Priscilla Knight has recently been widowed for the second time.
Accidents do happen and only a financial oddity makes her friend
Elizabeth Miles suspect that something malevolent occurred. The New
York suffragist Priscilla had been reasonably well off, but now her
money has disappeared and her property has been sold. What
happened? Elizabeth decides to investigate.
CITY OF SECRETS is the latest in
the enjoyable Counterfeit Lady series, featuring woman sleuth Elizabeth Miles and her friends.
With a dodgy background, Elizabeth knows more about crime than
most. Her gentleman friend Gideon Bates is required to pursue
inquiries, however, when a photo comes to light of Priscilla's late
second husband in a compromising position, perhaps at a bawdy
house. The possibility for blackmail presents itself, but blackmailers
don't normally kill their victims.
I like the atmosphere shown in these mysteries, especially as our
heroine Elizabeth is an outsider in the respectable classes and, while
giving a good impersonation, she manages to remark on their
stuffiness, willingness to believe good or ill and various customs. Such
customs, of course, include comfort at funerals and calling upon a
widow, who in those days was not supposed to go out to society for a
year.
While I enjoyed the complex setup at the end, the early part of the book
is more tedious because we get the story of Priscilla's second wedding,
widowhood, and lost wealth repeated several times while Elizabeth
talks to any person she can find who may know more information. By
the seventh or eighth repetition, I started skipping pages.
Great characters include Elizabeth's father, referred to as the Old Man,
whose shady background comes in useful. He is delighted to see his
daughter making her way up in the world, and doesn't wish to
jeopardise her chances, but he can't bring himself to let her go either.
The Reverend Honesdale has a connection who is similarly the black
sheep of the family. The message of the book could be that good and
bad are relative terms and sometimes exchange places. CITY OF SECRETS will be enjoyed by
all Victoria Thompson's fans and anyone who wants to read a historical
cozy mystery.
An exciting new book in the series featuring
woman-on-the-run Elizabeth Miles--from the beloved national
bestselling author of the Gaslight Mysteries.
Elizabeth Miles knows that honesty is not always the best
policy when it comes to finding justice.
Elizabeth has discovered that navigating the rules of high
society is the biggest con of all. She knows she can play
the game, but so far, her only success is Priscilla Knight,
a dedicated young suffragist recently widowed for the second
time. Her beloved first husband died in a tragic accident
and left her with two young daughters--and a sizable
fortune. While she was lost in grief, Priscilla's pastor
convinced her she needed a man to look after her and
engineered a whirlwind courtship and hasty marriage to
fellow parishioner Endicott Knight. Now, about nine months
later, Endicott is dead in what appears to be another
terrible accident.
Everyone is whispering, but that is the least of Priscilla's
troubles. She had believed Endicott was wealthy, too, but
her banker tells her she has no money left and her house has
been mortgaged. He also hints at a terrible scandal and
refuses to help.
Priscilla stands to lose everything, and Elizabeth is
determined not to let that happen. But, as always, Elizabeth
walks a fine line between using her unusual talents and
revealing her own scandalous past. Elizabeth soon discovers
that Endicott's death was anything but accidental, and
revealing the truth could threaten much more than
Priscilla's finances. To save her new friend's future--and
possibly her own--Elizabeth, along with her
honest-to-a-fault beau, Gideon, delve into the sinister
secrets someone would kill to keep.
© 2003-2024 off-the-edge.net
all rights reserved Privacy Policy