False Pride

by Veronica Heley

Do you like mysteries with very complicated plots? If so, then you’ll want to read Veronica Heley’s False Pride. Bad things happen faster than the police can keep up with them, and Bea Abbot, owner of the Abbot Agency, an employment service, finds herself in the middle of events surrounding the mysterious and secretive Rycroft family. Is this a power play or could the motive be greed or maybe revenge? Is one person behind all the crimes? Bea is forced to unite forces with her ex-husband Piers as he too is unintentionally pulled into a slew of deadly happenings.

While Bea is trying to survive threats, violence, and home invasions, she also has to deal from afar with the willfulness of her precocious ward Bernice. Romance is in the air for some of the characters, but these personal affairs take a back seat to a series of crimes so involved that the main characters unite to create a timeline to try to piece together the information they have acquired in order to discover who is behind these robberies and deaths.

I would like to extend my thanks to netgalley.com and to Severn House for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Rating: 5/5

Category: Mystery

Notes: #12 in the Bea Abbot Agency Mystery Series, but works well as a standalone

Publication: April 1, 2018—Severn House

Memorable Lines:

Magda reacted to difficult situations like cardboard in a downpour.

Piers managed to lever off the damaged hinges. They came away with a screech of tortured wood. It was a big, heavy door. The early Victorians had built to last. She wasn’t so sure that she would.

Bea reflected that there was no use getting at Piers for flirting. He didn’t mean it. It was something in the water. Charisma. Call it what you like. He didn’t do it on purpose.

I'd not read this series before but I quickly dove into this fast paced cozy. Frankly, if I had been Bea, I would have sent Magda and the jewels to the police but then we wouldn't have a novel! There's lots of twists (well, it's not too complicated) involving family issues among the Rycrofts. I also liked the thread of Bernice, who has gone off without letting anyone know. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A quick read for a lazy afternoon.

This was an Abbot Agency Mystery about families, relationships and hidden jewels with a few murders to add a bit of interest and confusion.

Bea Abbot and her ex-husband accidentally get involved in a robbery and murder plot. Magda is given precious jewels to keep safe from would be thieves. She hides them but someone else hides them in a better place. People are murdered and injured during the hunt for the jewels.

This novel kept me guessing to the last pages. Everyone was confused and did not know who they could trust. Lots of humor.

Well written mystery with well crafted plot and characters. Recommend to mystery fans.

Family greed can lead to murder.

Magda, the trusted housekeeper of Lucas Rycroft is given the family jewels to look after while Lucas has a haircut. He has supposedly been told by his older brother to withdraw the jewels and take them to a studio where Lucas has to sit for a portrait. Before he gets there other Rycroft members arrive and threaten the housekeeper and the painter.

Magda makes her way to her old employer, Bea Abbot Agency, with a desperate plea to help find Lucas and hide the jewels.

Before long bodies, dead and alive start to appear and it becomes obvious that someone is out to change the lives of the Rycrofts.

This book is perfect for ladies of a certain age meeting for coffee and cake and to discuss this rather thrilling story. The grammar is perfect as is the syntax and the obvious attraction between Magda and Lucas, while the other Rycrofts are cads and get what they deserve.

This is the picture I kept getting while I read it. The story is good although quite predictable. I suppose it could be called a ‘Cosy’ mystery, with lots of ‘old-fashioned looks’ and tea.

A well-written tale, ideal to read on a Sunday afternoon with a cuppa and a piece of sponge cake.

Shesat

Breakaway Reviewers were given a copy of the book to review.

We always buy Veronica Heley for our library. Her mystery series are a hit with our patrons.