Saddle up for this first class historical mystery, perfect for fans of Helena Dixon and Verity Bright.
London, 1918
Fiona Figg finds herself back in Old Blighty saddled with shuffling papers for the war office. Then a mysterious card arrives, inviting her to a fancy house party at Mentmore Castle. This year’s Ascot-
themed do will play host to a stable of animal defense advocates, and Fiona is tasked with infiltrating the activists and uncovering possible anti-war activity.
Disguised as the Lady Tabitha Kenworthy, Fiona is more than ready for the “mane” event, but the odds are against her when both her arch nemesis, dark-horse Fredrick Fredricks, and would-be fiancé
Lieutenant Archie Somersby arrive unexpectedly and “stirrup” her plans. And when a horse doctor thuds to the floor in the next guest room, Fiona finds herself investigating a mysterious poisoning
with some very hairy clues.
Can Fiona overcome the hurdles and solve both cases, or will she be pipped to the post and put out to pasture by the killer?
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Kelly Oliver is the award-winning, bestselling author of three mysteries series: The Jessica James Mysteries, The Pet Detective Mysteries, and the historical cozies The Fiona Figg Mysteries, set in
WW1. She is also the Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University and lives in Nashville, Tennessee. She is bringing new titles in the Fiona Figg series to Boldwood, the first of
which, Chaos in Carnegie Hall, will be published in November 2022.
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My thoughts: released from the dreaded filing, Fiona Figg is finally given a case of her own and actually encouraged to don her collection of costumes with the War Office footing the bill!
She’s undercover at Porton Down – the MOD’s chemical warfare research facility, and also at a fancy Ascot themed country house party – what could possibly go wrong?
Obviously there’s a murder – it’s the perfect setting for one, and Fiona is on the case. Escorted as ever by Clifford, and with the arrival of Archie, Fredericks and Kitty (with Poppy on a lead) the gang’s all there to help solve, or possibly hinder, the investigation. As well as the murdered scientist, there’s some missing race horses, an anti-vivesectionist group to infiltrate and someone is leaking secrets from the research lab. It’s all go.
Tremendous fun as always, with Fiona never entirely sure where she stands but happy to have an official case to investigate. Her relationships with Archie and Fredericks continue to be more complicated than she’d like and Kitty is still a bit of a nuisance, but at least she brought her forensics kit along.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
ramblingmads 