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A review by shrrawat
Murder In Westminster by Vanessa Riley
4.0
When Lady Worthing's neighbor, Juliet Henderson, is found dead on the fencepost at the edge of her property, the young noblewoman feels guilt. She had seen a vision related to Juliet's death shortly before it happened, but had feared to discover the whole truth, believing it to be related to her estranged sister's death. When Henderson offers her a false alibi for the time of Juliet's death, Lady Worthing is torn farther between suspicion suspicion and self-preservation. Should she tell the truth and reveal she was at an abolition meeting the time of the murder? Should she try to protect her tenuous position as a woman of color in Britain's aristocracy and let a potential killer roam free? Or should she find out the truth of what happened for herself?
Vanessa Riley puts an interesting spin on the typical Regency genre. While there have been Regency mysteries, ("Death Comes to Pemberly," Stephanie Barron's Jane Austen series, and the Rosalind Torne series coming to mind), there have been precious few media on people of color in the Regency period (the movie "Belle" being the only thing I can think of being comparable to this book). Therefore, I find the heroine and the characters refreshing, as they put a new context on the stereotypes and romanticization of the era, even if it is within a fictional story.
I think the only complaint I really had was that I was a bit confused at the beginning of the book, as it appears Lady Worthing had a few adventures prior to the book's start that the reader wasn't privy to. Although I feel that the author is setting up for a prequel, it still took me double checking a couple times that this was the first book in a series to be assured I hadn't been dropped in the middle of a series with prior character and plot development.
Thanks to Goodreads First Reads for allowing me to read an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Vanessa Riley puts an interesting spin on the typical Regency genre. While there have been Regency mysteries, ("Death Comes to Pemberly," Stephanie Barron's Jane Austen series, and the Rosalind Torne series coming to mind), there have been precious few media on people of color in the Regency period (the movie "Belle" being the only thing I can think of being comparable to this book). Therefore, I find the heroine and the characters refreshing, as they put a new context on the stereotypes and romanticization of the era, even if it is within a fictional story.
I think the only complaint I really had was that I was a bit confused at the beginning of the book, as it appears Lady Worthing had a few adventures prior to the book's start that the reader wasn't privy to. Although I feel that the author is setting up for a prequel, it still took me double checking a couple times that this was the first book in a series to be assured I hadn't been dropped in the middle of a series with prior character and plot development.
Thanks to Goodreads First Reads for allowing me to read an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.