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A Washington Post Best Mystery Novel of 2023 A high society amateur detective at the heart of Regency London uses her wits and invisibility as an ‘old maid’ to protect other women in a new and fiercely feminist historical mystery series from New York Times bestselling author Alison Goodman.
Lady Augusta Colebrook, “Gus,” is determinedly unmarried, bored by society life, and tired of being dismissed at the age of forty-two. She and her twin sister, Julia, who is grieving her dead betrothed, need a distraction. One soon presents itself: to rescue their friend’s goddaughter, Caroline, from her violent husband.
The sisters set out to Caroline’s country estate with a plan, but their carriage is accosted by a highwayman. In the scuffle, Gus accidentally shoots and injures the ruffian, only to discover he is Lord Evan Belford, an acquaintance from their past who was charged with murder and exiled to Australia twenty years ago. What follows is a high adventure full of danger, clever improvisation, heart-racing near misses, and a little help from a revived and rather charming Lord Evan. Back in London, Gus can’t stop thinking about her unlikely (not to mention handsome) comrade-in-arms. She is convinced Lord Evan was falsely accused of murder, and she is going to prove it. She persuades Julia to join her in a quest to help Lord Evan, and others in need—society be damned! And so begins the beguiling secret life and adventures of the Colebrook twins.
A Washington Post Best Mystery Novel of 2023 A high society amateur detective at the heart of Regency London uses her wits and invisibility as an ‘old maid’ to protect other women in a new and fiercely feminist historical mystery series from New York Times bestselling author Alison Goodman.
Lady Augusta Colebrook, “Gus,” is determinedly unmarried, bored by society life, and tired of being dismissed at the age of forty-two. She and her twin sister, Julia, who is grieving her dead betrothed, need a distraction. One soon presents itself: to rescue their friend’s goddaughter, Caroline, from her violent husband.
The sisters set out to Caroline’s country estate with a plan, but their carriage is accosted by a highwayman. In the scuffle, Gus accidentally shoots and injures the ruffian, only to discover he is Lord Evan Belford, an acquaintance from their past who was charged with murder and exiled to Australia twenty years ago. What follows is a high adventure full of danger, clever improvisation, heart-racing near misses, and a little help from a revived and rather charming Lord Evan. Back in London, Gus can’t stop thinking about her unlikely (not to mention handsome) comrade-in-arms. She is convinced Lord Evan was falsely accused of murder, and she is going to prove it. She persuades Julia to join her in a quest to help Lord Evan, and others in need—society be damned! And so begins the beguiling secret life and adventures of the Colebrook twins.
Due to publisher restrictions the library cannot purchase additional copies of this title, and we apologize if there is a long waiting list. Be sure to check for other copies, because there may be other editions available.
Due to publisher restrictions the library cannot purchase additional copies of this title, and we apologize if there is a long waiting list. Be sure to check for other copies, because there may be other editions available.
Excerpts-
From the cover
1
Saturday, June 6, 1812
We were to meet him at midnight in the Dark Walk. It was not an ideal arrangement: two unaccompanied women confronting a blackmailer in the most ill-lit, deserted part of Vauxhall Gardens. Still, I had come prepared-more or less. Now all we had to do was wait until the hour was upon us.
I angled my pendant watch at the oil lamps hanging high in the branch above my head but could not make out the dainty face. The famous light show was near its end; the thousand or so colored lamps, strung in festoons around the trees and pavilions, had all begun to gutter. Well, for once my unladylike height would be an advantage. Raising myself onto tiptoes, I lifted the timepiece to the dying glow of the nearest lamp. Finally, a glint of gold hands: a quarter to midnight.
I touched my sister's arm. She turned from watching the dancers silhouetted before the orchestra tower.
"Already?" she asked over Mr. Handel's soaring music.
"It is at least ten minutes to the Dark Walk."
She drew her lilac shawl tightly around her shoulders. "Are you sure we should do this, Gussie? We cannot trust this man to keep his word, especially in such a lonely place. He could attack us."
She was right. Mr. Harley had already proved himself dishonorable, and while the Dark Walk had a reputation as an illicit meeting place for lovers, it also had a grim history of assaults upon women, and sometimes even men. Nevertheless, I had promised Charlotte, Lady Davenport, that we would retrieve her letters as discreetly as possible. She had stood by us after the scandalous death of our father, so there had been no question that we would help her in return. Honor was not only the province of men, despite popular belief.
I hefted my reticule up between us, the rock within stretching the knitted purse out of its pineapple shape. All in all one of my less successful knitting efforts, but at least it made a substantial weapon.
My sister eyed it with misgiving. "We will end up transported to the colonies."
"Nonsense. I doubt I will have to use it. He wants his payment; we want the letters. It will be a straightforward exchange." More to the point, I hoped I would not have to use it. The idea for the makeshift weapon had come to me very late-less than an hour before we left for the gardens-so I had only managed twenty minutes of swinging practice in the stables. I hit my target two out of ten times: not an inspiring score.
Julia blew a resigned breath, the force of it fluttering the curl of purple feathers in her hair. Lilac shawl, purple feathers, gray gown; the shades of mourning. June and its sad anniversary of her betrothed's death was always a difficult month for my dear girl.
"Do you have the necklace?" I asked.
She held up her own reticule by its drawstring, the black beaded purse swinging between us like a pendulum. "I have checked it twenty times since we arrived. Will Lord Davenport not notice such beautiful diamonds gone?"
"Charlotte says he notices nothing but claret, cards, and horses." Which was to say, he was like every other married man in London.
"Lady Augusta! Is that Lady Julia with you?" a shrill voice called out. "But of course it is. How pleasant to see you both."
Julia squeezed her eyes shut and resolutely stayed facing the orchestra. "Oh Lud. We do not have time for her."
Indeed, we did not. But unlike Julia, I already faced the owner of the voice, and so had to smile our welcome as she advanced upon us.
"Lady Kellmore, how do you do?" I called back. I glanced at my sister. We should run.
Julia's mouth quirked. I wish we could....
Reviews-
Starred review from March 1, 2023
In 1812, Lady Augusta "Gus" Colebrook and her twin sister Julia are 42. They are considered spinsters, lucky to have their own income and their own household. Despite their status in society, Gus is bored. After a successful retrieval of letters for a friend threatened with blackmail, she has an idea: Why shouldn't she and Julia have adventures while helping other women? For their first case, they plan to rescue the childless Lady Caroline Thorne, who fears her husband intends to kill her. If the sisters can get her out of her house, her relatives will shelter her. On the way to the Thorne estate, the sisters' carriage is attacked by highwaymen. Gus shoots and injures one of them, but Julia recognizes him as Lord Evan Belford, convicted of murder in a duel 20 years earlier and exiled to Australia. Now the sisters have an escaped felon as a secret partner in their attempts to save women and children in Regency England. VERDICT Fans of Georgette Heyer's Regency novels will savor this mystery from "Dark Days Club" series author Goodman. Well-developed characters, a touch of romance, and cases involving social issues of the period enhance the experience.--Lesa Holstine
Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
March 15, 2023 Three interlinked stories that give their twin heroines a chance to shine in much more physically active roles than early-19th-century England would ever have allowed. It seems the fate of 42-year-old spinster Lady Augusta Colebrook to be constantly called on to rescue other women from the clutches of evil men and male-dominated institutions, and the fate of her widowed twin sister, Lady Julia, to be swept along as her accomplice while they keep their snooty and entitled brother, the Earl of Duffield, ever in the dark. After a spirited prologue suggesting a lower-tech James Bond pre-credit sequence, "Till Death Do Us Part" is kicked off by a report from Georgina Randall, an old friend of the twins' late mother, that Millicent Defray, one of her daughters, suspects Sir Reginald Thorne of having imprisoned his wife, Caroline, Millicent's sister. Gussie's plan to find and free Caroline brings her into close contact with Lord Evan Belford, back in England after having been transported to Australia for a fatal duel he fought 20 years ago. The sparks between the two are so quick and hot that it's no surprise to see Lord Evan, aka Jonathan Hargate, return in "An Unseemly Cure" to help Gussie rescue Marie-Jean, a 12-year-old who's been kidnapped, kept in a brothel, and offered as a Virgin Cure for the pox, or in "The Madness of Women," in which Gussie eagerly responds to Lord Evan's plea to help him spring his sister, Lady Hester Belford, from Bothwell House asylum. All three adventures are marked by successively mounting complications that fans of either the Regency period or take-no-prisoners feminism will cheer. Think of the Bridgerton novels with the steamy sex replaced by female-forward action sequences.
COPYRIGHT(2023) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
May 1, 2023 In her delicious latest slice of historical genre fare, Goodman (the Lady Helen novels) introduces readers to Lady Augusta “Gus” Colebrook and her twin sister, Julia, two strong-willed Regency-era spinsters who wield their age and station to liberate struggling women in London. Hoping to distract a grieving Julia after her fiancé’s death, Lady Gus volunteers to retrieve compromising letters from a blackmailer as a favor for a friend. But what begins as a lark soon becomes a serious plot to aid women in trouble who have no other recourse, including a wife trying to escape her murderous husband, some girls kidnapped by a brothel, and a group of women unjustly committed to a madhouse. With the help of their loyal, quick-witted butler and a disgraced nobleman turned highwayman, Lady Gus and Julia risk their lives and reputations to solve cases and save women from bleak fates. Fierce, funny, and often dark, this is an eye-opening portrait of a colorful yet misogynistic period in English history. Readers will be eager to return for the duo’s next adventure. Agent: Jill Grinberg, Jill Grinberg Literary.
April 25, 2023 The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies by Alison Goodman is a joyous romp through Regency England that is equally entertaining, revealing, feminist, heartbreaking and humorous. Our protagonist, Lady Augusta, is living a rather unconventional life for a woman in her 40s in Regency-era London. She is a self-sufficient spinster living alone with her sister, Julia. Lady Augusta is quick-witted, intelligent and outspoken—all things a lady should not be. However, her life becomes even more unorthodox when she and Julia become involved in a series of ‘cases’ that bring them face to face with some of the most heinous crimes occurring to women of that era, privileged and unprivileged alike. Setting out to help the women around them, the sisters find the courage to stand up for themselves and others while meeting handsome rogues and new friends along the way. This book suffers a little in the beginning, with the roaring pace at the start hindering the fleshing out of the characters in the first act, making them distant and unapproachable. However, the middle considerably works to correct this, and one can’t help but root for Lady Augusta’s cause. The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies is an unexpected delight that blends historical romance with adventure, crime-solving and a bold feminist undertone. This book would be loved by anyone looking for a historical adventure that breaks the bounds of convention to feature women ‘past their prime’ taking matters into their own hands.
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