It’s 1912 and Lady Cecilia Bates of Danby Hall is feeling restless.
Her brother is courting Annabelle Clarke, an American heiress, who
has the qualities Cecilia’s mother wants in a daughter. Annabelle
is eager to plan church fetes and is very amenable to marriage. Celia
is bored by village fetes and isn’t interested in marriage. She
wants to do something useful.
Cecelia’s view of
the world brightens when Mrs. Amanda Price, a suffragette leader,
comes to town to give a lecture. Determined to meet her hero, Cecelia
and Jane, Amanda’s lady’s maid, contrive to attend the lecture
and meet Mrs. Price. She invites Cecelia to visit her at Primrose
Cottage that she is renting in the area.
When Cecelia
arrives, Mrs. Price is dead having fallen down the stairs. The
authorities believe it was an accident, but Cecelia thinks it was
something else. She’s seen the underlying tension in the group and
wonders why Mrs. Price doesn’t live with her husband. Soon she,
Jane, and Cecelia’s cat are deep into trying to solve the mystery.
Cecelia is a good
character. She wants to do something useful with her life, not just
become the wife and mother her family expects her to be. My only
problem with Cecelia is that she ruminates about her life choices
constantly. It got a little wearing.
The mystery is
entertaining with lots of suspects. The pacing is fair. It took
almost a third of the book for the murder to happen. However, it’s
an enjoyable read if you like historical mysteries.
I received this book
from Net Galley for this review.
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