A Gentlewoman's Guide to Murder
3/5
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About this ebook
"[An] outstanding series launch. ... Hamilton expertly balances the page-turning detection with the story of a hypocritical society where women, whether they are scullery maids or orphans, rarely get to make their own decisions."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Scandal and slayings among Regency London's elite
The shocking murder of Sir Henry Claybourne leaves Regency London shaken and horror-struck. But for genteel spinster Miss Emmeline St. Germaine, the crime slices far too close to home. Just hours before the knight's death she held a dagger to him, threatening him to stay silent as she rescued a scullery maid he had procured for his pleasure.
Did the man—or woman—who murdered the knight know of her visit? Her secret identity at risk, her reputation and life in jeopardy, Emmeline must solve the crime or face scandalous exposure and ruination, or worse—the hangman's noose—for a crime she did not commit.
"Hamilton's novel will appeal to fans of Anne Perry's Charlotte and Pitt mysteries."—Booklist
"A simply riveting and compulsive page-turner of a read from cover to cover. A deftly scripted mystery with more twists and turns than a Coney Island roller coaster."—Midwest Book Review
Victoria Hamilton
Victoria Hamilton is the pseudonym of nationally bestselling romance author Donna Lea Simpson.She now happily writes about vintage kitchen collecting, muffin baking, and dead bodies in the Vintage Kitchen Mysteries and Merry Muffin Mystery series. Besides writing about murder and mayhem, and blogging at Killer Characters, Victoria collects vintage kitchen wares and old cookbooks, as well as teapots and teacups.
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Reviews for A Gentlewoman's Guide to Murder
16 ratings4 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A group of ladies in Regency England have decided to gather together and stop the abuse of young women by upper class "gentlemen" for their entertainment. Miss Emmeline St. Germaine, masked and hooded enters the house of Sir Henry Claybourne and catches him just as he is about to rape the scullery maid. Holding a knife to his throat, he makes him release the girl and together they escape. However, Sir Henry is found dead, knifed to death, the next morning, and all of London wants the killer, the masked woman, found and charged. Emmeline is forced to solve the murder, undercover, and what she finds is terribly disturbing.This book dragged, too much repetition in conversations and descriptions. Hopefully, the next in the series is better.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5class-consciousness, murder, murder-investigation, amateur-sleuth, England, downtrodden, secrets, lies, women-s-rights, scandal, first-in-series, rescue, resilience, false-information, falsely accused, false-identities, friendship, drama, sensation-press, social-injustice****Emmeline is the most daring of a group of ladies who work together to rescue young girls who work in homes where the wealthy man of the house puts them at risk. She also is the one with the poorest leash on her tongue. The publisher's blurb is a good intro, so no need to recap or do the spoiler thing. Looking forward to the next in series to see further development of the characters. A good start!I requested and received a free e-book copy from Beyond the Page Publishing via NetGalley. Thank you
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5** 1.5 stars rounded up **I love this author’s Vintage Kitchen Mysteries series so I couldn’t wait for this new series to start. The book blurb sounded great – just the new historical mystery series for which I’d been looking. Sadly, it turned into the longest three-hundred-sixty pages I’ve ever read. At several points, I almost marked it as DNF, but I did slog on through to the end.Historical mysteries are my very favorite sub-genre – but I always want a romantic relationship in them. In this book, I can’t imagine there ever being a romantic relationship because I’ve never read a more unlovable or unlikable heroine in my life. I’ve liked some villains more than I liked this heroine. Emmeline St. Germaine is absolutely eaten up with rage and hate – she hates men (yes, hates is the correct word – unless you know a stronger one), she detests the monarchy, she doesn’t believe in God, she is bitter and she is a first-class shrew.According to this tale, every female in England has been preyed upon, sexually abused and exploited – and – every male in England is a sexual deviant who abuses females – women and children. To me, Emmeline has some really sick reasoning – for instance – at the beginning of the book – she’s going to rescue a young scullery maid – she wants to time it so she catches the perpetrator in the act, but before any real damage has been done. Say what!!! It is okay if the little girl is abused, assaulted, and scared to death as long as the penetration hasn’t actually taken place.While the book was supposedly set in the Regency period, the only indications of that were mentions of the king’s madness and the profligate prince regent. Nobody obeyed any of the social norms and the group of women who were so downtrodden and under the thumbs of the male population certainly seemed to do whatever they wanted when they wanted.The only person I even remotely liked in the book was Dr. Woodforde. I am sure he is supposed to be the love interest, but given the way Emmeline speaks to him and treats him, I fail to see how he could possibly love her. If he does, he is definitely a masochist because she speaks to him worse than a dog.The set-up for the next book puts the setting in an insane asylum. Frankly, I think that might be a good place for Emmaline.I’m sorry to say that I cannot recommend this book.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Nope, not for me. I should have known, since I've read Hamilton's work before and it left me feeling very dissatisfied, but I thought 'hey, a different publisher might make a difference'. Hey!, no, it didn't. Up until now I kept coming back because at the heart of each of her books is a good mystery, and that's true here too, but there's always been something self-righteous about her characters that I could never warm to. In A Gentlewoman's Guide to Murder the gloves came off, and the author let loose the dogs of evangelical self-righteous war. This is an Edwardian feminist rant thinly veiled in a very good murder mystery. Now, I do not for a minute think that Edwardian women had it anything but awful; they were for all intents and purposes, coddled slaves. Neither am I anything but supportive of strong, independent women protecting their rights to be strong, independent women. But I am violently opposed to all forms of evangelism: social, political and spiritual. I refuse to tolerate heavy-handed preaching and ranting, and, dare I say it, harping, in real life and real life is too short to put up with it in my books. But - for those that enjoy a dedicated, passionate, laser-focused character who verges on bitter because, seriously, her life sucked in spite of wealth and privilege, this book is not bad. As I said before, it's well plotted and meticulously researched, and the story revolves around a particularly vile, dark, confronting crime (trigger for pedophilia). It probably could have used a stronger edit, but since I didn't like the book, I'm not sure I'm objective. Also, fair warning: this was obviously meant to be the start of a series, as it ends with a cliff-hanger/lead in to another plot line, but Midnight Ink is being shut down in a few months - if not weeks - so readers who do like the story might be left hanging. As I have no intention of reading any further, I'm not surprisingly ok with never knowing about what happens at the asylum.