Good story with an easily solved whodunnit

The Adventuress: A Lady Emily Mystery (Lady Emily Mysteries)

By: Tasha Alexander

Rating: 4 of 5

This is the first of the Lady Emily series that I have read, though there are a number of books in the series. I often read a book out of order to see if it can be enjoyed as a stand-alone book. In this case, “The Adventuress” does rely considerably on the prior books for the basis of many of the key characters and a number of references were not understandable without having read the prior books. Even so, I was able to read and enjoy this book without having read the rest of the series.

The story is set in two time periods for part of the book and from two different perspectives throughout the book. As a plot device, that worked well for me as it gave me back history without having to read through many pages. Unfortunately, it also gave me enough clues for me to figure out the whodunnit very early on. While the whydunnit remained a mystery until the end (and could not be solved without information provided in the latter part of the book), solving the mystery early made some of the book a little tedious to read.

I usually like a historical mystery and this is a time period in which I have not read many other series except with great respect, the Amelia Peabody mysteries by Elizabeth Peters. It was a real pleasure to see a nod to that series in this book.

I will definitely go back and read some of the earlier books in this series to understand more of what makes this individuals act in certain ways. It seems that the women in the story are forced into traditional roles but have found their way to express their individualism and to seek knowledge and information in ways that they could have during the time period. I’m very interested to see how the author brought that to play in the series.

I received a digital ARC copy of this book from the publisher, Minotaur Books, via Netgalley.