A Bitter Cut by Anna Lee Huber
#14 Lady Darby Mysteries
Publisher: Berkley
Published: 6.23.26
Pages: 384
Rating: 4.5 stars
Format: eARC
Source: NetGalley
Sellers: Amazon
ADD TO: GoodReads
GoodReads Synopsis:
Lady Kiera Darby plans to spend the summer reconnecting with friends and family in anticipation of the betrothal of her beloved brother. But when a future in-law is implicated in a murder, the party takes a deadly turn. . . .
July 1833. Lady Darby and her dashing husband, Sebastian Gage, are settling into their newly renovated home at Bevington Park in Warkwickshire with their young daughter. With the breach between them and Sebastian’s father recently healed, they've agreed to help host a country house party for friends and family to share in their joy. Kiera is also anxious to help promote a match between her brother, Trevor, and the woman he’s fallen in love with, inviting her family to join them. However, Kiera swiftly discovers that the would-be bride’s family is not without their detractions. Her brother is unpleasant. Her mother is abrasive. And her father—the prosperous industrialist Jeremiah Birnam—is brusque, discourteous, and, at times, downright rude.
So when Mr. Birnam’s secretary is found murdered with Birnam standing over her body, many are content to allow him to take the blame. But neither Kiera nor Sebastian believes he did it, and in spite of his bluster and boorish behavior, they can’t let an innocent man be hung for another’s crime. Unfortunately, Birnam had his fair share of enemies at the house party, and any one of them might have struck out at his secretary in order to get to him. It's up to Kiera and Sebastian to uncover the truth and salvage Birnam’s reputation. As the couple slowly inches their way closer to the truth and threats emerge against their loved ones, Kiera begins to fear that the price of solving the crime may mean sacrificing her brother’s future happiness.
Sophia Rose's Review:
A country house party with powerful guests and a man with enemies is found near the body of his secretary. Kiera and Gage are back in sleuthing mode in the latest from Anna Lee Huber.
A Bitter Cut is the fourteenth installment of the Victorian-Era Lady Darby Mysteries. A Bitter Cut might be taken out of order as a standalone, but I highly recommend starting the series from the beginning and follow the character and relationship growth arcs.
Kiera, Sebastian, their daughter and Lord Gage are all settled in Lord Gage’s home for a relaxing time with family. Kiera’s brother, Trevor, is on the brink of engagement to a wealthy businessman’s daughter so Kiera invites some of her family, the Birnams and other guests for a country house party finishing with a ball to meet Trevor’s future relations and celebrate.
However, it isn’t long before Kiera realizes that the Birnams are none of them pleasant people. In fact, when Birnam is found over the murdered body of his secretary, no one is surprised and he’s the chief suspect. Kiera and Sebastian don’t like him, but they are unconvinced he killed her. He’s made so many enemies that they aren’t sure if the victim was killed to frame him or for something about her.
In an Agatha Christie-like country house mystery, Lord Gage, Sebastian, Kiera interview witnesses and try to get to the bottom of things. Everyone’s keeping something back. It’s through Gage and Kiera listening both above stairs to conversations and Bree and Anderley to the servants’ talk below stairs. Slowly, but surely the truth comes out. Meanwhile, there were some lovely times among Kiera’s family and nice continuing romantic moments and marital growth for Kiera and Sebastian. The Birnams were a drag and there needed to be some tip-toeing around the powerful guests, but the mystery- not as acute or taut with suspense as past ones- came to a satisfactory end.
The series continues to hold strong and is maybe entering a new style now that Kiera is distanced from the shadows of her past and family on both sides is settling in. The early Victorian Era, Kiera’s art, and their investigating work is all a huge additional plus. Definitely a recommended series to historical mystery fans.
Author’s Bio:
Anna Lee Huber is the USA Today bestselling and Daphne award-winning author of more than twenty novels, including the Lady Darby Mysteries, the Verity Kent Mysteries, and the Gothic Myths series, as well as Sisters of Fortune: A Novel of the Titanic and the anthology The Deadly Hours. She is a summa cum laude graduate of Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee, where she majored in music and minored in psychology. Her novels have been translated into multiple languages, and she is a member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and International Thriller Writers. She currently resides in Indiana with her family and enjoys reading, singing, crafts, and travel when she's not hard at work on her next novel. Her novel A Perilous Perspective was included on the 2024 Indiana Author Awards shortlist.
Website: https://www.annaleehuber.com/
Sophia’s Bio:
Sophia is a quiet though curious gal who dabbles in cooking, book reviewing, piano-playing, and gardening. Road trips and campouts, museums and monuments, restaurants and theaters are her jam. Encouraged and supported by an incredible man and loving family. A Northern Californian transplant to the Great Lakes Region of the US. Lover of Jane Austen, Baseball, Cats, Scooby Doo, and Chocolate.
As a lifelong reader, it was inevitable that Sophia would discover book blogs and the joy of blog reviewing. Sophia is a prolific reader and audiobook listener which allows her to experience so many wonderful books, authors, and narrators. Few genres are outside her reading tastes, but her true love is fiction particularly history, mystery, sci-fi, and romance. Though, sorry, no horror or she will run like Shaggy and Scooby.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sophia.rose.7587
Twitter: https://twitter.com/sophiarose1816
GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/13418187.Sophia_Rose
Hosting a party for all those people and then having something bad happen would be awful.
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