Description (from cover):'For the fans of Maisie Dobbs, a riveting new Edwardian mystery series featuring detective heiress Ursula Marlow...
Ursula Marlow, the star of this richly detailed, beautiful paces, deeply romantic mystery, is a strong female heroine with whom fans of Dorothy Sayers, Sarah Waters, Anne Perry, and Jacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs series will instantly fall in love.
An Oxford graduate active in the battle for women's suffrage, Ursula is not your typical Edwardian heiress. Her once-charmed life takes a frightening turn when a fellow suffragette and friend is accused of murder.
As Ursula digs deeper to discover the truth and clear her friend's tarnished name, she is drawn into a mystery that raises troubling questions about her own father's connection to the murder victim.'
My thoughts:
I think that I have to disagree with the blurb that this book would appeal to Maisie Dobbs fans. I can see how it would in a way, but for me this book reminds me so much more of Tasha Alexander's Lady Emily Ashton series. Even though the time periods are different, they are still very similar. They both have very headstrong characters who have to deal with the upper class of English society. Maisie Dobbs focuses more on World War I and is a different character all together. This book reminded me a lot of the first book in the Lady Emily Ashton series and I think that is what drew me in.
The beginning of the book was a little hard to follow and all over the place, but once I figured who everyone was and the different story lines, it didn't take too long for me to get interested. I will say that the reader is left in the dark about a lot of things and at times that annoyed me, but I understand that the author was trying to create suspense. I am just an impatient reader who likes to know everything up front. The author doesn't give me that satisfaction in this one, but that was also a part of the thrill. I was dying to know all of the secrets and was glad when I was finally let in on them. The ending was a little different than I expected. Nothing too bad, just a little odd.
The author does a fantastic job of laying the groundwork for the series in this book. Ursula goes through some pretty dramatic things in this book that bodes well for the series. I really enjoyed Ursula's character and I appreciate the strong female lead in this book. In the Edwardian period, a strong-willed and independent woman was rare and it is nice to see how the author uses this against Ursula and helps to create depth within her character. The romantic part in this book was just right and not overly done. I have to say that the author did a fantastic job of creating drama, romance and mystery in this book.
Overall Rating: 3.5
Title: Consequences of Sin
Author: Clare Langley-Hawthorne
Series: Ursula Marlow Mystery #1
Publisher: Penguin Books
Publication Date: January 29, 2008
Pages: 272
Genre: Historical Mystery
Get It: Amazon; Barnes & Noble
Disclaimer: This book was purchased by myself and I reviewed this book without compensation of any kind. All thoughts and opinions are solely mine.
