A Stroke of Maliceby Anna Lee Huber
Rating: ★★★★
isbn: 9780451491381
Series: A Lady Darby Mystery #7
Publication Date: April 7, 2020
Pages: 372
Genre: Fiction, Historical, Mystery
Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime
A solid, dependable series, which makes it sound like a beloved pair of sneakers, but I can’t think of one of the books in the series that’s really let me down, although some are better than others.
A Stroke of Malice takes place during a weekend at a Duke’s castle in Scotland, celebrating Twelfth Night, with Keira 6 months pregnant. Call me unnatural, but this might be part of the reason it’s not my favorite of the series; there was much rubbing of the belly and cradling of said belly with heaps of overly sentimental musings about the sanctity of life and blah blah blah. Just not my jam, but the mystery was extremely diverting and for almost all of it, I had no clue, though I should have. Which makes the writing even better, in my opinion, since the answer was right there but she managed to keep me from seeing it. A secret paternity is revealed too, which kept things interesting.
So generally, a good one but not the best, and likely other readers with even an ounce of maternal feelings won’t be as critical as I’ve been.