{"id":5573,"date":"2024-07-18T15:56:34","date_gmt":"2024-07-18T15:56:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/?p=5573"},"modified":"2024-07-18T15:56:34","modified_gmt":"2024-07-18T15:56:34","slug":"review-petterils-folly-by-mary-lancaster-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/2024\/07\/18\/review-petterils-folly-by-mary-lancaster-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Petteril’s Folly by Mary Lancaster (2024)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"This series just gets better and better. At the end of the last book, Piers and April found themselves in an awkward situation which they resolved by getting married. Now, after an idyllic honeymoon, they return to England to face the music, and explain just why a viscount married an ex-thief from the slums of London. Not that anyone knows April\u2019s full history, but they know she\u2019s basically a servant. Now, dressed for her rank, and behaving like a lady, will she be accepted or will the sky fall in on their heads?<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Piers\u2019 valet, Stewart, has been arrested for stealing a baronet\u2019s purse at the local inn, and our intrepid sleuthing duo have to uncover the truth of what happened that night and rescue Stewart from the false accusation. There\u2019s the usual array of suspects, and the question of who\u2019s telling the truth. I have to say that the mysteries aren\u2019t the main reason I read this series, but they\u2019re always enjoyable to see unravelled. This one is particularly satisfying because when the truth is revealed, it\u2019s a case of \u2018oh, of course\u2019 and not \u2018oh well, I suppose that makes sense\u2019. I felt that if I\u2019d been bothered to think it through, I\u2019d have worked it out.<\/p>\n

But really, I\u2019m here for Piers and April. They\u2019re such an unlikely couple, both damaged and needy in different ways, and yet totally dependent on each other. I\u2019ve said all along that April\u2019s transformation from guttersnipe to servant to lady and now to viscountess is not believable in the slightest. Spread over several years, maybe, but that\u2019s not the case here. And somehow, astonishingly, the servants who had known April as a servant fail to recognise her as the new viscountess. Is that remotely credible? I don\u2019t think so. They might pretend not to remember her previous incarnation, but they would certainly recognise her. I\u2019m reminded of the Downton Abbey housemaid who left to become a secretary, married her boss and returned on a visit as a respectable upper-class wife, and she was certainly recognised. There are certainly times when you can\u2019t place someone when you see them in a different context but you generally know that you know them.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s a small point. Given the big leap in the last book which saw the pair married, all their well-wishers must be glad the author didn\u2019t keep us in suspense as to how things are going to go. I can\u2019t see a smooth path from here on, though. Things are still going to be rocky with the family, and I suspect there\u2019s some serious history to April that\u2019s yet to be uncovered. We shall see. But in the meantime, another well-earned five stars for a highly enjoyable read, and on to the next book in this addictive series.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This series just gets better and better. At the end of the last book, Piers and April found themselves in an awkward situation which they resolved by getting married. Now, after an idyllic honeymoon, they return to England to face the music, and explain just why a viscount married an ex-thief from the slums of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[149],"class_list":["post-5573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-review","tag-lancaster"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5573"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5573\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5577,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5573\/revisions\/5577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marykingswood.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}