Goodness!  I surely do hope this turns out to be one of those very long-running series because I absolutely adore Ash and Juliana.  The mystery is intriguing, the villain is vile, and the secondary characters are a mixed and interesting bunch.

Sir Edmund (Ash) Ashendon is constantly searching for justice – whether it is finding the perpetrator of a crime or defending someone he is sure has been falsely accused.  It is the driving force in his life because he is trying very hard to make up for the really important one, the one he couldn’t save.  He solved it too late and guilt still eats at him. 

Ash and Juliana married almost a year ago after Ash saved her from the gallows (The Wedding Night Affair) when she was accused of murdering her husband on their wedding night.  Juliana had been horribly brutalized, but she swore she didn’t kill her husband – and Ash believed her.  They ended up in a marriage of convenience because her parents were immediately auctioning her off to the next brutalizer before the funeral had even been held.  Juliana couldn’t stand to be touched in any way and since Ash never planned to marry because of his dedication to his work, having no intimacies between them was fine with him.  Since she was very intelligent and observant, she’d make a good partner for him in his work – especially within the ton because she and her family are from the highest echelons.

It seems everyone in London knows of Ash’s penchant for helping Bow Street with the more ‘interesting’ cases.  He had taken his family – Juliana, his sister Amelia, and younger brother Gregory – to Vauxhall to attend a fireworks rehearsal, where he was soon approached because there had been an ‘incident’.  Oh!  There was an incident alright – a dead body.  While most would have put it down to a robbery gone wrong, Ash was certain it was murder. 

Ash and Juliana pursue their investigation regardless of the rank of those they are questioning.  From dukes, to street urchins, to the infamous Raven, everyone was suspected until they could be cleared.  When another murder is done, Ash and Juliana know their main suspect is getting desperate and they have to put a plan in motion to catch them out.  The culprit might surprise you – or it might not – but you’ll love getting to the identification.

There was so much I enjoyed about this book!  I loved that the villain didn’t get off with no punishment.  I loved that Juliana has come so very far in her healing process and that she and Ash have found they care more for each other than they thought.  I loved the new relationship between Ash and the newspaper man.  I loved that we learned the identity of the Raven – but – he sure left us hanging about what would be next.  Oh! My!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I did.  Having both a romance and a mystery is a double treat!

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

Barbara’s rating: 5 of 5 stars

Series: Ash & Juliana #1
Publication Date: 5/11/21
Period: Georgian London – 1748
Number of Pages: 275

Lynne Connolly, writing as L.C. Sharp, has created a stellar historical mystery series. The writing is outstanding, period correct, and riveting. The mystery will confound you to the end and even then, it will leave you wondering what will happen next. The characters are so relatable, especially Juliana who grows exponentially during this tale. You will definitely be wanting more of them – to see where their relationship goes and to see how she finally manages to deal with the trauma inflicted upon her during her wedding night. Sorry, but we have to wait until August before we’ll get our next infusion of Ash and Juliana in The Sign of the Raven. I can hardly wait. This is definitely NOT a romance novel – it is most definitely a historical mystery that is accompanied by – but not overpowered by – a bit of a romance. For me personally, it strikes the perfect balance between the mystery and the romance.

Lady Juliana Christianson, the only child of the Earl of Hawksworth, has just married Lord Godfrey Uppingham, the second son of the Marquess of Urmston. The marriage was definitely a marriage of convenience – and not Juliana’s convenience at that. It is all due to her father working the system and bribing the crown in order for his title and bloodline to continue. Naïve, cosseted, protected from everyone and everything – no friends, not even a servant she could be close to – Juliana had absolutely no clue about the horror she was about to walk into. Everyone else knew – including her parents – but nobody cared as long as they got what they wanted out of the union. So, when Juliana awoke the next morning – in a pool of blood – with her new husband dead beside her, she didn’t mourn his loss at all. However, she knew she didn’t kill him. Who did? Why did they leave her alive? Everybody is accusing her, is she now headed toward the hangman’s noose?

Sir Edmund Ashendon (Ash) and his family have a sad, traumatic background with a scandal they are just now beginning to live down. They’ve distanced themselves from it, but it caused Ash to make a profound change in his life. He moved from the lucrative business of property law into criminal law. It is no surprise when Mr. Henry Fielding left word he wanted to see Ash because Ash was always looking for an interesting case and the case Mr. Fielding presented him was definitely that. Mr. Fielding gives Ash full authorization to act on his behalf and to bring the accused – a woman who stabbed her husband on their wedding night – to Bow Street for interrogation and arrest.

Nothing is ever as simple as it appears and this arrest certainly isn’t. With mobs in the street calling for Juliana’s blood, Ash must get her to a place of safety – and Bow Street might not even be that place. Oddly enough, as Ash interviews the young woman, he begins to believe that she might not have done it. If she didn’t do it, who did? Why didn’t she awake while her husband was being murdered? If he can figure out who actually did it, can he prove it?

There is a new criminal mastermind in London. Known as the Raven, he has great ambitions. He’s already very powerful and has begun combining all of the different gangs under one umbrella. Ash comes to believe that the Raven is somehow involved in Godfrey’s murder, but can find absolutely no clues to definitely show that is the case. As the case moves along, there is another murder. A witness is killed in Ash’s own garden. That is much too close to home.

The mystery is exciting, suspenseful, and well developed. When you add the dastardly machinations of Juliana’s parents and the manipulations of the Raven to the evidence in the murder, you have to wonder how Juliana will ever prove her innocence.

I adored Ash and Juliana. They made a marvelous working team – especially with Juliana’s keen observational skills. I really look forward to watching them work together in solving future cases – and in life itself. Juliana’s growth just in this one book was exceptional and I cannot wait to see where she goes from here.