{"id":9544,"date":"2018-01-03T08:55:22","date_gmt":"2018-01-03T13:55:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=9544"},"modified":"2024-01-21T10:43:42","modified_gmt":"2024-01-21T15:43:42","slug":"a-study-in-death-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/9544","title":{"rendered":"A Study in Death"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Study in Death<\/a><\/em> (2015) Anna Lee Huber<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Set in Scotland in 1831<\/p>\n

Lady Darby is slowly returning to society, and has started taking commissions again. Her sister is planning Kiera’s upcoming wedding to Sebastian Gage as a way to deal with her confinement during her pregnancy and as a distraction from the danger she soon faces with the upcoming birth.<\/p>\n

I knew she meant well. She wanted me to also have a celebration as big as my joy.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

One of the things I especially like about this story is just how serious Alana’s pregnancy is, and just how likely it is she could die during child birth. This is something that is frequently glossed over in historicals: you might meet eligible bachelors with young children but you rarely actually get to know women who die in childbirth. They are just part of the background you never think about.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve only been confined to this bed for a day and a half and I\u2019m already restless. And yet I\u2019m terrified of moving about, lest the bleeding start again.\u201d Her face was drawn with fear and unhappiness.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Childbirth was deadly for many women.<\/p>\n

I also appreciated the emphasis on the place of women in society at that time.<\/p>\n

I knew what the law and society\u2019s opinions were on the matter. I was intimately aware of just how little power wives had. They were to obey their husbands, to defer to their decisions, and when they didn\u2019t, they could be punished. A woman had very few options if her husband chose to mistreat her, regardless of her class or status. Regardless of whether she was a duchess or a whore, she was still subject to her husband.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cLord Drummond is a worthy, honorable man; a decorated war hero. You will not sully his reputation or distress him further by making these baseless allegations.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThey aren\u2019t baseless,\u201d I argued. Gage pressed a restraining hand to my wrist, but I did not heed. \u201cYou friend is a brute. Lady Drummond was terrified of him.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cOf course she was. She was his wife.\u201d <\/p>\n

My mouth dropped open in shock, and I felt Gage jolt beside me. <\/p>\n

(The man) scowled at him. \u201cDo not look at me like that. I rarely lifted a hand to (my wife). I didn\u2019t need to.\u201d His eyes swiveled to me. \u201cLady Darby, on the other hand . . .\u201d <\/p>\n

Gage actually surged forward in his seat. \u201cDo not even finish that sentence.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Don’t misunderstand me, I love reading historicals. But I recognize that what we are typically presented with is a greatly sanitized version of what life was like–in that way they are very much like the fantasy I also love: an idealized world. It’s good to be reminded that we should be grateful to live in the present.<\/p>\n

The mystery I also very much liked, as they try to find out why a kind, well-liked woman would have been murdered. Which brings me to another strength of this story–the complicated motives and feelings of the people involved.<\/p>\n

(MILD SPOILER<\/strong>)<\/p>\n

He nodded despondently, and lifted his gaze toward his wife\u2019s portrait again. I could see now that he had loved his wife, in his own warped, possessive way. Which didn\u2019t mean he wasn\u2019t capable of having killed her. Love was often an even stronger motive for murder than hate. But in this case, much as I was reluctant to admit it, I was starting to believe he had not been responsible for her death. <\/p>\n

It was easy to cast Lord Drummond in the part of the villain. He was mean, violent, and bad-tempered, and quite frankly, I despised him. But his emotion was too genuine to be feigned, and his excuse for listening to the physician also made sense, even if I didn\u2019t like it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Lord Drummond may have treated his wife terribly, but he isn’t one-note here. And although unsaid, he’s also a war hero, and one has to wonder what affect that had upon his temper and temperament. <\/p>\n

It’s good to be reminded that very few people are truly evil, and most people believe themselves to be the heroes of their own stories.<\/p>\n

(END SPOILER<\/strong>)<\/p>\n

This is a strong mystery and a strong story, and one I highly recommend. Even if you haven’t read the previous books, you should be able to pick this up.
\nRating: 9\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n

Publisher: Berkley<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Study in Death (2015) Anna Lee Huber Set in Scotland in 1831 Lady Darby is slowly returning to society, and has started taking commissions again. Her sister is planning Kiera’s upcoming wedding to Sebastian Gage as a way to deal with her confinement during her pregnancy and as a distraction from the danger she […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[13,30,48,33,8,41],"tags":[114,729,115,560],"class_list":["post-9544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-10","category-british","category-female","category-historical","category-mystery","category-reread","tag-anna-lee-huber","tag-industrial-revolution","tag-lady-darby","tag-romantic-era"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-2tW","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5873,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/5873","url_meta":{"origin":9544,"position":0},"title":"A Pressing Engagement","author":"Michelle","date":"May 22, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"A Pressing Engagement (2016) Anna Lee Huber Set in Edinburgh, Scotland in April 1831 This short story is Lady Darby's wedding to Sebastian Gage. Except it isn't really a short story, as much as it would truly be an excerpt from either the end of the previous book or the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "British"","block_context":{"text":"British","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/british"},"img":{"alt_text":"a_pressing_engagement","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/a_pressing_engagement.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5683,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/5683","url_meta":{"origin":9544,"position":1},"title":"A Study in Death","author":"Michelle","date":"February 23, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"A Study in Death (2015) Anna Lee Huber When Lady Drummond dies in front of Lady Darby, Kiera immediately believes the death not due to be apoplexy, but to poison. Unfortunately, Lord Drummond all but throws Lady Darby out, and so she cannot--even with the help of Gage--openly investigate the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"A-Study-in-Death","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/A-Study-in-Death.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5653,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/5653","url_meta":{"origin":9544,"position":2},"title":"The Anatomist’s Wife","author":"Michelle","date":"February 6, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"The Anatomist's Wife (2012) Anna Lee Huber Set in Scotland in August 1830 Lady Darby has spent the last year and a half hiding in Scotland with her sister and brother-in-law, after the death of her husband and the scandal that arose following that. I quite like the relationship between\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "British"","block_context":{"text":"British","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/british"},"img":{"alt_text":"The-Anatomists-Wife","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/The-Anatomists-Wife.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5680,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/5680","url_meta":{"origin":9544,"position":3},"title":"A Grave Matter","author":"Michelle","date":"February 23, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"A Grave Matter (2014) Anna Lee Huber Set in Scotland in 1831 Hogmanay (New Year's Eve) finds Lady Darby staying with her brother, in their childhood home, still grieving her friend's death. But the Hogmanay Ball is interrupted (at the worst possible moment (of course)) with news of the murder\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"A-Grave-Matter","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/A-Grave-Matter.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":14187,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/14187","url_meta":{"origin":9544,"position":4},"title":"A Wicked Conceit","author":"Michelle","date":"April 10, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "7\/10"","block_context":{"text":"7\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/7-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"A Wicked Conceit","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/A-Wicked-Conceit.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/A-Wicked-Conceit.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/A-Wicked-Conceit.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/A-Wicked-Conceit.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5968,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/5968","url_meta":{"origin":9544,"position":5},"title":"As Death Draws Near","author":"Michelle","date":"July 14, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"As Death Draws Near (2016) Anna Lee Huber Set in England and Ireland in 1831 Lady Kiera Darby and Sebastian Gage are honeymooning in Keswick when he receives orders from his father to go to Ireland to investigate the death of a nun, who happened to have been the niece\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"As-Death-Draws-Near","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/As-Death-Draws-Near.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9544\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}