Blog Tour: Murder in St. James’ Park – Vanessa Riley

Perfect for readers who love Bridgerton with a dark twist—a vibrant historical mystery series that embraces the true diversity of the Regency era.

Confessions from beyond the grave throw Lady Worthing into turmoil . . .

London, 1807. Lady Abigail Worthing’s marriage of convenience to James Monroe, the Lord Worthing, is over. But James is out of her life quicker than Abigail anticipated when she finds his body in St. James’s Park. Shocked by her husband’s brutal murder, Abigail is determined to catch his killer.

But when she discovers that James’s transgressions ran far deeper and darker than she thought possible, Abigail questions her own judgment. Did she make a terrible mistake when solving a past crime, and does the key to James’s death lie in the letters he was writing shortly before his demise?

With her neighbor and good friend Stapleton Henderson by her side, Abigail confronts jealousy, resentment, and stunning betrayal that will shake her to her core . . .

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Vanessa Riley is an acclaimed author of more than thirty novels, including Island Queen, a Good Morning America Buzz Pick, and Queen of Exiles, an ABC View Lit Pick. She is the recipient of Georgia’s 2023 Literary Fiction Author of the Year for Sister Mother Warrior and the 2024 Mystery/Detective Author of the Year for Murder in Drury Lane. Her work has been praised by the Washington Post, Entertainment Weekly, NPR, Publishers Weekly, and the New York Times. She hosts the essay podcast Write of Passage on Substack and can be found at VanessaRiley.com.

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My thoughts: Someone question the pelicans! There’s been a murder in St James’ Park! Lord Worthing isn’t a very nice man, he’s done some pretty nasty things and his wife has spent the last week locked in her room to avoid him. But when he’s murdered, she wants to find his killer. Not trusting what passes for a police force, she and her friends investigate for themselves, but what Abigail learns will change everything she thought she knew, and not just about her husband.

Propriety says Abigail must remain at home for six months at least, in mourning, even if that isn’t how she feels, and she’s pretty certain that someone (possibly her own sister) is trying to frame her for James’ murder.

What with a distant cousin trying to claim her home, a misguided thug, her awful father and half-sister offering their “condolences” and even some of the people she trusted keeping things from her, there’s a lot to contend with. And then there’s a man seemingly returned from the dead, the question of whether James embezzled money from her father’s business, and if her father did too, and an awful lot of suspects, including most of her staff. It’s not going to be easy to figure this one out.

But she has help, from her mathematically minded cousin, a lawyer friend and her neighbours, as well as her housekeeper who keeps everyone well supplied with tea and cake.

Can Abigail solve her husband’s strange murder, sort out his past crimes and those of her unpleasant relatives? Or will her sister have the last laugh and send Lady Worthing to the gallows? Hopefully not!

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.