An Artless Demiseby Anna Lee Huber
Rating: ★★★★
isbn: 9780451491367
Series: A Lady Darby Mystery #7
Publication Date: April 2, 2019
Pages: 372
Genre: Fiction, Historical, Mystery
I thoroughly enjoy this series, and I enjoyed this one too, but I think it might be the one I liked least.
Anyone who has read the earlier books in the series will readily agree that Lady Darby has had an unarguably difficult and painful past. Her first husband, a famous anatomist, forced her to attend his human dissections to draw the illustrations required for his planned masterwork on the human anatomy. When her part was revealed upon his death, she was vilified and run out of London. Now she’s back, in love, married, and pregnant, and her timing is awful; burkers have been caught attempting to sell the body of a dead boy to anatomists, and it’s obvious he did not meet his end naturally. Then the nobs start getting killed in the streets of Mayfair and everyone is looking at Lady Darby again.
It’s a great story, but unfortunately, Kiera’s wallowing just a bit. Not as much as your average historical heroine cliche, but more than what I’d expect from this strong and talented character. Call it a justifiable response to the equivalent of PTSD, but she became a victim, and it was a bit disappointing, given all the adventures she’s had. Usually, this wouldn’t be as big of a stand out as it is this time, but the murderer was obvious to me from the start, so I had nothing to distract me from Kiera’s sudden-onset mousiness. She gets her mojo back in the end, so that’s something.
In spite of my nit-picking, it was still an enjoyable read overall, and I look forward to the next one.