the duchess as Her Outrageousness. Twaddle-Thum takes great delight in featuring the duchess and her exploits in his newspaper column. Verity Lark, the lead in this series IS Mr. Twaddle-Thum, and several other aliases used in her reporting and information gathering. Verity is also the illegitimate half-sister to the Duke of Kesgrave. While Verity knows who Kesgrave is, he has no idea he has a half-sister.

For me, the mystery got a bit lost in all of the BHC references, but if you parse out all of that, it was a pretty solid mystery and I enjoyed watching Verity work her way to the solution. I also enjoyed the introduction of Lord Colson Hardwicke who I definitely hope will work out to be Verity’s version of Kesgrave. Hardwicke seems to challenge Verity in ways nobody else does – and her reactions to him are interesting. I always have to have a romance in my mysteries and I’m looking forward to seeing theirs develop.

There was a lot of series set-up in this first book and that is another reason I feel the mystery was a tad lost in it all. The establishment of Verity’s background, her friends and their backgrounds, and the many disguises used by Verity in order to further her reporting and information gathering takes up a great deal of page space – but it is needed to firmly establish the setting going forward. Verity is a fun, interesting, and complex character who I am sure I’ll enjoy getting to know. It will be fun to see when/if she and Kesgrave actually meet and how that goes. Will they have a relationship or will they just each go their own way?

For me personally, this book was a definite 4-star rating. However, for someone who is unfamiliar with the Beatrice Hyde-Clare series, I’d guess it would come in at somewhere around the 2.5 to 3-star mark. I think this was a necessary book to set up the series and get everything started – and I think the next book will be a bit more of the same, but after that, I’m hoping that it will find its legs and stand on its own because I really do like the characters and the idea behind the series. So, maybe we’ll have BHC and Verity related enough to mention, but not constantly as in this book. I do hope Kesgrave and Verity come to a friendship and we’ll see them mentioned in each other’s series, but not be the main focus of the series. It will be interesting to see how the author handles the relationship beyond the second book (where, yes, Kesgrave and Verity meet).

I can recommend this book because it is filled with attractive, intelligent, very likable characters – but – you really need to be familiar with the BHC Mysteries series OR you need to be willing to parse through all of that and figure out where it all fits. Good luck and happy reading.

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