Death in the Floating City: A Lady Emily Mystery (Lady Emily Mysteries)
Alexander’s seventh Lady Emily mystery, set in Venice, is one of her best, not only for the fabulous Lady Emily (a relative of Amelia Peabody?), her comely mate Colin Hargreaves, and the circuitous plot, but also because readers will fall in love with the vividly described nineteenth-century Floating City. Loath to rescue her childhood nemesis, Emily nevertheless travels to Italy in a fit of altruism in aid of Emma, whose husband has absconded with the family’s rare-book collection and left his father dead on the villa floor. The clues are deliciously tied to a 400-year-old family feud, the origin of which forms a complicated parallel mystery that only Emily and Colin can unravel. In the process of solving the crime, Lady Emily spends much time in gondolas traveling from one picturesque location to the next, unearthing seemingly unrelated clues, making new friends, and ferreting out truths. Fun to read, fast paced, and delightfully suspenseful without being overly scary, this series’ latest is the perfect entertainment for both Elizabeth Peters fans and readers who have enjoyed Lauren Willig’s Pink Carnation novels. --Jen Baker