RogerBW's Blog

2016 historical mystery novella in Huber's Lady Darby series (post-Regency amateur detection). Lady Darby, suffering from pre-wedding jitters, is determined to resolve the mystery of a necklace.

So this is mostly a filler story, but its mystery wraps up a loose end from book 3, and there's a side story dealing with returning a favour to a local crime lord; both of those work pretty well.

What's supposed to be foregrounded, though, apart from Lady Darby's nervousness about her wedding, is her relationship with her sister, who's ferociously adding complications to what was meant to be a simple ceremony while claiming to respect Lady Darby's opinions. The resolution of this frankly didn't convince me, and it's the main plank on which the story rests.

Then there are the usual linguistic infelicities:

I had worried the three flowers marching down the center of the skirt at even integrals would be too much, but I could see now they added just the right amount of extra ornamentation.

"Intervals" maybe? Did nobody proof this?

But at least hero and heroine spend a decent amount of time together, talking with each other, and I'd be glad to see more of this double act.