Our Lady Of Pain (edwardian Murder Mysteries)

THIS DEBUTANTE IS TO DIE FOR
Lady Rose Summer, the wayward Edwardian debutante who keeps getting mixed up in disreputable adventures, would swear she is not a jealous woman. After all, she knows her engagement to private detective Captain Harry Cathcart is only a ploy to keep her parents from shipping her off to India to find a husband. But then Harry's latest client, Dolores Duval--a vision of curves with a seductive Parisian accent--starts appearing everywhere at his side. And that changes everything.

In a fit of rage, Rose threatens the French siren...only to be found the very next day, standing over her dead body. Ooh la la! The newspapers rush to convict Rose, but can Harry and Superintendent Kerridge of Scotland Yard clear her name, and put the real murderer behind bars?

Proper Edwardians Rose Summer and Capt. Harry Cathcart must contend with scandal and murder in their amusing fourth adventure (after 2004's Sick of Shadows) from British author Chesney (aka M.C. Beaton). When Harry is seen about London squiring Dolores Duval, a woman of ill-repute, Rose's father calls off his daughter's engagement to Harry and prepares once again to send Rose and her companion, Daisy, to India. Enraged, Rose confronts Duval and ends up threatening her—in a most unladylike manner—in front of numerous witnesses. Rose later has the misfortune of finding Duval's body and is immediately implicated in the murder. As is their wont, Rose and Daisy go on the lam, much to the chagrin of the Summer family, Harry and Scotland Yard. Readers will delight in the exploits of the fiery, increasingly independent Rose. As ever, Chesney shows herself a master of historical detail and color. (Apr.)
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