When Charlotte, with Wrexford’s insistent help, sets out to exonerate Nicholas, she contends with long-buried feelings about the life she left behind and how to reemerge as Lady Charlotte when she’s lived incognito as plain old Charlotte Sloane for years. I don't think they belong in regency era vocabulary, but it was not enough to spoil the flow of the story. But I know I’ll be picking up Murder at Queen’s Landing the next time the mood for a compelling historical mystery strikes! Her street persona, for when she disguises as a street urchin to sleuth and nose the truth of a murder, alternates between Magpie and Phoenix.

I had a terrible time getting the gist of the story and would tune out at times and miss big pieces of plot. Raven and Hawk are funny, smart, and vulnerable in how much they love Charlotte and both love and are in awe of Wrexford.It’s maybe 12 for Raven and 10 for Hawk and they are Oliver Twisting by night and learning Latin by day.

Now, treat yourself to reading the first two, if only for the very emotional scene where Wrexford gives the boys their names. And thank you for the rec … I don’t need another one … but it sounds great and I LOVE marriage-in-trouble stories. Yes, the first Lady Arianna mystery, “Sweet Revenge”, and I believe the second also, “The Cocoa Conspiracy” have very interesting chocolate recipes.

Like I said, the mysteries have all been good on their own and very different (I also want to add that I’ve liked the different areas of science that have been explored and the interesting culture of science in Victorian England at this time), but the actual layout of the plot has been almost exactly the same each time. J. Quill is safe with the Earl of Wrexford, she's ill prepared for the rippling effects sharing the truth about her background has cast over their relationship. Wrexford and Charlotte each uncover various aspects of each of these possible motives, and it was fun seeing how these stories began to interweave, with characters Wrexford interrogated and received certain clues then wandering across Charlotte’s path, and, because of her different perspective, yielding different and new information. For example in one of the final scenes - spoiler alert - the heroine, dressed as a man, is told to strip off her britches and shirt and put on what is described as a knee-length linen shift. Penrose is excellent at conveying the details of early 19th-century science and experiments with electricity.

In this one the plot barely moves, the murderer is obvious, the science is invisible and the formerly interesting secondary characters aren't interesting. Published internationally in ten languages, she is a three-time RITA Award-finalist and the recipient of numerous writing awards, including two Daphne Du Maurier Awards for Historical Mystery and two Gold Leaf Awards. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. It's unfortunate that she's a major character, because I like so many other characters in the books.The characters are well drawn, the dialogue is intelligent, and the plots are clever and well paced.

Ms Penrose likes to switch the narrative from Wrexford to Sloane in the same chapter; this didn’t present well on Audible but was great just reading the text. Cedric and Nicholas were mixed up in scientific intrigue and elixir-of-life nonsense, making Wrexford’s knowledge and knife-edge intelligence key to murder’s solution. The murder that drags Wrexford and Sloane back into the fray after the events of Murder at Half Moon Gate again hits a bit too close to home – at least for Charlotte Sloane. His valet and lab assistant, Tyler, with whom he shares antagonistic banter, is one of the band of truth- and justice-seekers.And heart-wrenching bits like “She managed a shaky exhale and allowed herself to sink back against the pillows. I liked the second book, and was thrilled with the way it ended as I (foolishly) assumed that the author was going to dispense with all the interpersonal idiocy from Charlotte. A Regency lady with a hidden past joins forces with an irritable aristocrat to solve a dastardly series of crimes. Then moments after she does so, when she is rescued, the only comment made about her bizarre attire is an observation by a cop that she is wearing men’s boots. Wrexford and Sloane must unravel secrets within secrets—including a few that entangle their own hearts—when they reunite to solve a string of shocking murders that have horrified Regency London .