Mary Lancaster

I am absolutely enamored with Lord Petteril (Piers) and April. They are engaging characters who are warm, caring, intelligent, and devoted. They are side by side in all things, whether it is solving a mystery or making family decisions.

Early morning chaos descends on the Petteril household when the servants discover a baby on the steps to the servant's entrance. Most aristocratic families would have the child delivered to a local orphanage, but not Lord and Lady Petteril. They intend to see show more the child is cared for while they track down its family, even though everyone will assume the worst – that it is Petteril’s illegitimate child. They begin their search in their neighborhood, but quickly spread out and – well – it seems almost anyone in London could be a suspect. The clues that come to light lead them in all directions. What is going on? Are they solving more than one mystery – or – is it all related?

This is an excellent read, featuring a well-developed, excellently paced mystery and endearing characters that you’ll love. You can read this book as a standalone, but to fully appreciate the characters, I recommend reading from the beginning. I hope you will enjoy the book as much as I did.

I voluntarily read an early copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. show less

I am thoroughly loving this historical mystery/romance series! Each book features our cunning and intelligent investigating couple – Lady Griz (a duke’s daughter) and her penniless, refugee, Hungarian, revolutionist husband, Dragan Tizsa. Each book also features a romantic couple – and the story is told from the standpoint of the romantic couple. I love it. Each book is well-written, excellently plotted, and perfectly paced. The mystery is filled with many suspects and red herrings show more galore, but the villain will surprise you.

Alexandra Battle has been a governess for the last several years, but this post might be the strangest she’s encountered. The housekeeper conducted the interview rather than the parent and the parent didn’t even make an appearance to question her whenever she arrived for her first day on the job. While all of that is strange, her new employer – one of the richest men in the British Isles, chooses to live in a moldering, dusty, house in a very insalubrious part of town. She doesn’t even meet her employer until she gets up in the middle of the night to investigate the strange, rhythmic, clanking sounds that awoke her. Her first meeting is … odd … to say the least. Perhaps she should think about resigning and finding another post – but she really needs this one now.

We briefly met Sir Nicholas Swan in Letters to a Lover and learned that he was a taciturn, enigmatic man with cold eyes and harsh features. Oh! Imagine finding him in a dark room in the middle of the night – especially when there have been strange noises in the house.

Nicholas hasn’t been back in England for very long. He’s lived the last almost 20 years – half his life – on the continent. He spent his time there making his fortune and now he is rich beyond belief. At nineteen, he fled England with the woman he loved. That caused a family rift and scandal his father never forgave. He’s learned to be distrustful of everyone – especially women – because they all want something from him. That something is usually his fortune and his name. Well, that isn’t going to happen. He’s going to care for his illegitimate daughter, Evelina, and continue to build his fortune. He’s so rich he has no use for the houses and funds he has inherited from his father, but business is fun – even charitable business.

As both Evelina and Nicholas begin to trust Alex, Evelina is kidnapped. Nicholas immediately blames Alex and goes into a panic. Alex, on the other hand, stays focused and her first thought is to get word to her friend Lady Griz and her husband Dragan because they’ll know exactly what to do and how to do it.

While searching for Evelina, they learn that other children have been kidnapped and held for ransom. Luckily, the children were promptly returned as soon as the ransom was paid, but the parents were in absolute terror before the return.

Scotland Yard soon comes to decide that Nicholas and Alex could certainly be the masterminds behind the kidnappings. Say what!

You’ll absolutely love feeling the chemistry between these two and then watching them fight their attraction before finally giving in and finding their HEA. They are both wonderful, very relatable characters and you’ll also love little Evelina.

I can definitely recommend this book and I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I did. show less

In the first book of the series, we met (and loved) the eccentric Piers Withan who was ripped from his much-loved post as a don at Oxford and elevated to Viscount Petteril after the sudden loss of five of his closest male family members. To say he was unhappy about it all would be putting it mildly, but he was on better footing after solving a mystery that showed him and others that he could be a formidable foe if pushed. Also, in that first book we met Ape, a street urchin from the slums show more who saved Petteril and then basically became his shadow. We also discovered that Ape was actually a female who had been dressing and acting as a male (for protection) for so long that she had forgotten how to be female. I’m going into all of this because, if you haven’t read the first book (you really should), you’ll need some background for parts of this one to be clear. It is my suggestion that you read at least the first two books in the series for a proper understanding of the background, and the future books will probably be fine as standalone reads. BTW - Petteril has an affliction that keeps him from being able to recognize faces - especially those he doesn't come into contact on a regular basis.

Lord Petteril has convinced Ape to transition from her guise as a male and adopt her true identity as a female named April. To facilitate that change, Ape will travel with Petteril to his country estate, Haybury Court, as his assistant – and along the way, Ape will become April. Ape puts the transition off as long as possible, but when they are close to arriving at the state, she relents and makes the change.

The real adventure begins when they smell smoke in the woods as they are approaching Haybury, and decide to see what is burning. What do they find? A very naked body whose clothing is a pile of cinders in a nearby burn pile. Petteril immediately notifies the local magistrate who seems totally inept at handling the investigation because he wants to rule it anything other than murder. Did I mention the corpse had a knife sticking out of his chest?

It was so much fun watching Petteril outwit all of those folks who still equated him with the child they had known so many years ago. To them, he was still the strange, awkward, unusual child who, perhaps, wasn’t all there – so they ignored him, spoke down to him, insulted him – until they discovered he was so much more than they had believed. Oops!

Once they had finally identified the corpse, there were suspects aplenty – even a local highwayman known as Brandy Bill. April and Petteril sift through the evidence, investigate the suspects, and finally identify who, what and why. Believe me – you’ll be surprised. You may suspect some things, but – you won’t know.

This was a fun read with delightful characters, murder, mayhem, kindness, metamorphosis, suspense, and finally a satisfactory end. I recommend this book and I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did. Now, the wait begins for the third book in the series – Petteril’s Ladybird. show less

This first book in Mary Lancaster’s new historical mystery series is an outstanding addition to the genre. It was so very good that I read it in one sitting. I couldn’t put it down.

The character of Lord Petteril is wonderfully complex, nuanced, and built layer upon intriguing layer. I believe he is one of the most interesting and likable characters I’ve read in a very long time. Ape, the thief, is also an excellent choice as a main supporting character. Ape has survived by his show more intelligence and wits his entire life in St. Giles. He’s not a thief by choice, he works for the “Lord”, and if he wants to survive, he does as he’s told. When Ape is given the choice to change his life, he jumps at it and never looks back. (Can you picture an urchin who actually wants to take a bath?)

Absolutely nobody wants Oxford don, Piers Withan to be Viscount Petteril: Certainly not his estranged family and certainly not Piers himself. However, the point is moot because there is no choice for any of them. During the months it has taken Piers to wrap up his affairs and assume the title, his family has taken full advantage of draining the coffers of the title as much as they can get away with. Piers has an affliction and his family – even his father – took the opportunity to bully him and ridicule him. They assume that will continue now that he is back. Hmmm, I wonder how that will work out for them.

On his first night in the Petteril townhouse, he encounters a young thief who has just emptied the safe of the few contents in it – and he lets the thief go – and he lets the thief keep the contents. That encounter changes Piers’s life in untold ways. When it turns out that a very valuable family heirloom ruby necklace is missing, Piers is sure the little thief didn’t take it. He’s also equally sure that a family member or a member of the staff did.

His family is expecting the old Piers – the one they could bully and intimidate. What they got was something quite different and it was an absolute delight to watch Piers show those nuanced, stronger, layers to his family as one by one he eliminates them as suspects in the necklace theft but holds them accountable for other pilfering. Then, there is only one suspect left and Piers handles that with dignity and aplomb.

While all of the necklace and family drama is going on, Piers is leaving his darkness behind, dealing with his affliction the best way he can, saving his young cousin from a terrible fate, and doing his best to guide Ape in dealing with his big secret. You’ll quickly come to admire Piers and wish you could meet him in real life. He’d be an extraordinary friend to have.

As you can tell, I loved this book and highly recommend it. The mystery is interesting and there are plenty of red herrings to keep you wondering. Lots of opportunity, lots of motives, so who can it be? You will just have to read this excellent first book in the series to find out. show less