A Wicked Conceit

A Wicked Conceit (2021) Anna Lee Huber (Lady Darby Mystery #9)

Set in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1832

Lady Darby is very pregnant at the start of this book, so it was clear she was going to the baby at the end of the book. “Let’s hope she doesn’t end up having the baby in some weird place because of the machinations of the mystery.”

Guess how that went for me.

Someone has written a novel about Bonnie Brock Kincaid, and unfortunately Kiera and Sebastian feature in it–with just the tiniest bit of obfuscation so the publisher doesn’t get sued.

Both Brock AND Sebastian & Kiera want to know who the author is. And Alana (Kiera’s sister) is distressed and wants all the talk to stop as well, for fear of what it will do for Kiera and her baby.

Sadly, I had multiple problems with this story.

First, why on earth would Brock accuse Kiera & Sebastian of being behind the book, when the story quite obviously slanders them as much as Bonny Brock?

Second, there are a lot of references to the novella that came out a bit ago as part of an anthology. Since I didn’t really love that anthology, I wasn’t thrilled to be reminded of it.

Third, I really did not care for the Hollywood ending. That’s typical for me, but having the baby’s birth be part of the ending was just too much.

Fourth, this anachronism really bugged me.

And I had never colored inside the lines.

Coloring books were invented in the 1880s.

On the plus side, she totally referenced John Snow in the bibliography!

It wasn’t until 1854, when Dr. John Snow was able to trace the source of a single cholera outbreak in London to a specific water pump, and then a decades-long fight for germ theory to overtake that of the miasma theory, that the real cause of cholera was pinpointed and accepted.

It’s not that I disliked this book, it just wasn’t as good as I have come to expect these mysteries to be.

Publisher : Berkley
Rating: 7/10

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