Just Make Believe by Maggie Robinson

Lady Adelaide Mystery #3

287 pages

Blurb

A week-long house party in the country―why not? Lady Adelaide has nothing else to do, now that her year of mourning for her unfaithful husband is up, and her plans to rekindle her romantic life have backfired. But when her hostess is found dead on the conservatory floor, Addie knows just who to call―Detective Inspector Devenand Hunter of Scotland Yard.

Dev may not want to kiss Addie again, but he's anxious to solve the crime. Who would want to kill Pamela, the beautiful wife of one of Britain's greatest Great War heroes? Certainly not her devoted and wheelchair-bound husband, Sir Hugh Fernald. The other guests seem equally innocent and improbable.

But despite all appearances, something is very wrong at Fernald Hall―there's a body buried in the garden, and the governess has fallen down the stairs to her death. Who's next? Addie and Dev must work together to stop another murder, and they have some help thanks to Rupert, Addie's late and unlamented husband. Rupert needs to make amends for his louche life on earth, and what better way to earn his celestial wings than catch a killer?

Review

It’s been a while since I read a mystery and even longer since I read one with a historical setting. But, it has been nice to return to what used to be my favourite genre. As for the story? That was nice too. I hope that doesn’t sound as if I’m damning the book with faint praise. I enjoyed the tale; it just didn’t have the wow factor. Of course, that may be because I was reading the third story in a series without having read the first two.

 Lady Adelaide is a young aristocrat and has been widowed for a few years when this story starts. Her husband cheated on her all through their marriage and even after his death he won’t tormenting her. His ghost haunts her, mostly to assist her when she runs into murder, but he’s not beyond teasing and infuriating her. What is more, the information he shares with her, while usually right, is never complete enough to provide her with a solution to the mystery she’s facing.

Enter Dev Hunter. As a Detective Inspector he’s well out of Lady Adelaide (Addie’s) social circle and therefore league. The fact that he’s also half Indian, only makes the social gap between them wider. Unfortunately, none of that lessens the attraction simmering between them, although Dev is determined to keep his distance and, in this book at least, he succeeds in not repeating the kiss they (apparently) shared in an earlier instalment.

As for murder(s), there’s a lot going on in this book. It may start with the suspicious death of Addie’s hostess, but it isn’t long before a much older crime is uncovered and soon followed by another suspicious death. I think that’s where the story fell down a little for me. The reader doesn’t really get the opportunity to get involved in the investigation. Almost everything Addie discovers is the direct result of her ghostly former husband providing her with information. What’s more, very little of Dev’s investigation takes place on the page. We learn bits and pieces from his thoughts and his conversations with Addie, but for me there was a significant lack of clues and red herrings in this book. In fact, I had the culprit pinpointed early on in the book, not so much based on what was in the story but more as a result of having read a lot of mysteries in the part and this mystery followed a not unfamiliar pattern. What’s more, the murder(s) in this book aren’t really solved. The ghost provides the answer which, of course, means Addie can’t explain where she gets her information from, and the culprit confesses for reasons that are unclear and unexplained.

Having said all that, I did enjoy this book. In star ratings I would say this is a solid 3.5. It wasn’t a real page-turner for me but returning to the story was no hardship. I liked Addie and Dev and enjoyed reading about British society on the verge of major changes in social structure and female liberation. In fact, I liked it so much that I’m now determined to read the next book in the series too. The ending of this one introduced the next mystery and I’m looking forward to reading it.