PUBLISHER: Kensington, 6/2013GENRE: Historical Mystery
SETTING: England, early 1800s
PURCHASE: link
MY GRADE: C
FROM PUBLISHER: Since the age of sixteen, Arabella Beaumont has been happily employed as a highly paid woman of pleasure. True, respectable ladies of the ton would never deign to call at Lustings, her delightful home. Then again, Arabella has no desire to make dreary small talk and sip tea when she could be enjoying the company of amusing, intelligent, and extremely generous gentlemen.
But while Arabella’s admirers are legion, she also has enemies. A paper knife stolen during one of her salons was discovered near the body of a former rival. Arabella was entertaining her wealthy benefactor on the night of the murder, but the engaged duke can’t provide the alibi she desperately needs. It falls to Arabella and her resourceful sister, Belinda, to clear her good—or at least innocent—name. Utilizing all the talents in her arsenal, the irrepressible Miss Beaumont will endeavor to catch the real culprit, before the hangman catches up to her…
MY THOUGHTS: Arabella is in her mid-twenties. We got no backstory on her at all which is a big mistake for an author to omit that information. I learned nothing about how she came to be a courtesan. Why someone set her up to be accused of murder is a mystery too. The story was silly and dull, PG-13 rated and just too plain and simple. I felt Arabella didn't take the murder accusation too seriously. Yes, she, with the help of a few people, tried to solve the mystery on her own and did solve it. That part was just not believable. How the real murderer came to be arrested was not believable either.
This seems like a short story that was written by a thirteen year old and I can't recommend it to anyone.
I received this from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
