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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Barbara’s rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Series: Beatrice Hyde-Clare Mystery
Publication Date: 1/13/23
Period: Regency – London
Number of Pages: 310

As usual, this author has provided us with an entertaining and well-crafted read. Our murderer is among an insanely dysfunctional family that will almost remind you of the old Keystone Cops movies. When you add Bea’s wild and wooly family into the mix, you have a recipe for total and utter chaos – along with some witty and humorous banter. As always, we have a lot of Bea’s internal dialogue to know what she is really thinking – and most of that internal dialogue centers around the fact that she is expecting a ‘cherub’ and is afraid she’s going to have to curtail her investigating. Oh! My! I sure do hope that isn’t the author actually thinking of ending the series.

Roger Dugmore, a man who is old and feeble, died when he was trying to get out of bed, fell, and hit his head on a table. Or is that what happened? You’ll know for sure after Bea and Kesgrave finish their investigation. Dugmore’s grandson, Viscount Ripley, asked for their help – mostly as a lark. You see, Ripley is very young, very naïve, very immature, and very determined to come to the notice of Mr. Twaddle Thum so he can be featured in his gossip column.

Bea is distracted by the news that she is ‘with child’ and initially misses an important clue. Thus, she believes this really is just a horrible accident – until Kesgrave shares what he has noticed. So, murder it is, and there are plenty of suspects with several grown grandchildren and a daughter all living in the home.

As the investigation progresses, they learn that grampa wasn’t the nicest of men. He ruled his family with an iron hand and had no compunction about blackmailing or otherwise coercing his own family into doing his bidding. With so many suspects and alibis floating around it seems almost impossible to find the solution. But, of course, they do.

While murder is a serious subject, the author always manages to slip in plenty of wit and humor along with side stories to make the darker topic more tolerable. As always, this story was rife with Americanisms – just in case you needed to know that. The characters are engaging and fun, and the side stories keep it really interesting. Again, as always, there is a lot of self-dialogue on Bea’s part – sometimes that causes me to skip some paragraphs – sometimes it doesn’t. At any rate, it is an enjoyable read and I hope you will enjoy 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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