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Welcome to my stop on the blog tour celebrating the release of An Artless Demise by Anna Lee Huber! An Artless Demise is the seventh installment in the Lady Darby Mystery series. Thank you to Berkley Publishing for the invitation!

About the Book:

November 1831. After fleeing London in infamy more than two years prior, Lady Kiera Darby’s return to the city is anything but mundane, though not for the reasons she expected. A gang of body snatchers is arrested on suspicion of imitating the notorious misdeeds of Edinburgh criminals, Burke and Hare—killing people from the streets and selling their bodies to medical schools. Then Kiera’s past—a past she thought she’d finally made peace with—rises up to haunt her.

All of London is horrified by the evidence that “burkers” are, indeed, at work in their city. The terrified populace hovers on a knife’s edge, ready to take their enmity out on any likely suspect. And when Kiera receives a letter of blackmail, threatening to divulge details about her late anatomist husband’s involvement with the body snatchers and wrongfully implicate her, she begins to apprehend just how precarious her situation is. Not only for herself, but also her new husband and investigative partner, Sebastian Gage, and their unborn child.

Meanwhile, the young scion of a noble family has been found murdered a block from his home, and the man’s family wants Kiera and Gage to investigate. Is it a failed attempt by the London burkers, having left the body behind, or the crime of someone much closer to home? Someone who stalks the privileged, using the uproar over the burkers to cover his own dark deeds?
~ via USA Today’s blog
Joyce Lamb at Happily*Ever*After

Anna Lee Huber is the Daphne Award-winning author of the national bestselling Lady Darby Mysteries and the Verity Kent Mysteries. She is a summa cum laude graduate of Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee, where she majored in music and minored in psychology. She currently resides with her family and is hard at work on her next novel.

My Thoughts:

Disclaimer: I’ve only read one prior Lady Darby mystery, but I absolutely loved it. An Artless Demise is so different. LOVE! 

Lady Kiera Darby returns to London in 1831. She fled over two years ago. Her mission this time: a group of body snatchers has been arrested. They appear to be copying previous criminals, Burke and Hare, famous for killing people and selling their bodies to schools of medicine. 

London is understandably on edge and terrified with knives on their persons and under their mattresses. 

Kiera has a connection to these body snatchers, at least in one way. Her late husband was an anatomist, and someone sends her a blackmail letter claiming that he and even Kiera are involved in the plot. 

Kiera worries about her situation for her partner and husband, Sebastian Gage, and also for the child they are expecting. 

A young nobleman has been murdered, his body left in the street. Is this connected to the body snatchers or some other murderer? The family wants Kiera and Gage to investigate the murder. 

Such a complex and well-done mystery here. I was so worried about Kiera during this installment, even as indomitable as she is. 

Fans of the series should be prepared for a BIG twist. An Artless Demise is as charming and engaging as its predecessor (the one I read), and devoted series readers are bound to be as thrilled with this one as I was. 

An Artless Demise and the Lady Darby mysteries are exactly why we read mysteries. Anna Lee Huber has executed another perfect installment. 

I received a complimentary copy. All opinions are my own. 

About the Author:

Anna Lee Huber is the Daphne award-winning author of the national bestselling Lady Darby Mysteries, the Verity Kent Mysteries, the Gothic Myths series, and the forthcoming anthology The Jacobite’s Watch. She is a summa cum laude graduate of Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee, where she majored in music and minored in psychology. She currently resides in Indiana with her family and is hard at work on her next novel.

Visit her online at www.annaleehuber.com.

Have you read An Artless Demise, or is it on your TBR? Happy Reading! ~ Jennifer THR