Matters swiftly turn from irksome to downright deadly when the partygoers stumble upon a decomposing body in the castleʼs crypt. The corpse is thought to be the duchessʼs son-in-law who had purportedly traveled to Paris more than a month earlier. It is evident the man met with foul play, and Kiera and Gage soon realize that a ruthless murderer walks among them—and may well be a member of the duchessʼs own family. And when the investigation takes a treacherous turn, Kiera discovers just how deep the killer is willing to dig to keep their secrets from ever seeing the light of day.
Comment: This is the 8th installment in the Lady Darby series by Anna Lee Huber and as it happened with all the others, it was engaging and interesting throughout.
In this new adventure, Sebastian and Kiera are attending a house party at the estate of the duchess of Bowmont and while everything seems to be going well, it is obvious some people don't feel as comfortable, especially since both the duke and the duchess included their current lovers. The party includes several amusements and the family members also share a lot of the history of the estate and the castle. That is how a group stumbles on a dead body found in the crypt and, of course, Sebastian and Kiera feel it's their duty to investigate, but the problem is that the clues don't seem to match to the most obvious possibilities. While they investigate, a few other details seem to come to light and they believe the possible killer might still be around. How can they discover who that person is before another crime is committed?
Once more, I had a great time reading a book in this series. The installments are pretty consistent to me, there isn't one so much better than the others but neither that much worse and I always have a good time going through them, in fact I'd say they are comfort reading by now.
In this new story Kiera is six months pregnant and attending a house party of the duchess whose portrait she was commissioned to paint. She and Sebastian were invited, as well as her brother and sister, and a few friends as well, which means it has been a merry entertainment for everyone. I liked seeing this funnier, or lighter side of their life, how they could be in a more domestic setting, which often takes second place when an investigation is ongoing. Although, to be fair, the author does manages a good balance between these elements in most stories.
I liked the book for how we can kind of compare Kiera and Sebastian's relationship to others. The dukes don't love each other but they love their children, and the duke recognized four he knew he was not the father. Although this situation was certainly not uncommon I still liked that the duke made the four of them legitimate, even though everyone knows they aren't, and their mother even shared who their fathers really are. Still, this made me feel rather sad, that the lives of so many people had to be emotionally affected this way just because people decide to marry for reasons not emotional.
Yes, yes, marrying for love comes with all kinds of negative aspects too, but I think this is the first time in the series that the author addressed this infidelity fact so much, and along with getting to know a few of the characters, of course they felt an impact of this situation. How lucky the illegitimate ones had a duke for a father who was sensitive to their situation... it's also not a secret this very situation is, in part, why the big conflicts happen in this story but by the end, the solutions are quite simple for the amount of worry they caused.
The identity of the villain isn't much of a secret once a few details become known. I think the author highlighted interesting elements about the society by choosing this person to be the villain, but in terms of criminal investigation it wasn't a really complex or surprising one. I would also say that things were a bit too basic in how they happened but the real strength of this novel is in the family relationships and what they entail and why they make the characters act this or that way.
In relation to Kiera and Sebastian, while the investigation goes on, there are a few details that give us a glimpse of how they are as couple (which is quite well) and how they are interacting with the secondary characters closer to them. I'm saying this because one specific situation kind of affects Kiera's relationship with her sister Alana and I hope this is solved in the following book. We also have some inkling of what is happening between their servants Anderley and Bree and it's always nice to see that they aren't there just to conveniently help their masters.
There is also a very interesting surprise we learn in this story, regarding Sebastian's family, but due to plot reasons, it's not something we see discussed on time. I wonder if this will be important in the next book too or if the author will delay this being a pertinent fact for longer. I surely hope not, for it's something I believe to be better solved as quickly as possible.
I really need to get started on this series.
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