A London séance sets a lady spy on a deadly mission across Europe in this post-WWI Era mystery by the Daphne Award-winning author of This Side of Murder. Verity Kent can sympathize with those eager to make contact with lost loved ones. After all, she once believed herself a war widow. But now that she’s discovered Sidney is very much alive, Verity is having enough trouble connecting with her … connecting with her estranged husband, never mind the dead. Still, at a friend’s behest, Verity attends a séance with a medium claiming to channel sensitive information from a surprising source: a woman Verity once worked with in the Secret Service.
Refusing to believe her former colleague is dead—let alone divulging secrets—Verity is determined to uncover the source of the medium’s top-secret revelation. But her investigation is thwarted when the spiritualist is murdered. As once-trusted Secret Service agents turn their backs on her, Verity heads to war-torn Belgium, with Sidney by her side. But as they draw ever closer to danger, Verity wonders if she’s about to learn the true meaning of till death do us part.
“Huber combines intricate puzzles with affecting human drama.”—Publishers Weekly
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I mean… I’m in the Anna Lee Huber fan club. Everything she writes I get my hands on. Started with Lady Darby, then Verity Kent, working on the Gothic Myths and they are all BRILLIANT in their own ways.
So my recommendation, get your hands on this book! On all Huber’s books and enjoy endless amounts of fabulous reading.
This was a twisty mystery that kept me questioning who to trust. While very enjoyable, I did prefer the first Verity Kent to this second book in the series, however this one builds on Verity’s character in ways the first didn’t, like showing just how involved she was as a spy during the war. I really like how gutsy and confident she is, and while I thought she had more chemistry with Max, I do appreciate how much she wants to make things work with her back-from-the-dead husband, Sidney. I think their relationship is going to be a slow burn development and not your typical, tension-filled first love (which is what I usually go for in a book!). I learned so much about WWI and the spy rings during the war, and the author did an amazing job with the setting of post war France and Belgium, etc. I’d say this is a deep, serious, somewhat slow-moving mystery read, and I’m looking forward to the next book.
I loved it! When you don’t believe in spirits but are pretending to be a medium because it’s the best way to make money – hang on for great writing and a great story!
This is a good follow up on the first book.
The main characters are developing and working at their precarious relationship.
It takes Verity mentioning her shift is life style from before to after Sidney’s “death” to begin to really get through to him what she’s been through.
A good mystery with the ever-present question of who can be trusted
Read from start to finish in one sitting. Kept me on edge.
An excellent historical mystery, set a year and a half after V-day post WWII. Well written, good characters and a surprising ending.
Captivating
Dollycas’s Thoughts
In this follow up to This Side of Murder, Ex-Secret Service Agent Verity Kent is doing her best to reconnect with the husband she believed was killed in the war. His surprising return happened in the last book just as she started to have feelings for another man. It is difficult to curb those new feelings when the man seems to pop up everywhere as he did to a séance her friend had dragged her too.
In This Side of Murder a Quija board upset Verity greatly and this time a séance sends her into a tizzy when the medium singles her out and reveals secret information about one of the other agents Verity has worked with. Before Verity has a chance to question the medium is suspiciously killed. Unsure who she can trust Verity starts her own investigation and she and her husband Sidney travel to Belgium. They know they have been followed but she needs to find the truth no matter how dangerous her mission seems.
Verity Kent is a complex woman who has had quite a life for her young years. Working as a Secret Service Agent during the war took her to dangerous places and put her in dangerous situations. Her husband quickly sees this is not the same woman he left behind when he went into battle. She has become confident and almost fearless. It makes him see his own service in a different light too. Their relationship had become stunted because they both held everything in. While he wants to escape to the country she can’t back away from the search for her compatriot. This could be the final straw that breaks their marriage.
In addition to the relationship struggles of our protagonist, the author delivers an excellent mystery. Verity’s quest to find her cohort takes us deeply into La Dame Blanche (Belgian underground intelligence). She knows her friend needs her help and the path we follow with her is absolutely captivating and at times scary. Each twist, each turn, a breadcrumb here, a breadcrumb there, she doesn’t give up. As a reader, I enjoyed following this strong, smart. woman wherever she went.
Anna Lee Huber gives us a look at England and beyond after World War I in rich detail. She describes the places and the people so vividly. This author knows how to build a story that is full of intrigue. She has done her research and I always feel like I learn something while reading her books. The detail while great did slow down the pace just a bit in places, but when the pace picked up I was glued to the pages to the very end.
The book leaves me with a bit of a conundrum. I really like Max, the other man in Verity’s life, but I should want her to be with her husband, right. Sidney may have had his reasons for what he did, but it just toasts me that he just thinks Verity should welcome him with open arms. I am very interested to see what the author has planned for Verity.
This book can be read all on its own, but I recommend reading them in order to fully understand Verity and the situations that occur within this story.
It is 1919, and the shadows of World War I still loom in this superb second installment in the Verity Kent Mystery Series. TREACHEROUS IS THE NIGHT follows Verity and her “resurrected” husband Sydney as they face ghosts from the war in an attempt to save their marriage and decipher the message that one of Verity’s friends from her time in the Secret Service is trying to send. Readers follow along on the pair’s complex quest to find Emile, survive the dangers presented, and solve a murder mystery while they’re at it.
Verity is not the woman she was five years ago, and she fears that time and experiences have taken a toll on her marriage to Sydney. Though she is a strong, self-sufficient woman, her insecurities about her war service and indiscretion weigh heavily on her, and she fears that she and Sydney cannot get past them. Of course, Sydney is on rocky ground himself having to face the repercussions of his actions during the war. Not having spent much time together during the war, they do not know each other well, and one wonders if they can ever trust each other and move on. Should they not, Max Westfield is standing in the wings ready to explore the attraction he and Verity felt in THIS SIDE OF MURDER. There is a lot of character development and growth within these pages.
These are relatively heavy circumstances to circumvent, but Huber seamlessly weaves the domestic plot thread with intrigue, history, and murder mystery. The author’s eloquent and elegant prose and vivid descriptions of the landscape, people, and thoughts paint striking images of a post-WWI world that drew me into the story. The history is obviously well researched, and I can always count on learning something from reading Huber’s books. There is plenty of peril and tension, with twists, turns, and clues, to keep me reading past my bedtime. All of the various threads come together to make a most satisfying read.
TREACHEROUS IS THE NIGHT is one of my best reads of the year. I highly recommend this intelligent historical mystery to any reader.
I received an ARC of this title from the author and publisher and voluntarily shared my thoughts here.
Treacherous Is the Night is the second book in Verity Kent series by Anna Lee Huber. In this book Verity travels to Belgium and France with Sydney to investigate a mystery concerning one of La Dame Blanche (Belgian underground intelligence) agents with whom she worked during WW1 and whom she considers a friend. It appears that this friend is now in peril and may need Verity’s help.
In the first book we didn’t know a lot about Verity’s role with Secret Service during the war but in this book we finally learn about many of her assignments and some of her secrets. We also get to know Sydney much better. The one character I was missing desperately is Max, the Earl of Ryde. He had such a big presence in the first book but in this book he is relegated to the sidelines with only a small part in the story. This was really disappointing because he was my favorite character in This Side of Murder.
Regardless, I did enjoy Treacherous Is the Night and am looking forward to the next installment. And I do hope that we’ll get a lot more of Max in the third book!
I haven’t ever really thought about what effect war would have on a newly married couple until this book, and Anna Lee Huber does a tremendous job of making us realize that there was so much to deal with even after a war ended. Along with this, the mystery that she’s given the protagonist to solve, while she’s trying to repair her marriage, is also a war aftermath. This is another insightful, amazing book in this series, and I highly recommend it.
This is a captivating, suspenseful and beautifully written tale set in the aftermath of WWI. It moves quickly and is filled with twists and turns. There is so much rich period detail that is so well done that you feel as if you are there. This author does a lot of research and I always learn something new when I read her work. The characters are so well written that you would like to introduce yourself and make them your friend. I particularly like Max and can’t wait for him to get his HEA. Once I began my read, I couldn’t put it down!
If you read the first book in the series, This Side of Murder, you saw Verity’s reaction to a séance. So, just imagine her reaction when her best friend, Daphne, asks her to attend a séance with her. Verity did her best to decline the request, but Daphne is a very persuasive lady, and Verity ends up at the séance. Two big surprises await her there – (1) is the fact that Max is attending with his aunt and (2) the medium ‘channels’ one of Verity’s contacts from her days as an operative during the war. Verity doesn’t believe for a minute that the reading is true, but how could that medium possibly know about Emelie. Verity is very shaken when she leaves the séance – and even more shaken when she returns to the medium’s home the next morning to find the house burning and the medium dead.
Verity immediately begins to dig into the matter and finds a trail of breadcrumbs. As she and Sidney follow them, the danger increases. They leave England and head across the channel to some of the more horrific scenes of the war – and to the areas where Verity spent a lot of time acting for the crown. The crumbs are sparse and it takes Verity a lot of effort to follow them and find the solution to the mystery – and the madman at the end of the journey.
With the backdrop of the mystery and its solution, Verity and Sidney are still trying to figure out how to make their marriage work. Their fifth anniversary is approaching, but they’ve not spent more than a couple of months of that time together. Sidney was shipped off the war three days after they married and he had very few leaves where he could come home. Then, the unthinkable happened – Sidney died – and Verity went into deep, deep mourning for him. She didn’t care whether she lived or died and she took some big risks – some of them in her spying. She is keeping secrets from Sidney and until they clear the air, they’ll never come together. She’s afraid he’ll hate her if she tells him all. So, it is really nice to see them forgive each other and get back to that love you just knew they always had for each other. Although – I still think Sidney got off a bit easy for what he put her through. All in all, I loved the character development between Verity and Sidney and Verity’s struggle with reconciling her wartime work and settling into a normal life.
I loved the mystery with Emelie because it was really well done and kept me guessing until the end. There are just so many things that I loved about this book that there is no way I can mention all of them here. I can say, however, if you want to be thoroughly entertained and learn something in the process, this book is for you! I can hardly wait for their next adventure!
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“I requested and received this e-book at no cost to me and volunteered to read it; my review is my honest opinion and given without any influence by the author or publisher.”
The author waited a little too long to reveal the crux of the danger to Verity Kent and Emilie, Verity’s contact in Belgium during WW I. The book spent a fair amount of time on Verity’s relationship with her husband as she is drawn to reveal secret after secret about her wartime activities. Except for a seance with mumbled warnings about “buried secrets” and vague suspicions of who was trustworthy, the plot meandered. This book was not nearly as well done as the first book in the series.
Treacherous is the Night is the second tale in A Verity Kent Mystery series. If you have not read This Side of Murder, you will not be lost. Everything a reader needs to know is included. Verity Kent is a strong and intelligent woman who served her country during the World War I. She believed her husband, Sidney was dead until he recently returned to the living (it is a long story). Sidney has not been forthcoming with Verity and she still resents what he put her through. Verity and Sidney have been changed by the war. Their marriage is suffering, and they need to communicate. Of course, they married in haste and have spent little time together since they said I do. Then there is the dashing Max Westfield who is attracted to Verity (if only Sidney had really been dead). I admit to not liking Sidney. He is a bully with a quick temper, and there is a lot of Sidney in this book. Anna Lee Huber is a detailed oriented writer which makes for a slow paced story. I found it challenging to wade through this historical mystery. I thought Treacherous is the Night lacked an ease to it. It seemed formal and stilted. The mystery is overly complex and the plot farfetched. There are a number of officers introduced and it is impossible to keep them all straight (they just blend together). I liked the clever clues left for Verity to find which she amazingly solves quickly. I enjoyed the Kent’s trip through Belgium with the descriptions of how the country looked after the war. I also liked how the author incorporated historical information into the story. I am giving Treacherous is the Night 3 out of 5 stars. While there are some interesting sections, I felt the book was a miss. I will let Verity continue on with her adventures without me.
I enjoyed this book much more than the first one, though I understand the first one [in the sense of why Verity was the way she was] a lot more because of things that come out in this book and that was a nice added bonus.
This was a very good mystery with a lot of historical content in it. I would not classify this book as a cozy mystery [war is not cozy in ANY context, even the aftermath of war] as I have seen it classified. But it was a very good mystery with lots of intrigue and codes and running all over the countryside. And it is interesting to see Verity and Sidney try and heal their marriage in the middle of all the secrets and lies that had been kept and told because of the war and Sidney’s faking his death [see Book 1 for all those details, though they go over some of it here]. To go into much more detail would delve into the spoiler area and I am not one to do that. I will tell you that this was a very good read and I learned some things about WW1 that I didn’t know and I do enjoy Verity and Sidney together and the peripheral characters are also very enjoyable. I am really starting to love this series and am looking forward to the next one!