Death of a Dishonorable Gentleman

I just finished reading Death of a Dishonorable Gentleman by Tessa Arlen.  I thought this would be a great book.  It is set in England before 1920.  Mrs. Pankhurst and her cohorts are causing trouble in England trying to get women the right to vote.  The Earl and Countess of Montfort are throwing a house party.  The Countess throws a big costume ball every year that is the talk of the season.  Her housekeeper, Mrs. Jackson is very busy handling the staff and getting everything ready for the ball.  The morning after the ball Teddy Mallory, ward and nephew of the Earl, is found dead.  Lady Lucinda Lambert-Lambert and Violet, a kitchen maid, are also missing.  The Countess, Clementine, works with Mrs. Jackson to solve the murder and the girl’s disappearance.  It sounds like a great book, but the more I read the longer the book seemed to get.  It just seemed to drag on and on.  It is a good story line with some decent writing, but the story just became tiresome.  The details that you love when watching Downton Abbey do not translate as well into writing.  The book did get better toward the latter half of the book (or I could have just been happy I was almost done reading it).  It is a good mystery.  I can usually solve a mystery within the first hundred pages, but this time it took me a while longer to solve both mysteries.   Death of a Dishonorable Gentleman is available on Amazon.

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley/Publisher in exchange for an honest review. 

I really wanted to love this book.  I enjoy mysteries, love Downton Abbey and Mr. Selfridge, and I am a big history buff, but this book just did not engage me.  Of course, that is the great thing about books.  Not everyone will love every book.  That is why there are so many books out there.  I am off to read After Midnight!  Happy Reading!

Kris