Author: Allison Montclair
Published: July 25, 2023 by Minotaur Books
Format: Kindle, Hardcover, 336 pages
Genre: Amateur Sleuth
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
Series: Sparks & Bainbridge Mystery #5
First Sentence: He sat on the edge of the narrow bed, reaching for the black wool socks he had stuffed into his shoes.
Blurb: In the immediate post-war days of London, two unlikely partners have undertaken an even more unlikely, if necessary, business venture - The Right Sort Marriage Bureau. The two partners are Miss Iris Sparks, a woman with a dangerous - and never discussed - past in British intelligence and Mrs. Gwendolyn Bainbridge, a war widow with a young son entangled in a complicated aristocratic family. Mostly their clients are people trying to start (or restart) their lives in this much-changed world, but their new client is something different. A happily married woman has come to them to find a new wife for her husband. Dying of cancer, she wants the two to make sure her entomologist, academic husband finds someone new once she passes.
Shortly thereafter, she's found dead in Epping Forest, in what appears to be a suicide. But that doesn't make sense to either Sparks or Bainbridge. At the same time, Bainbridge is attempting to regain legal control of her life, opposed by the conservator who has been managing her assets - perhaps not always in her best interest. When that conservator is found dead, Bainbridge herself is one of the prime suspects. Attempting to make sense of two deaths at once, to protect themselves and their clients, the redoubtable owners of the Right Sort Marriage Bureau are once again on the case.
My Opinion: I think I have narrowed down why I enjoy this series so much. It’s the humor. The things that come out of Gwen’s and Iris’s mouths make me laugh out loud and shake my head. The humor is spot-on, snarky, and insightful, all at the same time.
The book begins with a conversation between two unidentified people, and the reader spends the best part of the book matching up pairs in hopes of getting the puzzle right. I did not have it right. That didn’t bother me. There was so much going on in the book that it was easy to put the puzzle aside to readjust my focus to the next quandary facing the ladies. Whether it was their business, legal, relationships, family, or something else, there were so many distractions that by the time the book ended, somehow Allison Montclair tied enough up that the only parts left would work as fodder for the next book in the series.
Blurb: In the immediate post-war days of London, two unlikely partners have undertaken an even more unlikely, if necessary, business venture - The Right Sort Marriage Bureau. The two partners are Miss Iris Sparks, a woman with a dangerous - and never discussed - past in British intelligence and Mrs. Gwendolyn Bainbridge, a war widow with a young son entangled in a complicated aristocratic family. Mostly their clients are people trying to start (or restart) their lives in this much-changed world, but their new client is something different. A happily married woman has come to them to find a new wife for her husband. Dying of cancer, she wants the two to make sure her entomologist, academic husband finds someone new once she passes.
Shortly thereafter, she's found dead in Epping Forest, in what appears to be a suicide. But that doesn't make sense to either Sparks or Bainbridge. At the same time, Bainbridge is attempting to regain legal control of her life, opposed by the conservator who has been managing her assets - perhaps not always in her best interest. When that conservator is found dead, Bainbridge herself is one of the prime suspects. Attempting to make sense of two deaths at once, to protect themselves and their clients, the redoubtable owners of the Right Sort Marriage Bureau are once again on the case.
My Opinion: I think I have narrowed down why I enjoy this series so much. It’s the humor. The things that come out of Gwen’s and Iris’s mouths make me laugh out loud and shake my head. The humor is spot-on, snarky, and insightful, all at the same time.
The book begins with a conversation between two unidentified people, and the reader spends the best part of the book matching up pairs in hopes of getting the puzzle right. I did not have it right. That didn’t bother me. There was so much going on in the book that it was easy to put the puzzle aside to readjust my focus to the next quandary facing the ladies. Whether it was their business, legal, relationships, family, or something else, there were so many distractions that by the time the book ended, somehow Allison Montclair tied enough up that the only parts left would work as fodder for the next book in the series.
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