Having inexplicably nabbed the Duke of Kesgrave, twenty-six-year-old spinster Beatrice Hyde-Clare is determined to marry him at once and no amount of handwringing from anxious family members, worried friends and well-meaning acquaintances will convince her to delay. Except…maybe she is a little swayed by her uncle’s efforts to make amends for treating her with cold indifference during her … her childhood. And her aunt’s concern about the growing scandal around her unfortunate habit of unmasking murderers in the middle of society events isn’t entirely unfounded.
And then there’s the truly unfathomable appearance on her doorstep of the former Miss Brougham, the spiteful heiress whose cruel taunts derailed Bea’s social career. Remarkably, the society matron has a mystery to solve and knows Bea is the only person who can help her. A dead grandfather, a missing jewel, a cryptic letter, an opportunity to condescend to her archnemesis—the case seems simple enough.
And yet somehow it all goes terribly, horribly wrong.
more
In Book 5 of this series, Beatrice Hyde-Clare is ready to marry her duke and start her new life amidst the ton, but when the couple’s respective families requests that they delay for a bit, the couple agrees to delay for ONE WEEK. HA! This book picks up right where the prior tome ended, and it is one delightful (and quite unbelievable) romp one after another as they wait for the wedding day. Yes, the quick-change costumes and personas they adopt as they conduct their murder investigations are far-fetched and ridiculous. I still find it hard to believe that Bea would make a credible male, but I still found the characters charming and their antics amusing!
Now I just hope the author gives us the wedding we’ve been waiting for in the next book…fingers crossed! I just think the matrimonial dialogue of the family would be painful to miss out on.
Love Kesgrave
I am an avid reader who enjoys a variety of genres, but I have not read a more delightful series in many years. Truly, I have thoroughly relished every step of Beatrice & Kesgrave’s journey. I look forward with great expectation to a new book this summer!
Can We Just Get Married?
4.5 stars
Suitable for teens – adults
No sex, but plenty of heavy breathing
Limited harsh language
Action violence – nothing too gory
Bea and the Duke of Kesgrave are finally set to get married…Immediately! However their families and friends want to throw parties and worry about how a hasty marriage (hardly hasty at all!) will look to society. Reluctantly and impatiently, the couple agree to wait a week.
Bea is surprised, but glad for the diversion, when one of her acquaintances least likely to ask for her help approaches her to discover the whereabouts of a lost and valuable family jewel.
Complications arise, and of course there’s a corpse.
Author Lynn Messina again keeps us entertained by interjecting just the right amount of humor.
I took off 1/2 star only because I felt some of the investigation seemed to go on longer than necessary, but then again in order for the conclusion to make sense, I suppose it was really needed.
I look forward to reading the next in the series, which at this date has not yet been released.
Hours from marrying the handsome Duke of Kesgrave, Damien Matlock, Beatrice is besieged by family and friends to delay her nuptials. She is resistant to all their meddling until her uncle starts showing an interest in her opinions and her archnemesis comes calling to beg for her assistance in solving a mystery. Bea will gladly see her archnemesis beholden to her for her cleverness. And so everyone compromises to post-pone the wedding by one week. But then everything begins to go wrong, nothing as expected, and their lives will be put at risk once more.
_________________________
A Treacherous Performance is the fifth book in Lynn Messina’s Beatrice Hyde-Clare Mysteries series.
This book was a bit slow and there was a definite lag in the middle when ass that really happened was constantly question suspects with out really getting any closer to the culprit. And there was no sense of danger during that lag, which made it even slower for me. It had great start that was really very amusing and the ending was great too. Really it was that bit in the middle that brought this from 5 stars down to 4 stars for me.
I was so happy for Flora, after slowly growing and developing into a better character in the background, she is finally coming into her own and following in her cousin’s foot steps and stepping outside of the conventional role set for a young lady.
This addition to the series has not been my favorite, but I still enjoyed it quite a lot. I will never tire of the ridiculousness that is Beatrice and her sleuthing alongside Damien. I’m very happy that the series isn’t over yet and that there will be another book in the series, which I greatly look forward to reading.
_____
I read this book with my Kindle Unlimited membership.