But when Kiera is invited to peruse Barbreck’s extensive art collection, she is disturbed to discover that one of his most priceless paintings seems to be a forgery. The marquess’s furious reaction when she dares to mention it leaves her shaken and the entire house shocked. For it turns out that this is not the first time the word forgery has been uttered in connection with the Barbreck household.
Matters turn more ominous when a maid from a neighboring estate is found murdered where the forged painting hangs. Is her death connected to the forgeries, perhaps a grisly warning of what awaits those who dare to probe deeper? With unknown entities aligned against them, Kiera and Gage are forced to confront the fact that they may have underestimated their opponent. For they are swiftly made to realize that Charlotte’s and Rye’s future happiness is not the only issue at stake, and this stealthy game of cat and mouse could prove to have deadly consequences.
Comment: This is the 10th installment in the lady Darby series and my first book of 2025.
In this story Kiera and Sebastian are enjoying their new role as parents while also celebrating the upcoming nuptials of Kiera's cousin Rye with their friend Charlotte, whom they helped in the first book. While at her cousin's family estate, owned by the marquess of Barbreck, Kiera is able to appreciate the art collection Rye's great uncle owns but she is both worried and shocked when she realizes several paintings are forged. Things don't go well when she and Sebastian tell the marquess this, for a similar rumor had happened years ago and even caused the marquess' engagement to be called off, but Kiera cannot ignore it. They decide to investigate, including the Campbell neighbor estate, where miss Campbell, the marquess ex fiancé still resides, but what they discover might uncover a lot more than they imagined...
Once again, I was captivated by this novel and felt entertained for the duration of reading it. I feel very lucky that, along with a friend, we've managed to find a few stories and/or series that remain enthralling and interesting, even after several installments, and even more so when the main characters are the same from book to book. Mystery series with a (good) dose of domesticity and romance seem to be the way to go for us!
After ten books, there isn't much I can say without spoilering previous installments, thus this should be taken into consideration.
I've felt this story was clearly oriented to focus on Kiera and her artistic abilities. It was even obvious how the author seemed to focus the most important tasks of investigation on her side of things and not on Sebastian's, as is the norm in most of the books. I can't tell if this is a way to highlight the feminine role and all that, but it was a very intentional decision.
The mystery investigated is interesting enough, but I must say a few details were a bit too hard to accept. For instance, the amazing coincidence of a slow poison killing the victim at the exact moment that person was in the key spot to raise suspicions... not easy to accept, but in the big scheme of things perhaps this wasn't too bad. I also felt that the paintings' forgery went on for too long and it's also hard to imagine no one would suspect the culprits when all evidence pointed that direction, even before Kiera and Sebastian investigate for real.
Still, all this would have passed me by as of little consequence if the mastermind killer were to be a true surprise. It wasn't. In fact, very soon that character seemed to me as being too insignificant and sometimes, that is all the clue we would need. I wanted to be proven wrong but no, and even motivations started to be obvious after a few things were shared. Still, despite knowing this, I was was entertained as I've said because the other elements I like in these books compensated.
Kiera and Sebastian are a couple in love and loving their newborn daughter and all the little scenes with them all or with the couple alone were very sweet. It's also quite interesting how Kiera as a character keeps evolving which should not be a novelty in this type of narrative - the POV is always hers - but she does and she was both thrilled and scared of becoming a mother and now that is is, she has actions and reactions which feel realistic enough to make me think her relationships with others and her thoughts about her worth are an important part of the story.
We also got to see some scenes where Bree and Anderly, their personal servants, had a role and this also makes the story feel richer, with a lot going on besides a mystery to investigate. In this story we also had a small new development in the relationship between Sebastian and another character and, considering how the story ended, this will certainly be a huge part of the next installment too.
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