Wednesday, November 18, 2020

Death, Diamonds, and Deception (Gilded Age Mystery #5) by Rosemary Simpson

 52635899 

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Mystery
Content: Strong Language

 

Fall 1889: Lady Rotherton has arrived from London intent on chaperoning her niece Prudence through a New York social season to find a suitable husband. It's certainly not her niece's devilishly handsome partner in Hunter and MacKenzie Investigative Law. Aunt Gillian's eye for eligible suitors is surpassed only by her ability to discern genuine gems from nearly flawless fakes. At the Assembly Ball at Delmonico's, she effortlessly determines that the stones in the spectacular diamond waterfall necklace adorning the neck of the wife of banker William De Vries are fake.

Insisting on absolute discretion to avoid scandal, the banker employs Prudence and Geoffrey to recover the stolen diamonds pried out of their settings--priceless stones acquired by Tiffany, originally purchased for Marie Antoinette. Their search for a possible fence rapidly leads to a dead end: a jeweler brutally killed in his shop during an apparent theft.

The jeweler's murder is only the first in a string of mysterious deaths, as Prudence and Geoffrey pursue their elusive quarry. But the clues keep leading back to duplicity on the part of the De Vries family, who, it turns out, have a great deal to hide...


I almost stopped reading this series after the last book Death Brings a Shadow, but now I'm glad I didn't. This was probably my second favorite book in the series. I enjoyed reading about Prudence and Geoffrey in this book. Prudence was less annoying and reckless than she was in the last book. I was happy that there seemed to be some positive character growth for her, and Geoffrey is beginning to realize that he needs to accept that she isn't going to take a back seat in the investigations, no matter how dangerous they might be. Also, Prudence's aunt who was visiting from London was an interesting character, even though she could be a bit of a snob, and I really enjoyed reading Josiah's thoughts regarding Prudence and Geoffrey.

I thought the mystery in this one was quite good. Though I figured out one element of the mystery early on, part of it kept me guessing for most of the book. This time around there was no real big historical event tied to the book, but that was ok. The author notes in her afterward that the Marie Antoinette diamonds were completely made up by her. Regardless, it was a good plot devise. Keeley's Gold Cure for Alcoholism that was talked about in the book was a real thing however. After reading up on it, it sounded like a money making scheme to me. 

 




My one big complaint about this book is the way it ends. Just when something I've been waiting for seems about to happen, it ends and now I have have to wait another year to find out what happened. That was so frustrating!

Thanks to NetGalley and Kensington Books for providing me with an ARC of this book.

 



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