Reviews

A Lady's Guide to Gossip and Murder by Dianne Freeman

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mhmissey's review against another edition

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4.0

fun but I miss the ghost

bookish_kristina's review against another edition

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4.0

This series is so cute and cozy. I love Frances and her growth, book over book, is so nice. She gains confidence in herself as an independent widow, friend, sister, chaperone and investigator and we see her flourish in these roles. George is also a sweet hero, he supports her and doesn’t try to overprotect her as she uses her unique skills to investigate the murder of an acquaintance. I do wonder, however, if George should not be compensating Frances somehow, as she seems to have done all his work for him in this book. He was supposed to go through all the documents but kept dropping them in her lap. He better be divvying up his cheque come pay day

sarah_moynihan's review against another edition

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4.0

The Lady's Guide to Gossp and Murder is the second installment of the Lady Harleigh series. This book starts with Lady Harleigh hoping to establish a match between her cousin, Charles and her friend, the widowed Mary Archer. But when Mary is found killed in her own home, Lady Harleigh is determined to help find the culprit, especially as all clues point to Charles. Beginning the investigation, they find notes hidden in Mary's home detailing the myriad of indiscretions and betrayals of the upper class. Finding themselves with more questions than answers, Lady Harleigh and George enlist the help of those around them.

I love, love, love this series. Although hoping for a quiet summer with her sister before she gets married, Lady Harleigh can't seem to keep her name from becoming involved in murder investigations and I love it. This time however she is not a suspect, but her cousin is. Whether her assistance is always wanted or not, she works to help George solve this new msytery and he must admit that she has quite the talent for it.

This one is not as fast paced and is a bit less exciting than the first book because the stakes aren't as high this time around nor is the sense of danger. But it is still a very well paced and planned mystery, that although I had my suspicions "who done it," I wasn't sure until very near the reveal.

I was so glad that Aunt Hetty was back for this book and her sister too. I especially loved getting to meet Lottie. She was endearingly quirky and clutzy in good measure, plus she was a great asset to Lady Harleigh during the investigation. I really hope we'll see her again in the next book.

I think George and Frances are great together and I look forward to seeing how things progress between them in upcoming books. I'm really looking forward to third in the series, whenever that will be, and will be waiting patiently to see what will come next for this series.

I suspose you could read this book as a stand alone, you wouldn't be lost if you did so, but everything would make a lot more sense and it would be much more enjoyable to start with the first in the series. I recommend this book, and the series, to any fan of historical mysteries with a splash of romance.

Thank you to Kensington Books and NetGalley for this ARC. This is my honest review.