Susan in NC's Reviews > And Dangerous to Know

I love this Regency-set historical mystery series, but this was not my favorite outing.

Rosalind Thorne is a lady in reduced circumstances who has fashioned a rather unique niche for herself in the ton. She provides the great and good her services as a planner of social events, solver of delicate “problems” (messy, embarrassing stuff that can ruin reputations - like compromising letters), and by being generally “useful”. Rosalind is a great character.

I also like the other returning characters, like her dear friends Alice and George Littlefield, who’ve also weathered family disaster and reinvented themselves as newspaper reporters; Mrs. Kendricks, her thoroughly unflappable housekeeper; and Adam Harkness, a Bow Street Runner she has worked with previously, and with whom she shares an obvious, though of course, unstated attraction.

One of the underlying conflicts in this book was, would Rosalind continue her work, maintaining her independence, and possibly pursue a relationship with Adam, or would she take up the marriage offer made to her by Devin, her first love as a young girl, who has re-entered her life as the Duke of Casselmain, and could return her to the station t0 which she had been born? Readers are left hanging - Rosalind is heading to a friend’s wedding in the country, at the duke’s estate, where we assume Devin will court her.

That was not my problem with this mystery - indeed, the romantic conflict was handled subtly, and did not interfere with the rest of the plot. I just had a hard time navigating the Byzantine social machinations and multi-layered conversations Rosalind was constantly forced to navigate. It was draining, and I wasn’t always sure what was actually being implied - I don’t know how Rosalind does it!

A woman is found dead in the grounds of Melbourne House in London. Harkness is called to try and learn her identity, and who poisoned her; his work converges with Rosalind’s latest case - she has been asked to stay at Melbourne House and recover some compromising letters stolen from the formidable, socially powerful Lady Melbourne’s desk. Also involved are her son, William Lamb, her detested daughter-in-law, Lady Caroline, grandson Augustus, and the notorious Lord Byron (although we don’t actually meet him, he is in exile in Europe).

I’m not sure if my confusion was rooted in being unfamiliar with the Melbourne House crowd, beyond being aware Lady Caroline had a scandalous affair with Byron, and was thought to be mad; or with forgetting some of the character developments from the last book (a problem I often have with favorite authors who publish a book a year).

I very much enjoy the characters, dialogue, attention to historical detail - I have no complaints about the writing, it is just the elaborate conversations and verbal sparring Rosalind has with just about every character, whether Lady Melbourne, Caroline, or the suspected blackmailers. Natural, I guess, for a mystery revolving around blackmail and stolen letters - so many secrets, so much deceit! I felt sorry for Rosalind at the end, she was exhausted, and understandably so; she solved the murder, but had really been through the mill trying to sort through all the secrets and lies.

I look forward to the next book in the series to see where this author takes these wonderful characters next.