The third part of this series of short cosy/Regency mysteries, which are best read in sequence. This episode worked even better than the previous two – not sure whether the author’s getting into her stride now, or whether the characters have just reached a more interesting stage of their relationship, but I have to say I enjoyed this a lot.
Here’s the premise: Piers, the new and still uncertain-in-his-role Viscount Petteril, returns to London with his former thief ‘assistant’ April to solve a murder. An earl’s son has been shot in the home of his mistress, and the main suspect is the mistress’s former protector, and Piers’ friend. As usual, there’s a wonderful array of suspects, surrounded by quirky upper-class characters (somehow it’s never the lower classes who do the murdering), and the solution is satisfying on a number of levels. There’s a nice (if rather surprising) little romance on the side.
But the main interest (for me, anyway) is the development between Piers and April. The murder is loosely connected to April’s past, so we learn a little bit of her history, although I suspect there’s more to come. The two have always had an unusually close relationship for an aristocrat and an uneducated employee, rooted in the fact that they met when they were both at low points in their lives. They helped each other to move forward, and because of that have developed an intimacy that is clearly problematic. Something happens in this book that throws this into stark relief and they have to decide whether to continue their odd relationship or not. Needless to say (because there’s at least one more book to come, and the series could be spun out indefinitely) they stay together. But it remains to be seen whether that will work out, and how they resolve the problem in the end.
A most enjoyable read, without the implausibilities and pesky editing errors that plagued book 2, so I’m going for the full monty this time. Five stars.
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