The Secret of the Lost Pearls (A Useful Woman Mystery)
Genteel but impoverished Rosalind Thorne has made her reputation solving delicate problems in a discreet manner, which is why her friend Bethany asks Rosalind to discover how a necklace of valuable black pearls went missing from her dressing room. But when Rosalind embeds in the household to find the thief, she uncovers a host of tensions among the colorful personalities in Bethany’s family and that of Bethany’s husband, Douglas.
When the man Bethany’s younger sister eloped with returns alive and not dead as presumed, he blows the lid open on all manner of deceits, subterfuges, plots, and scandals. And when he dies in truth, with signs of foul play, Rosalind confronts a tangled web that she must patiently unravel—with the assistance of handsome Bow Street runner Adam Harkness—to determine what justice is due.
The book’s callouts to Pride and Prejudice in its chapter epigraphs, social tone, and character eccentricities are a source of delight, explaining Rosalind’s great reserve as she probes family secrets that savor of unpleasant odors. The prose is assured and confident, at times entering other points of view to convey information Rosalind doesn’t know. The story is well plotted, and the suspense builds in a slow but beguiling fashion, with hints that draw the reader in and twists that leave them guessing. Fans of female-led historical mysteries will delight in the way Rosalind traverses both the respectable drawing rooms and the seamy underside of Regency London hidden beneath the manners and tea.
