The Mayfair Dagger
A Novel
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- $28.99
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- $28.99
Publisher Description
A witty, feminist mystery set in the heart of nineteenth-century London, this daring adventure featuring an intrepid woman detective will thrill fans of Deanna Raybourn and Katharine Schellman.
London, 1894. Albertine Honeycombe never wanted a husband and certainly not the one with fifteen children that her cousin, Aubrey, is trying to marry her off to. She reinvents herself as Countess Von Dagga, a private detective aiding the upper echelons of women in society. As the Countess, she is a married woman, with a conveniently absent husband who doesn’t exist, which allows her far more freedom than being single.
When Lord Grendel, from whom she has recovered blackmail letters, is murdered, Albertine is suspect number one—having been the last person to see him. And when the Duke of Erleigh comes looking for her utterly fictitious husband, she realizes she has landed herself in hot water, without a tea bag. When Albertine also becomes the prime suspect in her fictional husband’s death, things are looking grim.
Unless Albertine can prove who murdered Lord Grendel and clear her name, her choices are stepmothering enough small children to start a school or hanging from the end of Her Majesty's rope.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
An unmarried young sleuth gets embroiled in a murder investigation in this fluffy historical from January (The Lady Detective). In 1894, plucky Albertine Honeycomb arrives in London with her best friend, Joan, in tow, fleeing their provincial hometown and sparing Albertine from an arranged marriage to a loutish widower with 15 children. In London, the pair opens a detective agency catering to upper-class society women; to better fit in with their chosen clientele, Albertine rebrands herself as the Countess Von Dagga, with Joan playing the part of her maid. After their first two clients put up a fight when they're asked for payment, Albertine decides she and Joan need a man to front their enterprise, and places an ad in the newspaper. Into their office strides Spencer Sweetman, the recently titled Duke of Erleigh—who also happens to be a Scotland Yard agent tasked with investigating the murder of a lord at the center of Albertine and Joan's first case. The emphasis here is squarely on the blossoming romance between Spencer and Albertine, with few clues to follow as the murder investigation unfolds. Though the love story is sweet and breezy, as a mystery this falls short.
