Author: Allison Montclair
Published: June 8th 2021 by Minotaur Books
Format: Kindle, Hardcover, 352 pages
Genre: Historical Mystery
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for an opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
Series: Sparks & Bainbridge Mystery #3
First Sentence: The tram trundled down from the Vauxhall Bridge and screeched reluctantly to a halt, pausing long enough to allow two women to jump down to the pavement.
From the Publisher: In London, 1946, the Right Sort Marriage Bureau is getting on its feet and expanding. Miss Iris Sparks and Mrs. Gwendolyn Bainbridge are making a go of it. That is until Lord Bainbridge—the widowed Gwen's father-in-law and legal guardian—returns from a business trip to Africa and threatens to undo everything important to her, even sending her six-year-old son away to a boarding school.
But there's more going on than that. A new client shows up at the agency, one whom Sparks and Bainbridge begin to suspect really has a secret agenda, somehow involving the Bainbridge family. A murder and a subsequent kidnapping sends Sparks to seek help from a dangerous quarter—and now their very survival is at stake. (Macmillan)
My Opinion: Very disappointing. When billed as a historical mystery, and the body, which turned out to be inconsequential, doesn’t show up until the middle of the book tends to be a bit misleading. When a preface doesn’t make much sense until the end of the book, and where the author spends more time describing women’s clothing, hair, and interfamily turmoil, than the plight of kidnapped victims, left me wondering what I was doing continuing with this book.
The only thing that kept me turning the pages was the humor, but even that was seldom and far between. I should have listened to my inner voice and given up within the first 100 pages.
From the Publisher: In London, 1946, the Right Sort Marriage Bureau is getting on its feet and expanding. Miss Iris Sparks and Mrs. Gwendolyn Bainbridge are making a go of it. That is until Lord Bainbridge—the widowed Gwen's father-in-law and legal guardian—returns from a business trip to Africa and threatens to undo everything important to her, even sending her six-year-old son away to a boarding school.
But there's more going on than that. A new client shows up at the agency, one whom Sparks and Bainbridge begin to suspect really has a secret agenda, somehow involving the Bainbridge family. A murder and a subsequent kidnapping sends Sparks to seek help from a dangerous quarter—and now their very survival is at stake. (Macmillan)
My Opinion: Very disappointing. When billed as a historical mystery, and the body, which turned out to be inconsequential, doesn’t show up until the middle of the book tends to be a bit misleading. When a preface doesn’t make much sense until the end of the book, and where the author spends more time describing women’s clothing, hair, and interfamily turmoil, than the plight of kidnapped victims, left me wondering what I was doing continuing with this book.
The only thing that kept me turning the pages was the humor, but even that was seldom and far between. I should have listened to my inner voice and given up within the first 100 pages.
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