Review: A Delightful and Interesting Novel
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 11 21, 2013
I found this to be a delightfully fun read.  The three protagonists, Harriet (Harry) Honeywood, Viscount Aubrey Tilisker and Charles Lampforth, are engaging and likeable in different ways.  They each go to the evil Lord Sutton's house and find him murdered along with a strongbox of items he uses for blackmail.  Harry decides to return the items surreptitiously.  Aubrey and Charles eventually find themselves helping her.  Most of the book is involved with ways to return the items and the on again off again attraction that Harry and Aubrey may or may not share.  Most interesting was the way that persons of society conducted themselves and the ways that young ladies were restricted in the ways that they were expected to deport themselves.  Harry could present herself as conforming to that mold but still could express some independence without bringing down scandal, a fine balancing act.This is a murder mystery in which no one is trying to solve the murder.  Apparently during the Regency period there were no regular police detectives to look into murders. A family member would have to offer a reward to get some Bow street runners or detectives interested in looking into the matter.  As for Lord Sutton, no one cared and all felt the world was better off without him anyway.  The murderer is discovered at the end but not because of any detective work.  This could be called a Regency romance more that a Regency mystery but no matter what it is a very interesting read. (I am not a fan of Regency romances at all.)Note: I wish the author had chosen a better name for Ms Honeywood rather than "Harry".  That is just too much of a man's name.  Every time I would see it I would think for a split second, "Who's he?"  That was very disconcerting.