Murder Most Fair

Murder Most Fair (2021) Anna Lee Huber (Verity Kent)

Set in England in 1919.

I’ll be honest, I haven’t enjoyed this series as much as the Lady Darby series, and have been borrowing the books from the library because of that.

But this book I very much enjoyed.

The Ardmore problem is mostly in the background, and instead Verity heads to her parent’s home, after her great aunt escapes Germany and comes to England to be with her remaining family. Which is problematic, to say the least.

“I don’t think she anticipated all of the unkindness.”

I couldn’t help but wonder if her English had failed her or if she was deliberately understating the matter. Animosity was the word I would have chosen.

We learn of Verity’s history with her aunt–including a secret visit she made during the war.

We also see why Verity loves her so much.

She never expected me to be anything other than I was.

One of the things I have liked about this series are the descriptions of how the English attempted to move past a war that was unlike anything the world had seen before, and caused upheavals that changed the world forever.

Most of the war dead, of course, had not been repatriated, instead being buried in France, Belgium, Gallipoli, Palestine, and other far-flung places on the globe.

Including the struggles of soldiers to return to “normal” life.

“well, I thought I was managing it. Until clearly I wasn’t.”

I don’t think it’s possible for us to understand just how traumatic that war was, and how quickly the world changed in the early decades of the 20th century.

One of the strongest parts of this book is that Verity is finally forced to confront her grief.

He stared down at me for a moment as if he couldn’t believe what I’d said. “Rob’s been dead for over four years now.”

I pressed my hands to my ears and closed my eyes, unable to face his words, his disdain. But I could still hear him.

“For God’s sake, Ver, you haven’t fallen off your rocker. You know that.”

There was too much sorrow inside me, too much pain— for a moment I thought I might burst. “Yes, I know that. But I don’t want to know that,” I screamed back at him, hating him for making me say it.

The grief is hard to read–especially when one is dealing with their own grief.

There was no going back. There was no returning to the way things were, the life and innocence that we’d had before. There was no returning to the people we were before.

I had a pretty good idea of what was happening with the mystery relatively quickly, but despite everything, the mystery wasn’t the focus of the story for me as much as Verity’s finally beginning to come to terms with all the death and horror she was subjected to–and for the most part cannot talk about.

Publisher: Kensington Books
Rating: 8.5/10

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