A Lady’s Guide to Mischief and Murder: A Countess of Harleigh Mystery by Dianne Freeman
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| Image provided by Kensington Books. |
One: I read part of the book in a dentist’s office with 80s music playing around me.
Two: There are some obnoxious characters that were hard to put up with.
Three: My mind frame may have been off at the time. As I am sure most have experienced, there are some times where the mind does not want to concentrate. On anything.
Whatever
the reason for my difficulty with the start of this book, I am glad I got
through it. Because in the end I enjoyed
this book, as I did the others.
Lady
Frances, Countess of Harleigh, has a problem.
It is two months away from her sister Lily’s wedding, and Lily is
announcing she is pregnant. Or at least
she is announcing it to Frances. Who
everyone expects to fix the problem Lily and her fiancé Leo Kendrick have put
themselves in.
One
option for Lily and Leo is to elope.
Unfortunately, that would cause great talk and scandal. It would be easier to move the wedding date
up. Thankfully the invitations have not
gone out yet.
But
finding a place to hold a wedding in such a short time period is not an easy
thing to do. Which is why it is a good
thing Frances had plans for a romantic getaway with her neighbor, and secret
fiancé, George Hazelton. George agrees
to hold the wedding at his family’s estate, the same week he was holding a
shooting party there anyways.
Now
joining the party is Leo’s family. His
parents are expected later in the week, but his three sisters and
brother-in-law are there from the start.
This is where the obnoxious characters come in.
Oldest
sister Eliza is very judgmental and negative about everything. Her husband, Arthur Durant, is also on the
surly side. He is continually upset
Eliza’s father refuses to make him a partner in the business, making him
unpleasant company.
Younger
sisters Clara and Anne do not stop squabbling.
They are very different from each other and never get along. When their parents are around, they behave
better. Without them, Frances feels the
need to take it on herself to keep these sisters apart.
If
the irritating sister trio were not enough to deal with, Frances also finds
herself embroiled in a mystery the moment the party arrives in the
country. There is an accident at the
train station, and from that moment on, things become worse. Accidents continue to happen, people are
injured, and one footman is found dead.
Frances and George investigate, and they come to the conclusion someone is
out to hurt Leo. But is he truly the
person someone wants to harm?
With
so many people in residence, it is hard to conduct a proper investigation. It is also difficult to find a moment alone
with George. Frances has concerns about their
upcoming marriage she needs to talk to him about, but they can never find the
time alone. When Frances’ mother, Mrs.
Marguerite “Daisy” Price, arrives, she has even less time.
Mrs.
Price is a title hunter, and she is very upset Lily is not marrying someone
with a title. She is so upset, she tries
to stop the wedding. Mrs. Price also
tells Leo’s best friend, Ernest Treadwell, Lily may be available soon. Lily and Frances both have to stand up to
their controlling mother (she is also disapproving of George), in order to live
the lives they want. Being stood up to
is certainly not something Mrs. Price is used to.
With
Frances and George’s engagement revealed to select people by the end of the
book, I am eager to see if their wedding will be in the next one. There was not a definitive answer as to when
the wedding was supposed to be, so it could take a book or two. But as long as the relationship between
Frances and George stays strong, that will be okay. Many series play with the romantic
relationship. Having the couple break up
over some unnecessary misunderstanding.
That has not happened in this series, and I hope it stays that way.
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