It\u2019s 1817. Young widow Lily Adler, who\u2019s earned a modest reputation for unraveling mysteries, is known as a Lady of Quality\u2014that is, a discreet investigator. So it\u2019s no surprise that Sarah Forrest and her fiance, Mr. Clive, ask for her assistance in unraveling a mystery surrounding her inheritance. Did Sarah\u2019s father really put it under the control of his brother? But the fact that the request involves stealing a will from Sarah\u2019s supposedly nefarious uncle triggers a moral dilemma for Lily. While Lily sympathizes with Sarah\u2019s distress, she\u2019s torn. And then Clive, whom Lily knows to be unscrupulous, tries to blackmail her, threatening to spread malicious gossip about her. Having constructed an elegant and engaging world over four previous mysteries, Schellman reintroduces her supporting cast in the several chapters Lily takes to decide on a course of action. Lily\u2019s two closest confidantes are Ofelia, Lady Carroway, a young heiress recently arrived from the West Indies, and Amelia Hartley, Lily\u2019s \u201ctemporary companion,\u201d who\u2019s enjoying her first season in London society. The relationship between Lily and Captain Jack Hartley, Amelia\u2019s brother and the best friend of Lily\u2019s late husband, Freddy, remains stuck in the friendzone, eliciting much private agonizing for both parties. A murder provides a jolt of juice and a thickening of intrigue, but the lives of the three single London ladies remain persistently more interesting than what turns out to be a modest mystery wrapped in an elegant, romantic comedy of manners. There\u2019s little doubt that Lily will discover the identity of the killer. But how smoothly will the course of true love run? That\u2019s the real mystery.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It\u2019s 1817. Young widow Lily Adler, who\u2019s earned a modest reputation for unraveling mysteries, is known as a Lady of Quality\u2014that is, a discreet investigator. So it\u2019s no surprise that Sarah Forrest and her fiance, Mr. Clive, ask for her assistance in unraveling a mystery surrounding her inheritance. Did Sarah\u2019s father really put it under […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":171,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}