Reviewing A Lady's Guide to Mischief and Mayhem
A Lady’s Guide to Mischief and Mayhem is an historical mystery mixed in with romance. We are introduced to The Gazette newspaper’s owner and journalist, Lady Katherine Bascomb who joins up with friend, Miss Caro Hardcastle to provide London’s public the female perspective on crimes. Katherine is a force to be reckoned with as she doesn’t allow men to push her around and especially speak on her behalf. And so, her and Caro decide to do their own investigating into the unsolved mystery of the Commandments Killer who is currently terrorizing the people of London. As a result, they find a key witness that the Scotland Yard and lead detective, Mr. Andrew Eversham missed and unintentionally got him demoted off the case.
The story was a bit slow going for me at first but the plot began to pick up when Andrew is assigned to the house where Katherine is visiting her longtime friend, Sir Valentine Thorn when another murder happens there. The growing feelings between Katherine and Andrew were adorable with just enough steam to keep you hooked and the back and forth between these two strong headed individuals was highly entertaining.
Although I figured out who the killer was half way through the novel it wasn’t blatantly obvious, making this a great historical mystery.
Manda also provides a lot of segue into Caro’s upcoming novel. I’m really glad we’ll get to hear Caro’s story and find out what really was up between her and Lord Valentine that seems to be simmering under the surface.
Thank you to Hachette Canada and Forever for the gifted copy. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
Book Description
England, 1865: As one of England's most notorious newspaper columnists, Lady Katherine Bascomb believes knowledge is power. And she's determined to inform and educate the ladies of London on the nefarious-and deadly-criminals who are preying on the fairer sex. When her reporting leads to the arrest of a notorious killer, however, Katherine flees to a country house party to escape her newfound notoriety-only to witness a murder on her very first night. And when the lead detective accuses Katherine of inflaming-rather than informing-the public with her column, she vows to prove him wrong.
Detective Inspector Andrew Eversham's refusal to compromise his investigations nearly cost him his own career, and he blames Katherine. To avoid bad publicity, his superiors are pressuring him to solve cases quickly rather than correctly. When he discovers she's the key witness in a new crime, he's determined to prevent the beautiful widow from once again wreaking havoc on his case. Yet as Katherine proves surprisingly insightful and Andrew impresses Katherine with his lethal competency, both are forced to admit the fire between them is more flirtatious than furious. But to explore the passion between them, they'll need to catch a killer.