The Secret of the Lost Pearls

[cornerofmadness]

The Secret of the Lost Pearls by Darcie Wilde

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This came in a big box of books a friend was giving away and I didn't know it was book 6 in a series (but I didn't feel too spoiled for previous books so I might chase them down) Rosalind is a 'useful woman' trying to survive in Regency era England without necessarily being married. She is wealthy adjacent in her upbringing and now she helps members of the haute ton (the most important, wealthiest of English society) find lost things and solve other problems.

Her friend, Bethany, has enlisted her help to find a very expensive string of black pearls that has been stolen and her husband, Lord Douglas, blames her sister, Nora who shamed the family by running away at 16 with his friend, Cantrell, in theory eloping (something not done at their social level). Bethany thinks Nora is innocent and wants Rosalind to help her.

Rosalind walks into a house in turmoil. ALL of Bethany's family lives with her, Nora, her parents (a hypochondriac dramatic mother, alcoholic father who lost his own fortune), her other sister Mariah who wants a life of science and Douglas's sister, Penelope who was in love with Cantrell. Douglas wants to marry her off and added to the mix is his uncle Sir Jaspar who made him the heir and holds the purse strings and wants Douglas's country raised family gone.

Adding to this, Rosalind's live-in friend, Alice wants them to get a bigger house they can barely afford and the man she loves, the bow street runner, Adam, is currently in Manchester doing something he can't believe in. (Both of them will struggle with should they be doing their jobs in this). And then Cantrell, whom Nora told everyone was dead, shows up.

And there is a lot more plot complications and twists which I felt were very well done. Rosalind and Adam are interesting characters (though I didn't get to see much of him) I liked her a lot. I do want to see more of her. I was happy to figure out the killer but there were twists I didn't see coming and that made me even happier.



View all my reviews