MURDER IN MASQUERADE

When the person who needs help from advice columnist Lady Agony is the sister of a friend, things get complicated.

Lady Agony is actually Amelia, Lady Amesbury, a widow who shares a close friendship and maybe more with her late husband’s best friend, Simon, Lord Bainbridge. His sister, Lady Marielle, is thinking of eloping to Gretna Green with a man her family strongly disapproves of. Simon has excellent reasons to dislike their former stable manager, George Davies, but he can’t get Marielle to see sense. So Amelia and Simon go to the opera to keep an eye on Marielle, who’s attending with George. After an evening of ticklish conversation, George vanishes, and the three find him in a nearby alley, stabbed to death. Clearly, Amelia and Simon must solve the murder if Simon is to regain his sister’s respect. Amelia has her own problems with placating her aunt, keeping an eye on her stepdaughter, and trying to prevent her best friend from being dragged off to her husband’s country estate. And, of course, Amelia—who’s teamed up with Simon to solve earlier mysteries—knows that as a wealthy young widow, she needs to guard her own reputation no matter how tedious she finds the task. George Davies was a fortune hunter and a gambler who made many enemies, and the society parties Amelia attends are a fertile field for gossip. Still, plucking the murderer from a bunch of likely prospects will be no easy task.

Enjoy the charming characters, a touch of romance, and an unexpected denouement.