The Duchess of Kesgrave is eager to help her beloved husband become closer to the half-sister he never knew but she never expected to meet Verity Lark in Newgate! When Bea tries to befriend her husband's sister she discovers Verity has been arrested for murdering the cruel woman who made the lives of Verity, her friends and fellow orphans a misery. Verity was caught with the smoking gun, literally! Verity's friends know she would never kill anyone, not even the Wraithe. Verity prefers the written word and if she did plan to kill the Wraithe, she'd make sure Agnes Wraithe knew just who it was that ended her life. Bea agrees and sets out on a wild chase to discover the nefarious plot she believes was set to entrap Verity. Who would conduct such a vicious machination? Was it a shadowy figure who hired a gunman to shoot Miss Wraithe and the Runner to find her? Or could it be the shadowy figure killed Miss Wraithe and then hired the Runner? Perhaps the shadowy figure hired the Runner to both kill Miss Wraithe and discover Miss Lark in a damning situation?
<b>TRIGGER WARNING:</b> This has to come first. Don't read this book if child abuse is a trigger for you. This book contains mentions of lots and lots of disgusting abuse of privilege and power used against impoverished orphaned children. I don't even like children and found the stories Verity has uncovered and Bea discovers completely reprehensible. If you've read her books, you know some of it but not all of it.
<b>Warning #2:</b> One suspect uses the term "feeble-minded". The main characters use more sympathetic, modern terms. The period correct term is used twice in one scene.
Woah! This may be the twistiest mystery yet. It kept me guessing until JUST before Bea figured it out. There was a clue that gave me an inkling earlier but I thought it might be someone else. Then the clue was dropped that allowed me to realize who it must be but I didn't guess WHO exactly. It was a bit of a shocker. I didn't really like the catch a killer scene. I understand why it had to be that way - Bea is "with cherub" and needed to be safe but I think there could have been a safe way for Bea to do it herself. It's more fun and outrageous that way.
Oh gosh I love Bea. I can relate to her being an introverted book nerd and in her head all the time. Poor Bea. She hasn't known her beloved Damien that long - less than a year! (It's been a fortnight since the last murder!) He has demonstrated how much he loves her and is devoted to her. He adores her and loves her wholeheartedly. However, part of her is still that emotionally starved little girl no one wants waiting for the other shoe to drop. How cruel of her parents' lawyer to threaten her with the orphanage! The threat traumatized her and turned her into an anxious little mouse, afraid to speak up lest she get sent away. She has transferred some of that fear to Kesgrave. He's a Duke! She wonders if he's getting bored with her and her investigations now. He points out she broke a marriage vow right away. Her last investigation was on behalf of his former mistress and Bea is a notorious figure in the press, hardly Duchess material. Now she's possibly carrying the heir to the Dukedom, her behavior must be beyond reproach as Duchess of Kesgrave and mother of a future duke. All this goes through her head at rapid pace and she can't help worry about how her husband feels now. She's also feeling blue because this case involves child abuse. Her own childhood trauma was NOTHING compared to what the children of Fortescue's went through.
Fortunately Damien is the most swoonworthy of Regency romance dukes! He truly does love Bea with all his heart and soul. He knows her better than she knows him. He can read her face like a book and knows what she's thinking. Damien is very sweet and explains to Bea what she's thinking and why she shouldn't be thinking it. (In more ways than one...) I find it hilarious that she's turned on by his pedantry and he knows it and therefore, starts on one of his lists just to cheer her up. ("HMS Goliath, HMS Audacious, HMS Majestic"... ) The Duke of Kesgrave only pretends to be a Darcy. Like Darcy he was brought up to think highly of himself and his position. He has wealth and status and could be a total jerk (ahem like Darcy... don't hate me! Read the book!) but he's a kind, caring man. Deep down he too is emotionally insecure at times due to his traumatic childhood. "Whatever, I'm over it!" is what he would say now but he's not. His parents' cruelty and uncle's despicable behavior left a mark and he's determined NOT to be like them. Kesgrave is unfailingly kind and caring towards others. He knows just how to cheer people up and is intuitive about how Verity must feel.
Verity doesn't appear much in the book but she is the focus and the center of the investigation. I agree that she preferred to make Agnes Wraithe's life miserable and ruin the lives of the Forestcue's Orphan Asylum board members. They all deserved it and she enjoyed making them miserable. Murder isn't her style and why now? She's too smart to succumb to blackmail and she even had a plan in mind. She would willingly out herself as Robert Lark rather than pay one cent of blackmail, especially to the woman who made her childhood miserable. What does she have to lose? She still has Twaddle-Thumb, although she promised to stop writing about the Duchess, and she has other identities she can use and create more. Verity is holding her own in Newgate and trying not to let her fear and worry show. Bea notes Verity is without means or protection. An unmarried, middle class woman will never be saved from the gallows. Indeed, as Lord Colson discovers, Lord Sidmouth, the Home Secretary, won't lift a finger to help, not even in thanks for all Lord Colson has done. (Apparently, Courtesans are not in danger of being hanged but nosy, meddling spinsters are fair game?!)
Lord Colson Hardwicke, the disgraced second son of a Marquess, is impressed by Verity's intelligence and determination. Bea can see Colson is utterly besotted with Verity and thinks he must be a better person than his reputation because Verity is a good judge of character. Bea guesses what everyone who read [book:A Lark's Conceit|200821875] knows already but only some of it! Bea's not as clever as Verity. The Dowager Duchess of Kesgrave is back in her grandson's good books. She is trying hard to make amends to "the child" Mary Price, La Reina's illegitimate daughter who now calls herself Verity Lark. It took too long for her to share the story of how she met Verity. It was a bit frustrating for me because I knew the story and didn't know why she didn't lead with it! Unfortunately for the Dowager, every attempt she makes to help Verity ends up making the situation worse. No good deed goes unpunished!
Agnes Wraithe was an unimaginative, punitive, small-minded, evil woman. She has come down in the world since her days of running an orphans asylum, thanks to Verity. She didn't have the brains to figure out Robert Lark's true identity, let alone to come up with a plan to frame Verity for murder. She doesn't even really know who Verity IS exactly - her worst enemy. Was she working with someone or did someone use her for their own evil purposes? It's odd that a Runner should just happen to appear on the scene to find Verity holding the murder weapon. Cyrus Thimble had to be a part of the vicious machinations behind Verity's arrest. Was Thimble coerced? Did he owe money to the killer? He claims he was responding to a summons but who in that neighborhood can afford to hire a Runner?
Did Miss Wraithe still have dealings with Lord Condon, Fortescue's disgraced patron? Could he be the killer. I think he is. He lost the most and has the most to gain. While he's living large on his estate in Ireland, he's in exile and cannot return to London and life among the ton. I hope he is the killer. He needs to be punished for what he did to those children. I don't even like children and what he did made my stomach turn. The girls had the worst of it. It's sick how men do not see females as beings with thoughts, feelings and emotions.
Even though Lord Condon is supposedly in Ireland, he has the means to return to London or hire a hit man to do the dirty deed for him. I think Lord Condon hired Cyrus Thimble to kill Agnes Wraithe and frame Verity. At the very least, I think he's the one who came across Robert Lark's identity. He must have had a letter from someone who figured it out or had so much time to think and stew, he figured it out on his own. That makes him a dangerous enemy! His representative in London, Edmund Ellis, is a sycophant and a fool. He has ethics which is normally good but in this case he won't give up information needed to solve a murder without getting something in return. Bea figures out a way around Ellis's ethical concerns. I admit that scene is funny even if I don't like the character.
Cyrus Thimble doesn't seem very smart. I think he was hired by the shadowy figure but is not the shadowy figure. He doesn't have a motive to be the shadowy figure. Why would he kill Miss Wraithe? He's an officer of the law and it is his duty to follow the law and bring lawbreakers to Bow Street to start the justice process. Not much of what he says makes sense, practically speaking. He's no match for the Duchess and Duke of Kesgrave though. He provides a number of new suspects though, besides himself. It's a longshot but could one of the neighbors have been so fed up with Miss Wraithe's terrorizing their children they decided to put a stop to it, permanently? I HIGHLY doubt that. Perhaps Miranda Jones's father wanted Miss Wraithe to suffer the way little Miranda did and therefore I would guess he would manufacture a story to have her arrested and thrown in prison but not actually resort to murder. That simply doesn't make sense. Who do those in power accuse first? The ones without power. No, this case surely involves a plot to frame Verity so why would the neighbors do that when their beef was with Miss Wraithe after she was fired from Fortescue's?
The investigation turns to the disgraced board members of Fortescue's at the time of Miss Wraithe's tenure. Not only did they turn a blind eye to her abuse, they perpetuated abuse of their own upon the children. <b>Stop reading the book here if you started but can't stand to read about children being harmed!</b> Charles Wigsworth claims to be a man of science but he is a man of science much in the way Victor Frankenstein is a scientist. Wigsworth is playing around with laughing gas and other gasses to try to invent anesthesia decades before the actual discovery. All he wants is glory and fame, recognition from actual men of science. That's not too much to ask is it? Of course it is when one becomes obsessed to the point of ignoring his family and everything else. Of course it's too much when personal gain overrides ethics! I wasn't as horrified by what he did as Bea is but the man is NOT a man of science. The children didn't understand the risks vs. the reward! They had no one to study the issue and decide if the risk was worth it to assist with a major medical breakthrough. No, Wigsworth took advantage of the children who had no protectors and used them as human guinea pigs until something went wrong. I'm sure he's understating the situation too. Wigsworth simply didn't care who he tested his gas on.
Another board member, Alicia Beveridge, lives near Mayfair with her husband and children. She's a feather wit, a ninny, a shallow woman who cares more for fripperies that enhance her own comfort than for orphaned children. Her husband is a cheapskate who keeps her on a short leash and it sounds like she needs it. If she had credit cards, they would be maxed out. There was no reason for her to steal money from poor children so she wouldn't have to do without things these children never had. She tries to make herself out to be the victim. She sounds like a child. Mrs. Beveridge is typical of the ultra wealthy who don't want to give up their own comforts so someone else can have basic necessities. Still, she was the only one who befriended Miss Wraithe, tried to listen sympathetically and learn what made Miss Wraithe tick. Given this knowledge, perhaps Mrs. Beveridge is the shadowy figure? I don't think she has the brains to do it but perhaps her husband murdered Miss Wraithe to put an end to his wife's misery and to protect his reputation? After all, it's his money he's withholding that caused his wife to steal from the orphans in the first place.
Alicia confides in her dearest friend, Harriet "Feathers" Featherstone-Haughton. She confided private information to Feathers. Did Alicia learn of Robert Lark's true identity? Did she tell Feathers? Did Feathers leak the news to someone else? Her husband, maybe? He sounds like a slimy worm. Caroline Knowles has a secret but I don't think she's the murderer. Her secret isn't so bad in proportion to the others. She feels proper remorse for what happened and understands why what she did was bad. She's a lonely young widow who made a mistake that ended in tragedy. She doesn't seem to be suffering too much but her secret mistake did cause her to break her engagement. I don't see why she would murder Miss Wraithe and frame Verity NOW. It doesn't seem logical.
Pritchard Dibin is the most interesting board member. One report says he's a doddering old man who fell asleep and drooled through board meetings. Our intrepid sleuths think otherwise. Perhaps he has a medical condition? There are signs though that he had a motive for murder and the brains to put a dastardly scheme into place. Of all the board members, he's the one with a current motive. He doesn't have a solid alibi and his story seems a little fishy to me. I don't want him to be the murderer because he's a family man and seems like a caring father and grandfather.
One final suspect is a man named Hottenroth who is worse than even Lord Condon. That man was truly evil. <b>Trigger warning again!</b> Giles Hottenroth was truly evil. He deserved a fate worse than death. His family didn't deserve to suffer though. Now HIS crime makes me sick to my stomach and I was shocked that it came up in a series that's usually fairly light. Someone could be out to avenge his downfall and the family's come down in the world.
I just adore this series and am still hoping Bea and Verity will team up for the next investigation before the Season ends and the Kesgraves go off to the country. The Duke of Kesgrave and Lord Colson won't be able to keep up LOL!
I hope there are many more adventures to come for Bea and Kesgrave, Verity and Colson too!
