Thursday, April 15, 2021

The Sign of Death

Title: The Sign of Death
Author: Callie Hutton
Published: April 13th 2021 by Crooked Lane Books
Format: Kindle, 327 pages
Genre: Historical Mystery
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for an opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
Series: A Victorian Book Club Mystery #2

Reading this book, all I could think about was the lack of humor and sass. 1890's Bath, England, is conventional enough, but with the intelligence and spunkiness of Lady Amy Lovell, there should be more verbal sparring between her and Lord William Wethington. Without it, William comes across as a second to Amy’s cleverness instead of the partnership she desires.

When James Harding, William’s man of business, is found dead in the River Avon with William’s business card in his pocket, the police call him in to identify the body. With this simple request and Amy at his side, a nefarious chain of deceits unfolds. Harding was blackmailing or embezzling various citizens of their community. With so many potential suspects in Harding's murder, William and Amy are kept busy sorting it out while trying to keep William out of prison and Amy away from the killer’s grasp.

But that does not mean Amy has not found herself in a pickle since her long-held secret is about to be divulged. From the first book, A Study in Murder, the reader knows Amy is a celebrated mystery author, but as a woman, been forced by her father to write under a pseudonym since no man would want to marry a woman who writes the kind of books she does. She is not sure how she will get out of this until William comes up with an acceptable proposition.

I am enjoying this series, yet, I continue to wish the speed would pick up a bit, and the banter would have a bit more humor and tension.

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