Sophia Rose Reviews - Murder on Threadneedle Street by Andrea Penrose

 

Murder on Threadneedle Street by Andrea Penrose

#10 Wrexford and Sloane

Historical Mystery

Publisher:  Kensington Books

Published:  9.29.26

Pages:  368

Rating: 5 stars

Format: eARC

Source:  NetGalley

Sellers:  Amazon

ADD TO: GoodReads

GoodReads Synopsis: 

Not all that glitters in Regency London is quite what it seems, as Charlotte and Lord Wrexford discover when a counterfeiting scheme draws them into a deadly web of murder and manipulation in USA Today bestselling author Andrea Penrose’s masterfully plotted mystery for readers of Victoria Thompson, C.S. Harris, and Deanna Raybourn.

Lord Wrexford and Charlotte’s growing family ensures that life is a source of constant adventure. The addition of Wrexford’s half-sister to their household is proving an unexpected delight. But some surprises are less welcome—and trouble strikes when Hawk, one of the young boys in their care, arrives home distraught after learning that his new drawing teacher has been found murdered on Threadneedle Street.

Fletcher Campbell’s death could be dismissed as a random robbery turned violent. But as an artist herself, Charlotte suspects there’s more to the case than meets the eye. Closer examination reveals that a distinctive ring was taken from the victim’s finger. With Hawk pleading for the family to help solve the crime, Charlotte and Wrexford suddenly find themselves entangled in a fiendish mystery that harkens back to a decade-old scandal that nearly brought down the government.

It seems Campbell’s brother was the infamous leader of a counterfeiting gang that swindled the Bank of England. Most were apprehended, but forged banknotes remain a problem. Now, the Bank of England has offered £20,000 to anyone who can use the newly-invented engineering technologies to create the Inimitable Banknote—a complex design that cannot be counterfeited.

It’s a prize that could tempt anyone, and Wrexford and Sloane’s investigation turns even more fraught when one of their closest friends falls under suspicion. The deeper they probe, the more treachery comes to light. For when a lie so easily masquerades as truth, danger may be much closer than they think . . .

 

Sophia Rose's Review:

When a man’s murder seems insignificant on the dark Regency London streets, the killer has no idea what was unleashed when the deceased is young Hawk’s drawing instructor and he wants justice for his friend.  Wrexford, Charlotte, and all their friends are now on a murderer’s trail.  Andrea Penrose captured my attention with her first Wrexford and Sloane mystery which was full of Regency era description of art, science, and cunning mystery plot, but even more so with her winning ‘found family’ characters who work together to solve crime.

 

Murder on Threadneedle Street is the tenth entry in the fabulous historical mystery series that really must be taken in order for the ongoing character and relationship growth.

 

Hawk’s art instructor who is also recently released from prison and working in the park gardens is ruthlessly murdered.  Little evidence is left at the scene and it seems like just one more incident of violence on the night streets of London.  The victim is an odd choice for theft or any other murder motive.  Wrexford and Charlotte don’t want to disappoint young Hawk so they agree to look into it knowing full well they will likely come up with an unsolved crime.  But ‘the Weasels’- Hawk, Raven, Peregrine and Wrexford’s young half-sister- have no plans to sit this one out.  They head back to the streets they still remember well before being adopted by Wrexford and Charlotte.  They put their street urchin friends who see everything that goes on in their ‘patch’ and nose out the first bits of evidence even while setting a group of ruthless men on their trail.

Sometimes working the gritty angle of the streets and sometimes in the glittering drawing rooms of high society, a picture forms that hints at powerful people and an old unsolved crime of counterfeiting and treason.  Someone wants a missing boy genius’ work that would make them a fortune in the best counterfeit money out there while several others are trying for the big twenty-thousand pound prize the Bank of England is offering for the person or team who invents a method of printing money that can’t be counterfeited.

 

The Wrexfords and their family and friends are not at a loss for motives or suspects, but are forced to wonder if they are the predators or the prey when deadly attempts on them occur more than once.  Time is running out as the award for the prize is making someone desperate.

 

Murder on Threadneedle Street like previous books in the series has a particular focus into a form of science or art and real-life historical people and events involved in the topic.  In this case, it is the issue of counterfeit money and the steps the country took to come up with a counterfeit-proof paper money system involving both cutting edge methods of art and science.

 

There is also the ongoing personal story of the family recently welcoming in Wrexford’s recently discovered teenage half-sister.  He’s still adjusting to this stunning knowledge of his father’s past and she is struggling as she feels that she is only tolerated and not really a part of the family group while the Weasels are figuring out just how a girl fits into their midst as well.

 

All in all, it was an abso-fabulous installment in the series that I breezed through way to fast and was left satisfied, but also now forced to wait for another murder mystery and more Wrexford and Sloane, friends and Weasels on the case.  Regency Era murder mysteries I can highly recommend.

 

Author Bio:

I began my writing career at age five, creating a number of Westerns lavishly illustrated with crayon drawings of horses and cowboys. However, I have since moved on to Regency England, an era that has fascinated me ever since I picked up a copy of Jane Austen’s Pride And Prejudice. (Clearly I have a thing for Men in Boots.)

Books have always been an important part of my life. I have always been a voracious reader, and I have always had a very vivid imagination . . . so much so that I think at times it worried my parents that I was so happy in my own little world, drawing pictures and creating stories. My teachers will also tell you that I was the class history geek, even in grade school. I don’t really know why, but I have always been fascinated with the past.

As an undergrad at Yale, I majored in art—though I took enough history courses to have majored in that subject as well—and went on to get a MFA in Graphic Design at the Yale School of Art, concentrating in publication design. So I guess you could say I have always had a left brain-right brain sort of love affair with the printed page.

So why did I choose the Regency time period for my mysteries? I love the era because it was such a fabulously interesting time and place—it was a world aswirl in silks, seduction and the intrigue of the Napoleonic Wars. Radical new ideas were clashing with the conventional thinking of the past, and as a result, people were challenging and changing the fundamentals of their society. For example, you had Beethoven composing emotional symphonies, Byron composing wildly romantic poetry about individual angst, J.M.W. Turner dabbling in impressionistic watercolors and Mary Wollstonecraft writing the first feminist manifestos . . .

In so many ways, it was the birth of the modern world, and for me, its challenges, its characters and its conflicts have such relevance to our own times . . . and hey, who can resist men in breeches and boots!

Website:  https://www.andreapenrose.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