I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence this review.
The latest installment in Anna Lee Huber’s regency mystery series, A Lady Darby Mystery, has just been released. A Fatal Illusion combines carefully crafted mystery with multilayered family drama, all in a well-researched historical setting. This is the eleventh novel (with an additional novella in the middle of the series) and these books continue to satisfy.
Kiera (Darby) Gage and husband Sebastian have solved many mysteries in the past. He is a government inquiry agent (like his father, Lord Gage) and she is a very intuitive woman with a knowledge of anatomy and medicine gained from her first husband, a surgeon. That knowledge was acquired against her will. (Start with book one, The Anatomist’s Wife, for the full backstory.)
They are now new parents. Kiera hopes that their daughter will help to smooth over the fractious relationship between her husband and his father, a relationship that is even more strained now that Sebastian has discovered the existence of a half-brother, Henry, that his father kept secret. Henry and Sebastian had intended to meet up with Lord Gage but they received word that he had been attacked by highwaymen and seriously injured while en route. They make a detour to Yorkshire, where Lord Gage is now recuperating in a surgeon’s home in Yorkshire.
It soon becomes apparent that this was no ordinary robbery. Someone targeted Lord Gage. Someone who wished him dead. Kiera and Sebastian have to figure out who, and why – with very little help from Lord Gage, who has reasons for wanting to keep the attackers’ motives secret.
The novel is set in 1832 and utilizes the political events of the times to create a believable, intriguing plot. The well-developed supporting cast helps carry the storyline. This series continues to be one of my favorites.
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