MURDER OF A MERRY GENTLEMAN (Lady Petra Inquires #4)
CELESTE CONNALLY
Minotaur Books (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$14.99 ebook, available now
Rating: 4.5* of five
The Publisher Says: Bridgerton meets Agatha Christie in this dazzling fourth installment to the captivating Regency-era Lady Petra Inquires mystery series.
London, December, 1815. It's Christmastime, and Lady Petra Forsyth is assisting the Lady Patronesses of Almack’s Assembly Rooms with four bachelor-auction dances to be held in the fortnight before Christmas Eve. With one eligible young lady per night winning the right to dance with the four eligible bachelors―called “the Merry Gentlemen” in a nod to the season―it’s sure to be a delightful event.
Until the first dance, when Petra and a group of science-minded young ladies discover the dead body of one of the bachelors. The death is deemed an accident, but when another bachelor’s life is nearly ended, Petra fears something sinister may be afoot. What’s more, Petra’s young friend Teddy has arrived at her door, begging for help. His long-absent mother has been imprisoned, and Teddy is certain she is innocent of her crime.
Time is of the essence in both cases, and Petra is asked to investigate from within by pretending to be one of the ladies vying for the bachelors’ attentions. Indeed, it’s enough to make an obstinate headstrong girl scream.
As she works to unravel the truth, Petra will need to act like a lady―a Lady Patroness, that is―think like an enterprising scientist, and use every investigative tactic she’s learned to solve two mysteries before she becomes the next target.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.
My Review: A treat, as are all one's encounters with Lady Petra despite those encounters being predicated on a murder being committed. She is an amusing companion, much given to asking questions that, from the lower sort of person, would be quite impertinent. It has established Lady Petra as quite a necessary figure among those who are able to get a voucher for Almack's.
One is never willing to discuss one's troubles openly so Lady Petra, a gently-born person who understands one's social...concerns do not always admit of a frank or open discussion can act on information not quite suitable to speak aloud. With aplomb and with a most gratifying record of success, Lady Petra undertakes a discreet inquiry into the sad fates of some seemingly suitable suitors; early graves for unmarried and eligible bachelors are simply not to be shrugged off as regrettable. Lady Petra, without being bluntly directed to cast a wide net, investigates without regard to social standing those who could be regarded as possible malefactors. Discreetly! Always discreetly! The Lady Patronesses of Almack's beed to know what hass happened, though not appearing to concern themselves with shocking topics of common, vulgar gossip like....murder.
As you'd expect from the latest entry in a series of cozy mysteries, rgere's a scoobygroup...two, this time...of daffy, delightful folk who just *might* take themselves a bit too seriously. The Merry Gentlemen stand accused of stealing the researches of the Minerva Society, secretive women inquiring into the way the Universe works. Men stealing women's ideas and work? My pearls, my pearls. It all kicks off when one of the Merry Gentlemen and a very eligible catch dies. Suddenly. Not peacefully. It's the dead middle of the (slightly anachronistically Dickensian) Christmas festivities. Society's mating rituals cannot be interrupted and require a full cast. One man down and one more a close call, Lady Petra begins to feel there is much she is not being told.
Her setting out to discover whose secrets are so important as to require murder to keep means she interacts with the accustomed lage cast, uses skills she does not reveal she possesses or else many awkward questions would ensue, attends balls she does not enjoy...though I sure did, that gargantuan use of the produce of the world is *lush* and those bakers should all be on Bake Off...and in the end a solution is revealed.
It fits. It's not a cheat. And I was not a fan, not convinced by it.
I delighted in getting there, I was so involved in the story, that I can't go less than four and a half stars.
But it teetered on the precipice of five.
