I found myself speeding to finish this latest installment in the Lady Emily mystery series, even though I could never quite buy into the modes of crime in this one.
Tasha Alexander always does a great job weaving historical people and places into her stories. This time is no exception, with a mysterious vigilante on the loose in London who dresses and poses his victims as old kings of England. It required more than a little suspension of disbelief to accept this modus operandi, but it made for an interesting plot. It all takes place immediately after the death of Queen Victoria and the succession of her son to the throne, so Emily and her husband are left to ponder, is someone threatening the new king, or merely on some kind of personal quest for vengeance?
As with several of her most recent novels, Tasha Alexander alternates timelines throughout her book. Each chapter about Lady Emily is followed by a shorter chapter narrating a tale from England and France of the 1400s. The connection between the two accounts is unclear until the very end. This narrative choice really helps the pacing and the brevity of the historical chapters made it easy to keep on reading.
It is much more clear to me in this book that Lady Emily is meant to pay tribute and borrow some of the qualities of that other strong-minded, mystery-solving Victorian, Amelia Peabody. If I hadn't been able to identify this connection, I think I would have found her high-handedness rather annoying.
Though I haven't always been a fan of Lady Emily's ahead-of-her-time attitude, I find she is settling into herself a little better as she ages. But I still think she would be easier to appreciate if she had SOME kind of inferiority about SOMETHING! She can be a bit too smug.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the digital review copy of this one! ( )

Agent of the Queen, Colin Hargreaves is given a mystery to solve by Queen Victoria when she is on her death bed. Meanwhile a body turns up in the Tower of London dressed as a murdered King Henry VI. Is there a connection between the two or is there a threat to the new King. Part of the book also details the life of William Hargreaves and his wife from 1415 which I didn't find particurly interesting.
This is my second attempt at reading a book from this series and I admit to not caring or especially liking any of the characters.
A NetGalley Book
( )

When bodies appear staged as assassinated kings, of course Colin is called in by the Crown to ensure the safety of the monarch during the transition following the death of Victoria. Also, in alternating chapters, we see the ancestor of Colin including the origination of his title. While I found the history interesting, I did find the alternations frustrating at certain points as it required shifting back and forth between what seemed more like 2 separate stories than an intertwined narrative. ( )

Upon her death bed, Queen Victoria calls for Colin Hargreaves & hands him a cryptic message, which is the first "Clue" of a Royal scavenger hunt ....

While searching for clues he is called to the Tower to investigate a murder; the victim staged to look like murdered king Henry VI. Then a second murder is staged to resemble that of Edward II's violent death. Upon visiting the costume shop, it is learned that the murderer has purchased two more costumes with the plans of setting the next murders to reenact those of Richard II & King Harold.

As Colin & Lady Emily, with the help of Jeremy, follow the clues; they find that each cryptic note leads to another and they begin to think the murders have something to do with a planned assassination of the the new King Edward, however, the victims all are connected to the East End and a group of thugs called "The King's Boys", with no relation to King Edward.

The parallel story is that of Cecily, her husband William Hargrave, & King Henry IV's attack on France for the French Crown, which eventually ties into the "Clues".

My consternation in this book was the author's use of "Beefeater" when referring to the Yeomen Warders... Rather disconcerting to use a modern term as such..... ( )

Puzzles from dying Queen Victoria, a look backward at the time of Henry V and a current investigation into who is killing common folks and staging them as facsimiles of past royal deaths create a lively tale about Lady Emily and husband, Colin. Nice blend of history and crime solving which are the forte for this very good series. ( )