Back in 2017, Lark mentioned her love of the Lady Darby mystery series by Anna Lee Huber.  She always gives out great recommendations, so I immediately bought a copy of The Anatomist's Wife, the series opener.  I enjoyed the book immensely and proceeded to read Mortal Arts.  Although I've got copies of the next five books in the series, I have not had a chance to read them yet.  So, unfortunately, I can't post a review of the newest Lady Darby novel, An Artless Demise, as I was supposed to do today.  Instead, I'm going to hit you with a spotlight and encourage you to give this fun series a go.  If you like historical mysteries that are well-written, not too graphic, set in intriguing locales, and peopled by likable, interesting characters, this series is right up your alley.  Give it a try.  You will not be disappointed.

Before I give you the plot summary, be warned that there is a spoiler in the first line.  It's a fairly obvious one, but one all the same.  Just so you know.

An Artless Demise: 

Lady Darby returns to London with her new husband, Sebastian Gage, but newlywed bliss won't last for long when her past comes back to haunt her in the latest exciting installment in this national bestselling series.

November 1831. After fleeing London in infamy more than two years prior, Lady Kiera Darby's return to the city is anything but mundane, though not for the reasons she expected. A gang of body snatchers is arrested on suspicion of imitating the notorious misdeeds of Edinburgh criminals, Burke and Hare—killing people from the streets and selling their bodies to medical schools. Then Kiera's past—a past she thought she'd finally made peace with—rises up to haunt her. 

All of London is horrified by the evidence that "burkers" are, indeed, at work in their city. The terrified populace hovers on a knife's edge, ready to take their enmity out on any likely suspect. And when Kiera receives a letter of blackmail, threatening to divulge details about her late anatomist husband's involvement with the body snatchers and wrongfully implicate her, she begins to apprehend just how precarious her situation is. Not only for herself, but also her new husband and investigative partner, Sebastian Gage, and their unborn child. 

Meanwhile, the young scion of a noble family has been found murdered a block from his home, and the man's family wants Kiera and Gage to investigate. Is it a failed attempt by the London burkers, having left the body behind, or the crime of someone much closer to home? Someone who stalks the privileged, using the uproar over the burkers to cover his own dark deeds?

Purchase your copy of An Artless Demise here or wherever books are sold:

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Have any of you read the Lady Darby series?  What do you think?

Atlanta, Georgia, feels as foreign as the moon for Upper East Side native Ruth Robb.  At first, the 16-year-old can't help comparing everything about her new home to New York City, where her family was complete and happy.  Living in her grandparents' guesthouse in the sweltering South sans her beloved father, whose sudden death has left her numb with grief, will never feel right.  Still, Ruth finds that she desperately wants to fit in with the "pastel posse," a group of wealthy debutantes whose lives revolve around weekly etiquette lessons, shopping for the perfect tea dress, and vying for the honor of being crowned Magnolia Queen.  Ruth's mother and older sister eschew such frivolous frippery; is it so wrong that Ruth longs for that life with every beat of her shallow little heart?

It's 1958 and one thing stands in the way of Ruth "passing" as a member of this exclusive club—she's Jewish.  Keeping her secret under wraps becomes more and more difficult as Ruth's eyes are slowly opened to the ugliness that lurks beneath the pastel posse's genteel veneer, a snake in the magnolia bushes that mirrors the tension simmering all over the South.  With increasing demonstrations of discrimination, hate, and violence against Negroes, Jews, and other minorities happening all around her, Ruth finds herself caught between two worlds.  When push comes to shove, which one will she choose?

In the Neighborhood of True by Susan Kaplan Carlton is an atmospheric, affecting YA novel that teaches some effective lessons about the dangers of conformity, the necessity of compassion, and the power of crusading for what is right.  With plenty of fascinating historical details, the setting comes to vivid life, helping the reader really feel the tension, hypocrisy, and confusion reigning in Ruth's world.  The characters are complex, the plot engaging, and the prose skilled.  I whipped through this engrossing novel in a matter of hours, eager to know what was going to happen next.  Not only is the story absorbing, but it's also relevant and thought-provoking.  I enjoyed it.

(Readalikes:  No specific titles are coming to mind.  You?)

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