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    A Corpse in Shining Armour
    Unavailable
    A Corpse in Shining Armour
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    A Corpse in Shining Armour
    Ebook388 pages4 hours

    A Corpse in Shining Armour

    By Caro Peacock

    4/5

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    Unavailable in your country

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    About this ebook

    Duelling, derring-do, and dastardly deeds are all in a day’s work for Liberty Lane: the plucky heroine for fans of Georgette Heyer and Sarah Waters’s Victorian novels.

    London. Summer 1839. And the temperature is rising as Liberty Lane takes on her strangest case yet.

    Deranged aristocrat Lord Brinkburn is nearing death and his elder son, Stephen, is expecting to inherit the title. But Lady Brinkburn's sudden announcement that Stephen is illegitimate throws the family into turmoil. Tensions reach boiling point between the two brothers, one of whom stands to gain everything, and they come to blows in public – much to the amusement of London Society.

    Liberty is engaged privately to get to the truth of the matter, but a macabre murder raises the stakes considerably…added to which she finds her own judgement being undermined by the beguiling ways of Lady Brinkburn. She is only too aware that time is running out – one of the brothers may be next, but which will it be…?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins UK
    Release dateJun 25, 2009
    ISBN9780007283484
    Unavailable
    A Corpse in Shining Armour
    Author

    Caro Peacock

    Caro Peacock acquired the reading habit from her childhood growing up in a farmhouse in the late Sixties. Later, she developed an interest in women in Victorian society and from this grew her character of Liberty Lane. She rides, climbs and trampolines as well as enjoying the study of wild flowers.

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    Reviews for A Corpse in Shining Armour

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    • 4/5
      Liberty Lane, the heroine of Peacock's A Foreign Affair and A Dangerous Affair is back with a new mystery to solve.The elderly Lord Brinkburn has been in an asylum for the mentally insane for several years and is now near death. His elder son, Stephen, would inherit the family title and great wealth, but a rumor is going around London society that Stephen is not legitimate and that younger brother Miles must inherit. Strangely, the rumor seems to have been started by the boys' mother, Lady Brinkburn.In an effort to quietly and without scandal discover the truth, sometimes sleuth Liberty Lane is hired by the Brinkburn family lawyer. Liberty is able to befriend one son, gain the confidence of the lady, and be on hand when a family servant is found murdered. More complications are introduced when Stephen goes missing, and, a little later, so does Liberty's new maid, Tabby. The novel is filled with a host of likable and unlikeable characters, none of whom the reader can wholly trust. Peacock's London is a mixture of stable dust, apricot silk gowns, and a bit of mutton; her subtle use of Victorian minutiae brings to life the setting, while keeping the focus of the story on the Brinkburn family secrets and the escapades of Liberty Lane. Liberty is a clever and independent detective, and A Family Affair is a fun and entertaining mystery novel.
    • 3/5
      The third novel in Caro Peacock's Liberty Lane series, about a Victorian lady detective in London. Although A Corpse in Shining Armour is another solid mystery with a surprising twist in the final chapters, the narrative is slower paced than in the previous book, and Liberty seems to have transformed over the space of a year from a curious young woman into a seasoned private intelligencer. Still satisfying, but lacking the personal angle of the first two books.Disraeli asks Liberty to investigate an aristocratic family squabble involving a mother who allegedly wants to disown her eldest son. The Brinkburns are almost gothic in their dysfunctional antics - Lord Brinkburn, estranged from his wife and sons, is slowly dying from third stage syphilis in a private asylum; Lady Brinkburn fancies herself as a romantic heroine, abused by her husband and locked away in the family home; and the two sons are fighting over the inheritance. When Lady Brinkburn claims that eldest son Stephen is not the legitimate heir to his father's title and estate, all hell breaks loose, and Liberty must try and make sense of their tangled schemes. The tension increases when a dead body is unpacked instead of the family suit of armour.I enjoyed the mystery, even though we never really get a chance to connect with any of the characters. And yet Caro Peacock somehow manages to avoid the usual cliches and stereotypes of detective fiction - the cockney urchin, the garrulous socialite, the kindly lady of the manor - by weaving personality and subtle detail into the narrative. Flighty Celia, Liberty's former student from the first novel, provides delightful comic relief, and Tabby is sure to make a suitable sidekick for the lady detective. I was hoping for a closing line about Daniel and Jenny's baby, just because I like Mr Suter, but I wasn't too disappointed with how everything turned out! Another entertaining and well written historical mystery.
    • 4/5
      I decided to read the third in the series shortly after the second before I forgot about it again. Disappointed to find no sign of a fourth book in the series yet.Early Victorian London; jousting is the latest craze among young aristocrats & a paternity question arises between the two sons of a dying Lord. Liberty Lane steps in to investigate. Fun. I guessed one of the twists but it's well plotted and that didn't matter. Occassional anachronous-ish foresight by the characters - as when they think it would be nice to have a test for paternity like scientists test for acids & alkalis - just adds to the entertainment.
    • 5/5
      Really enjoyed this Victorian thriller an easy and enjoyable read
    • 4/5
      Reason for Reading: Next in the series.I like to think of the Liberty Lane series as one of my guilty pleasures. I know I'm in for a quick dip immersion into the Victorian era with a light mystery and an easy read. I also know Liberty is not going to get into a romance with anyone, though someone will probably be trying to play matchmaker for her but Liberty has more important things to do as a "private intelligencer", a name coined for her line of work by her friend and politician Benjamin Disraeli. Disraeli also is in the habit of bringing work her way and that is how Liberty gets her case in this book.A classic tale of the class system, the Lord is in a private asylum and close to death at which point the Lady announces that the eldest son is not the Lord's legal heir throwing doubt on his legitimacy and placing the younger son in line to inherit the estate. Thus, the Lady then retires from talking about it. Liberty is hired by the lawyer to find out if the Lady is lying or simply mad. He has no interest if she is telling the truth; it is simply not an option. But Liberty finds out much more than legitimate birthrights are being kept secret when she arrives on the scene and a servant is found dead packed away in a barrel and the eldest son has simply vanished. She takes it on her own initiative to solve the answers to the many questions, secrets and mysteries she encounters at Brinkburn Hall.I have to say this has been my absolute favourite of the Liberty Lane mysteries by far! Liberty Lane is still written too far on the modern side to be entirely believable but having got to know the character through the three books, I don't really care anymore. She is a fun heroine, not afraid to go where the danger leads her and full of simple derring-do. I loved the mystery this time as well. I had all sorts of ideas wandering around in my mind; I did figure out one of the elements but so much was going on by the end it was a complete surprise when the shocking reveal came out. I read the first half of the book at a leisurely pace enjoying the new characters and setting which revolves around the Victorian love for all things medieval and includes the ill-fated joust, the Eglinton Tournament. Then the second half was quick paced as all the secrets started unraveling and danger threatened. I thoroughly enjoyed this book in the series and eagerly await the next. Historical mystery fans and lovers of cozy mysteries alike will enjoy this romp with Liberty Lane.