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3.7 AVERAGE
3.7 AVERAGE
The Star Trek see-saw continues. This is really only 2.5, but I'm giving it a 3. A woman shows up at a party, imitating someone Emily's friend Cecile knows, gets caught, runs away, ends up dead. So starts the mystery of where the real woman is. The story's pretty stupid and the interstitials make it even more annoying, sucking any curiosity out of the book with trivial exposition. Still, the main characters remain fun.
dark
mysterious
Probably the best Tasha Alexander novel yet! The mystery was quite, quite good. The climax was very memorable.
Lady Emily and her husband Colin are attending a masquerade at which a famous lady traveler is supposed to be present. But the woman they are introduced to is an imposter!! What happened to the real one? Her story is told in tantalizing short chapters, which alternate with the investigation chapters until All Is Explained.
The only thing that gets on my nerves a bit about the Lady Emily books is that for a Victorian, she has such extremely modern sensibilities and she's fairly smug about it. There are passages where she's really patting herself on the back, like, "Look at me, I'm 100 years ahead of my time but I still get to have servants and awesome clothes!" And the dialogue seems occasionally anachronistic. But these are minor quibbles. Good book!
Lady Emily and her husband Colin are attending a masquerade at which a famous lady traveler is supposed to be present. But the woman they are introduced to is an imposter!! What happened to the real one? Her story is told in tantalizing short chapters, which alternate with the investigation chapters until All Is Explained.
The only thing that gets on my nerves a bit about the Lady Emily books is that for a Victorian, she has such extremely modern sensibilities and she's fairly smug about it. There are passages where she's really patting herself on the back, like, "Look at me, I'm 100 years ahead of my time but I still get to have servants and awesome clothes!" And the dialogue seems occasionally anachronistic. But these are minor quibbles. Good book!
Alexander's shocking twists and endings to Lady Emily's cases never cease to amaze me.
Another one! I loved the beginning, but then...
I don't like mystery novels that tell us "meanwhile, the bad guy is ...." I know why she did it - the lady is crazy.
But that means I figured it out early and then the fun is gone.
Lacked the oomph.
I don't like mystery novels that tell us "meanwhile, the bad guy is ...." I know why she did it - the lady is crazy.
But that means I figured it out early and then the fun is gone.
Lacked the oomph.
When someone attending the same masquerade party that Lady Emily is attending is found out to not be who she says she is and is later murdered, Emily, Colin, Jeremy, and Celsete start looking into the past of the murdered lady as well as the person she was trying to pass herself off as.
I have yet to be let down by Tasha Alexander. Her attention to detail in her Lady Emily novels never seems to disappoint. Lady Emily is at it again in this novel, she is trying to solve a mystery that no one really knew was a mystery after numerous years. Estella, Cecile's good friend, has been traveling for some time, or has she? Emily knows something is not right about the situation and she goes to France in search of answers and the real Estella. Mixed with a lot of Dicken's novel references, greek, and a lovely romance, this novel is entertaining and leaves you wondering if the real Estella is even alive.
Upon the unmasking of an imposter and the subsequent demise of the woman at a masquerade ball, Lady Emily and her husband are contracted by the crown to solve the murder. Amongst their detective crew is Emily’s constant suitor, Jeremy, and most importantly, Emily’s Parisian friend, Cecile, who was also close to the real Estella Lamar. Clues soon take the group from England to Paris, and the mystery evolves to become less about who murdered the imposter in favor of what might have happened to Estella Lamar.
Is she alive? Is she held captive in exchange for her fortune? Or, could all be well after all?
At the beginning, I was incredibly invested in this story due to the way each chapter would alternate from the voice of Emily to the story of Estella’s life. This structure built suspense, as the reader must speculate what happened to the heiress as Emily and company discover clues that are increasingly suspicious. I leave this book not overly impressed with the resolution of the mystery, but very intrigued about the dissolution of a person’s mind and with the desire for the book to have delved deeper into that area; I can say that I am both amazed, horrified, and put-off with what I have read.
In conclusion, I would consider this to be vast improvement to the Lady Emily series when compared to its predecessor book, which I found to be a huge disappointment. Things have not yet reached the high form this series had in the beginning, but I am left with hope after reading this book for further improvement. Besides, it was enjoyable to be on the case again with such familiar characters.
Is she alive? Is she held captive in exchange for her fortune? Or, could all be well after all?
At the beginning, I was incredibly invested in this story due to the way each chapter would alternate from the voice of Emily to the story of Estella’s life. This structure built suspense, as the reader must speculate what happened to the heiress as Emily and company discover clues that are increasingly suspicious. I leave this book not overly impressed with the resolution of the mystery, but very intrigued about the dissolution of a person’s mind and with the desire for the book to have delved deeper into that area; I can say that I am both amazed, horrified, and put-off with what I have read.
In conclusion, I would consider this to be vast improvement to the Lady Emily series when compared to its predecessor book, which I found to be a huge disappointment. Things have not yet reached the high form this series had in the beginning, but I am left with hope after reading this book for further improvement. Besides, it was enjoyable to be on the case again with such familiar characters.