A Most Efficient Murder by Anthony Slayton - Mr. Quayle is one hell of a secretary!

 

Mr. Quayle is one hell of a secretary! (Shameless Black Butler reference). When I first started reading this I thought it was going to be good, sometimes you just get that vibe within the first couple of pages of a book. But not read in four hours, download on my phone to read while walking to pick my daughter up from school good (I am not endorsing reading while walking and if you must make sure you stay aware of your surroundings)! 

Mr. Quayle has recently been hired on to be the Secretary to Lord Unsworth and his first big event is ensuring that Fanny's, the lord's favorite niece, eighteenth birthday party goes off without a hitch. And it is up until the body is found. No one knows who the young woman with the angry eyes is that was found stabbed to death, but Lord Unsworth knows that his family name must be protected at all costs, and to that end, he orders Mr. Quayle to do his own investigation besides the one the police are doing. Mr. Quayle reluctantly agrees but very rapidly discovers that everyone in the Unsworth clan has secrets worth murdering over. 

This book was one wild ride. When the whole murder plot was revealed I literally gasped out loud (scaring the crap out of my dog) because I was totally blindsided. The characters were each so well written by the end I had this picture of them in my head right down to how their voices sounded (and unfortunately Lady Constance reminded me just a little bit too much of my grandmother). There were no plot holes, no unanswered questions, and surprisingly the Unsworth Clan seemed to walk away from the whole affair a little stronger for it. I liked that part a lot that even though something really horrendous had taken place this very dysfunctional family had maybe finally found a place where they could trust one another and stop scheming. It wasn't just a good ending it was a happy ending. 

I want to thank BookSirens for the free eArc to this truly puzzling whodunit! This book will be available to purchase on April 3rd, pre-orders however are available now! 

#MurderInWestminster by Vanessa Riley - An amazingly unique idea...If the kinks can be worked out

 

I'm on the fence as to whether this is a three or four star book. When it was good it was really good but when it was not it was also really not. 

Lady Abigail Worthing has a lot going on in her life after marrying her husband James Monroe, Lord Worthing her sister disappears and her father essentially disowns her. Her new husband leaves almost immediately for the high seas to boot and to top it all off the Abolition movement (something near and dear to her heart) has lost momentum after the death of its leader. Abigail can't really do much about the first two things but she has documents that within the hands of the right people may be the jump-start the movement needs, she just has to get them to them and she's got a plan for that. Having her maids take their place at a play Lady Worthing and her cousin Flo slip off to a secret meeting with the current leader of the movement only to be called away before they could even meet, but Abigail can't pass this up, her sister wants to reconcile. Rushing home Abigail is disappointed to find her sister not there and her dog has run off again, to the annoyance of her neighbor Mr. Henderson. As Abbi and Mr. Henderson rush after the dog, they stumble across the gruesome murder of his estranged wife. Now Abbi must team up with her hated neighbor to find out who killed his wife before both of them end up hanging for it. 

That's a lot, isn't it? That's because there's a lot going on in this book. I didn't even mention the fact that Lady Worthing has "visions". Yup, wasn't even gonna go there. There is so much other stuff going on in this book that it all overshadows the most important thing: The Dead Woman. I wish the author had found a lane and stayed in it. It honestly felt like all this extra was fluff because she simply couldn't find a way to move the main plot along. And to be honest with the Abolition Movement that's a perfect secondary plotline but that one is kinda muddled too. 

I did *not* like Abigail at all. She was wishy-washy. A wishy-washy character is good to show character development but Abigail really didn't develop at all. Henderson was a better character but not by a lot. He at least wasn't wishy-washy. (If you've read my reviews before wishy-washy characters who can't make up their minds and flip flop constantly are the bane of my existence.) There's a bunch of other side characters as well. Her cousin Flo is into math so there are a lot of really bad math jokes, Flo's uncle and Abigail's godfather is some sort of high ranking official, and Abigail's solicitor who got a thing for widows. Flo is sssooo positive and supportive it's almost fake. Her Godfather is essentially the same I think he is supposed to come across as wise and sophisticated, and her solicitor I'm not even sure why he was there other than to have access to financial records. 

Overall I'm going to give the benefit of the doubt and say that it's rough to write the first book of a series. I really believe it has a lot of potential; a mixed-race woman hunting down criminals while fighting to end slavery is an amazingly unique plotline in period mystery books so I'll definitely check out the next book.

I want to thank Edelweiss Books and the people over at Kensington Books for the eArc!