Tag: Nellie H. Steele

Letter to a Duchess: A Duchess of Blackmoore Mystery by Nellie H. Steele

On By BarbaraIn Barb's Reviews, Gothic Historical, Historical Mystery, Part of a Series, Regency Era (1811-1820)Leave a comment

Letter to a Duchess: A Duchess of Blackmoore Mystery (Duchess of Blackmoore Mysteries Book 2)Barbara’s rating: 3.7 of 5 Stars
Series: A Duchess of Blackmoore Mysteries #2
Publication Date: 7/19/22
Period: Regency or Victorian (hard to tell)
Number of Pages: 365

This is the second book I’ve read by this author and I could have given each of them 5-stars except for the historical inaccuracies. The author teaches at a college, so I don’t understand why she couldn’t take the time to research something as simple as forms of address. I was jolted from the story each time someone addressed the Duke or Duchess as Duke (or Duchess) Blackmoore or worse yet introduces her as Mrs. Robert Fletcher. That is just so very wrong – and getting it correct would be so very easy. Even if it was correct, there was just so very much of it.

Lenora Hastings has had an unusual talent (or curse) her entire life. It has made her life miserable because nobody could deal with a child who could talk with the dead. Everyone left her, even the nuns at the convent couldn’t deal with it and turned her over to an orphanage. As an adult (barely) she married Robert Fletcher, the Duke of Blackmoore, and used her talent to solve the mystery of the death of Robert’s first wife.

The Duke’s ne’er do well brother, Edwin, has written Lenora a letter begging her to use her talent to get him out of trouble. He is in Glasgow and has been arrested for murder. He swears he didn’t do it and he believes all Lenora has to do is speak to the ghost of the murder victim and find out who really did do it. Nothing, of course, is ever that easy when one is speaking with the dead.

The Duke doesn’t want Lenora to have anything to do with his brother, but she convinces him to let her try. The main reason she believes Edwin is that her deceased friend Tillie insists he is innocent.

With uncommunicative ghosts, seedy locales, dangerous villains, and a worrywart husband, finding the true murderer isn’t easy. When there is another attack and they all come under suspicion, they know that they have to quickly find the real murderer. Will they all survive? Can they thwart the murderer and prove Edwin isn’t guilty? You’ll just have to read the book to see.

I enjoyed the mystery and thought it was well-plotted and well-delivered. Other than the forms of address, I thoroughly enjoyed the read. One thing that struck me as a bit humorous though – the ghosts kept coming to Lenora at night and sometimes literally pulling her from her bed. They lead her into the bowls of Glasgow – and always into trouble. Robert would rant – but – somehow it never occurred to him that he ought to sleep in the same bedroom so he’d know when she was dragged out into the night.

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Death of A Duchess by Nellie H. Steele

On By BarbaraIn Barb's Reviews, Gothic Historical, Historical Mystery, Paranormal / Fantasy2 Comments

Death of a DuchessDeath of a Duchess by Nellie H. Steele
Barbara’s rating: 4 of 5 stars

Series: Duchess of Blackmoore Mysteries #1
Publication Date: 5/1/21
Period: ?? Not Apparent – Sometime before trains and cars
Number of Pages: 290

Since I don’t read the paranormal genre, I certainly surprised myself when I decided to purchase – and then enjoyed – this book. The mystery is well-plotted and well presented, with just enough obscure clues to cause you frustration, yet keep you reading. This is a new-to-me author and I enjoyed her writing style which captures the more formal speaking style of earlier historical periods. There wasn’t enough information within the story to get a grasp of the period in which the story takes place, and that always annoys me – couldn’t somebody just put a date at the beginning of the first chapter or something?

Lenora Hastings has a gift – or a curse – depending on your point of view. She sees and communicates with dead people and has done so her entire life. While it all seems perfectly normal to Lenora, the adults in her life can’t deal with it – when she was six, her father left and her mother turned her over to a nunnery soon after. When the nuns couldn’t deal with it, they turned her over to Headmistress Williamson at St. Mary’s Orphanage for Girls, where she lived for the next ten years. The headmistress didn’t care for Lenora nor her abilities, so she never recommended Lenora for placement into any of the employment opportunities that came to the orphanage’s occupants. Lenora was totally shocked when she was told to pack her things at once as she was leaving immediately. Lenora was excited to be going to the Highlands even though she had no idea what position her employment required. Maybe she would be a governess, or a companion, or – scullery maid, she didn’t care, she was out of the orphanage. When she finally learned what position was being offered, her jaw dropped.

Robert Fletcher, Duke of Blackmoore, has been a widower for three years. He has suffered greatly for those years because he loved his wife and cannot imagine what could possibly have caused her to take her own life. When he hears rumors of a young woman at an orphanage – one who can communicate with the dead – he immediately has her tracked down and investigated to see if she is the real article. He then has her summoned to Blackmoore Castle where he offers her marriage and a life of luxury in exchange for her ‘special’ skills. He needs her to communicate with Annie, the former Duchess of Blackmoore, to find out why she took her own life.

Annie is one very angry and confused ghost. She’s hard to communicate with because she doesn’t speak to Lenora in any way. She projects feelings and does other things and Lenora has to guess at their meanings. That communication process is very slow, dangerous, and vexing. Will Lenora be able to figure it all out before it is too late?

I enjoyed the other tangents of the story aside from the main mystery. It was lovely to see the duke come to care for Lenora and to demonstrate that caring by his actions in regard to her friend Tillie and also in regard to Headmistress Williamson.

I could have easily rated this at five stars, but there were just too many historical inaccuracies that I just couldn’t get past them. Proper forms of address were all over the place – sometimes they were correct, but mostly they weren’t. Then there was the ‘adoption’ when formal legal adoptions didn’t happen until sometime in the 1900s. Before then, there were guardianships or wardships, etc. An ‘adopted’ child could not have become the duke’s heir – the title would have gone to the duke’s brother, etc. anyway – lots of historical errors in an otherwise great mystery.

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