A missing heir. An out of sorts duchess. A Season in High Society that just became far more interesting…
London, 1891. With the gossip broadsheet The Society Page speculating that her husband is getting far too cosy with their female neighbour back at his country estate, Alice, Duchess of Stortford, is
fed-up. And it’s raining!
But when a flustered nobleman appears at her door, knowing of her reputation for managing discreet enquires, he begs her for help. His nephew, who is about to inherit an Earldom, has gone missing.
But the deeper Alice digs, the murkier things become. Why are the late Earl’s wife and his stepson so evasive? What really happened at The Carlton Hotel the night the heir was last seen? And who’s set
to gain the Earldom if the heir ends up dead?
Aided by her loyal maid Maud, her quick-thinking footman George, and the ever-resourceful private investigator Ben Beaumont—not to mention a certain well-known detective with a pipe—Alice must untangle a web of secrets to find the missing heir before it’s too late.
The clock is ticking, the gossip is swirling—and only Alice can set things right.
Helen Golden spins mysteries that are charmingly British, delightfully deadly, and served with a twist of humour.
With quirky characters, clever red herrings, and plots that keep the pages turning, she’s the author of the much-loved A Right Royal Cozy Investigation series, following Lady Beatrice and her friends—
including one clever little dog—as they uncover secrets hidden in country houses and royal palaces.
Her new historical mystery series, The Duchess of Stortford Mysteries, is set in Victorian England and introduces an equally curious sleuth from Lady Beatrice’s own family tree—where murders are solved over cups of tea, whispered gossip, and overheard conversations in drawing rooms and grand estates.
Helen lives in a quintessential English village in Lincolnshire with her husband, stepdaughter, and a menagerie of pets—including a dog, several cats, a tortoise, and far too many fish.
If you love clever puzzles, charming settings, and sleuths with spark, her books are waiting for you.
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My thoughts: This was lots of fun and suitably fiendish. Alice might be a Duchess, but she’s happiest when reading the crime pages in the papers or solving cases of her own. Her acquaintance with private detective Ben Beaumont and his infamous friend doesn’t hurt either.
She’s asked to locate an heir, newly arrived in London from South Africa, where his family emigrated when he was a child. Only something isn’t quite right.
As Alice and Ben, and her very discreet footman, make enquiries, it soon transpires that things are not as they seem, and Alice was very right to be suspicious. Throw in a jewellery smuggling ring, and Alice’s marital woes are completely forgotten as she’s hot on the trail of an heir…or is he?
If you like the Lady Bea books by the same author (as I certainly do), then you’ll very much enjoy these, or any of the historical crime solving lady sleuths that are around, Alice, Duchess of Stortford should be on your tbr!
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
ramblingmads 