A Stroke of Malice (A Lady Darby Mystery)

In Scotland in 1832, Lady Kiera Darby and her husband, Sebastian Gage, have been invited to an opulent ducal estate for a twelfth night celebration. Not usually one to partake in large festivities, Lady Keira is looking forward to finishing a portrait of the duchess and to spending time with new friends. However, as luck would have it, they stumble upon a dead body, and so begins a murder mystery that requires her and her husband’s investigative experience to solve.

Even though this is book eight in a series, I was in no way lost and I didn’t feel that the information regarding the past experiences in other novels was repetitious or too vague. The beginning was a little confusing because the grand party had a lot of guests, who all had a lot of titles, and I had a hard time keeping it straight, but the author did a wonderful job of reiterating the information throughout the story so that as I kept reading, I was able to follow along.

I really enjoyed this story. There were a lot of twists and turns and the information was artfully revealed a little at a time to really keep you guessing until the end. I would recommend this to anyone who loves historical mysteries and I am looking forward to reading the whole series.