"All is far from quiet on the home front in USA Today bestselling author Anna Lee Huber's captivating mystery series, in which former Secret Service agent Verity Kent receives a visitor - who is being trailed by a killer...

November 1919. A relaxing few weeks by the seaside with her husband, Sidney, could almost convince Verity Kent that life has returned to the pleasant rhythm of pre-war days. Then Verity's beloved Great-Aunt Ilse lands on their doorstep. After years in war-ravaged Germany, Ilse has returned to England to repair her fragile health - and to escape trouble. Someone has been sending her anonymous threats, and Verity's Secret Service contacts can only provide unsettling answers.

Even deep in the Yorkshire Dales, where she joins Verity's family for the holidays, Ilse encounters difficulties. Normally peaceful neighbors are hostile, seeking someone to blame for the losses they've endured. When Ilse's maid is found dead, Verity must uncover whether this is anti-German sentiment taken to murderous lengths, or whether there is a more personal motive at work. Could Verity's shadowy nemesis, Lord Ardmore, be involved? And if so, how much closer to home will the blow land when he inevitably strikes again?"

Holidays in the Yorkshire Dales? YAS!

Those who have read the earlier entries will be eager to get their hands on this title which is number five in the series. The books are best read in order but, if a reader is willing to accept spoilers from the earlier novels, they can read in any order.

First, the cover. I love the period feel to each of the covers in the Verity Kent series. They beautifully evoke the time period and character of what is inside the book.

Readers know (or find out) that Verity has had several earlier adventures which evolved from her work during WWI. Because of the Official Secrets Act, Verity’s family has no idea of all that she has experienced. Her mother, especially, judges her daughter. Readers may be surprised (as her mother would be if she knew) to learn that so much has happened to this young woman who is in only her early twenties.

In this novel, readers become better acquainted with Verity’s family. Her great aunt Ilse, who is German, arrives on Verity’s doorstep unannounced. What has brought her to England? How will she manage being in England where she is often viewed as an enemy despite her advanced age? Who has she seen? What does it mean? How do events in the present relate to Verity’s connection with her aunt when the war was on-going? Are the repercussions from that time about to cause trouble?

Verity decides to leave London early for the Christmas holidays, feeling that this will be better for her aunt. This allows readers to spend time with Verity’s parents and siblings in Yorkshire. Some of these relationships are less than ideal. Readers will also get to know some in her community including old friends, and new vicars and their wives.

When a murder occurs Verity and her dashing husband, Sidney, are on the scene and ready to solve the crime. Readers will try to figure things out right along side them.

I very much enjoy this series and highly recommend this latest entry. Alas, now it will be at least a year before I can catch up with Verity and Sidney again.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this title. All opinions are my own.

The best thing about this series, is that it is as much about the characters as it is about the mysteries. The characters are all fully realized, appealing individuals and I was completely emotional invested in all the action. This time around Verity and Sidney are visiting at Verity's childhood home, together with her family. A German great-aunt has suddenly come to stay, due to the harsh conditions of post war Germany. Post-war anti-German sentiments makes things awkward, as well as the fact that Verity hasn't seen any of her family in four years. Then too, Verity and Sidney are still trying to get evidence against Ardmore who has been making subtle threats. Verity and Sidney's undercover lives during the War begin to encroach on the present when they have to deal with another murder that may or may not .relate to the past. And Verity has to finally deal with her grief due to her own losses during the War. A great read.

A terrific addition to a wonderful series—perhaps the best book so far! This story builds on the previous installments in the series, while providing a deeper look into ongoing emotional toll of the losses suffered during the Great War—losses that every character is struggling to deal with in their own way. As Verity returns to her childhood home for the first time since her brother Rob died during the war, we get greater insight into Verity’s relationship with Sydney, her parents and her surviving siblings. Anna Lee Huber combines a mystery that is true to the time period with moving portrayals of the primary and secondary characters as they try to solve a murder while also doing the hard work of grieving and healing.

Thanks to #NetGalley for providing an advance copy for review.

The main thrust of this episode of the Verity Kent mystery series concerns Verity's trip back to her home and family. She hasn't been back since her brother Rob died in World War I. She hasn't dealt with her grief for the loss yet. She buried it and the grief she feels for all of her other losses in her work as a secret agent and, when the war was over, in alcohol and parties.

Now she is forced to confront things head on. It isn't easy. Verity and her mother have never gotten along. Her mother is the sort of poisonous woman who couches harsh criticisms in what she considers to be loving concern. She keeps trying to make Verity conform to her own vision of what a proper lady does.

When Verity's great-aunt Ilse arrives from Germany with her new maid, Verity takes her back to Yorkshire with her. Ilse has a new maid who behaves rather suspiciously. And neither fares well because of the prejudice against Germans that seems to permeate the area. When her aunt tells Verity that she fears she has seen the "second deserter" in the village, Verity contacts her former bosses in intelligence to find out that they never sent another deserter. This whole deserter episode was part of her war work and covered by the Secrets Act she signed which means she can't explain what is going on to her family and needs to investigate with only the help of her husband Sydney.

When the maid is found murdered, Verity is determined to get the the bottom of the case which isn't being investigated as thoroughly as she would like because of the local prejudice against anyone German.

There is a lot of information about the times. Verity deals with her own trauma from the war as does her husband and her brothers who all served and who were all changed forever by the experience. She also sees the effects on the war on a young man who is courting her youngest sister and who invalided out of the war for an injury that might have been self-inflicted and the abuse he receives because of it. She also sees the effects on a neighbor and childhood acquaintance whose own health kept him out of the fight.

The story was an excellent exploration of the damage war does on those who fight and those who don't. The mystery was well-integrated and the villain something of a surprise. Fans of the series will enjoy this episode and be looking forward to more.

This sterling series just gets better and better! Set in post WWI England, former war operative Verity Kent and her husband Sidney, once declared dead in the war as subterfuge for a sting operation, are finding their footing after a rough reunion in previous stories. Both are suffering from PTSD.

After five years of absence from her family, due to her inability to cope with her brother's wartime death, Verity makes the hard decision to finally visit. Not surprisingly, Verity finds her family relationships very strained after her long and seemingly uncaring absence, and on top of this, her beloved German great aunt suddenly arrives in England to stay with the family. Though her family must remain unaware of her secretive war work, Verity was greatly helped at a precarious time in Germany by her great aunt during the war. But Verity is now shocked by her aunt's frail condition and paranoia. Villagers remain hostile towards Germans, and Verity's aunt and maid are targets of their hatred and mistrust. Things come to a head, both with the German visitors and the village, as well as Verity's own inability to cope with the death of her brother and her difficulties with her family.

Huber has again brought thoughtful plotting and fascinating characterization together in a deeply satisfying and exciting read. Highly recommended!

#murdermostfair #netgalley

Anne Lee Huber is a masterful storyteller, she is amazing with mysteries and suspense. This book was a joy to read, she kept me on the edge of my seat! Loved it!

This is a deeply emotional mystery, set post-World War I and book five in the series. Verity and Miles are going to her family’s estate for the first time since before her marriage. Her family feels she abandoned them by not visiting - that she was being frivolous in the city instead of coming home to share in their grief. But readers know she wasn’t, and why she can’t tell them that. Coming home for her means acknowledging that her brother Rob, lost when his plane went down, never will.
Everything feels unsettled - the emotions between Verity and her family, hiding that she was a spy during the war, and now her great aunt Ilse has come from Germany to see them. This is unsettling to the local village who do not trust Germans in their midst, even an elderly lady and her young maid. Ilse helped Verity during the war, and is now receiving threats about it. Verity is trying to find the source of the threats when the young maid is murdered and brings them to another quandary - was it related to the threats or someone in the village?
One of the most poignant scenes, for me, is when Verity leaves her husband sitting with her brothers, smoking and sharing camaraderie that only their fellow soldiers can understand. The bitter that underlies the sweetness of being the ones who lived. It haunts them as others can not understand why they can’t move on with their lives now that war is over and they’re home.
I only put this book down to get more Kleenex. This is some of Huber’s best work yet, a thoroughly engrossing mystery about the trauma that follows us home and changes home forever.

This is the fifth in the Verity Kent Mystery series featuring former Secret Service agent, Verity Kent and her husband and war hero, Sydney. The book is an excellent stand alone with a well-plotted mystery. There is just enough information about characters who are on-going to bring the reader up to date without repeating everything that has occurred previously

Verity’s Tante Ilse arrives at Verity and Sydney’s London flat and while seeing her again is cause for joy there is also concern. Feelings among some British people are still running high against Germans, and they make no effort to conceal their dislike of Tante ilse or her maid. Then Tante Ilse tells Verity about being threatened in her own village because after helping Verity smuggle a deserter out of the country a second one appeared. Now the village has branded Tante Ilse a traitor and Verity is concerned about who might have given her away. Have they also exposed Verity?

The decision is made to leaveLondon and go home for the holidays. Verity hopes they will be more welcomed there and she can investigate to learn if she herself is exposed. The problem with the visit is that Verity hasn’t been home since her brother died and she is dreading facing her grief as well as dealing with the constant disapproval of her mother. She can’t explain to anyone what she did during the war, and that leaves her mother even more critical of her.

Once they arrive in the town, there are numerous reports of an unknown German hanging about. Couple that with the dislike of German’s also evidenced here and things become even more complicated. Then a murder occurs and Verity and Sydney know they must solve it before the townsfolk find the unknown German, whom they suspect, and practice a bit of vigilante justice.

Verity is also dealing with grief she hasn’t faced for five years. Huber does a superb job of portraying grief and showing how Both of Verity’s brothers demonstrate their grief and “survivor guilt” in different ways, as does her mother. In order to resolve anything and move forward as a family they are going to have to face their own grief, one another’s grief, and grant each other some concessions.

The book joins themes of isolationism, the distrust of foreigners, the after effects of war, and grief in its varied forms. These themes are all presented in the form of an engaging fictional story and a well plotted mystery. This may be the best book of the series so far.

My thanks to Kensington Books and NetGalley for providing me an advance copy for review. The opinions stated here are entirely my own.

The best book of the series. Although the mystery is interesting in and of itself and fascinating in the way it ties into the larger mystery that's being played out across several books, the book's real strength is Huber's exploration of grief and the lasting consequences of war on the combatants and their loved ones. It's powerful and honest and likely to provoke a few visceral reactions from readers since, as a society, we're really no better at dealing with grief - our own and that of those around us - than we were a century ago.

Anna Lee Huber's fifth instalment of the Verity Kent series, Murder Most Fair, is another wonderful mystery, but wrapped into the reader's personal introduction into Verity's family and home. Coming home to the Yorkshire Dales and Verity's home village of Hawes, brings the reader into Verity's life like never before. This story is more about the grief and pain that surrounds Verity, her husband, Sidney, and many in England after World War I. The deep dive into the PTSD of soldiers, the depth and variety of grief, and the German bias in a rural English creates a deeply touching and deeply personal story. Unlike the previous Verity books, this one is more the mystery of loss weaved together with an actual murder mystery. Huber's writing is well-paced and able to connect reader's to their own grief through Verity's. Many scenes had me tearing up and feeling the wrenching loss of family close to me. Those expecting to be embroiled in the mystery from the previous book will receive satisfying clues without a resolution. I highly recommend this book, but with the caveat that readers are aware - your relationships and your relationships with grief will come to the forefront as you learn about Verity.

Verity and Sidney Kent head to her family's home in Yorkshire for the holidays with Verity's great aunt Ilse in tow. Old and ill, Tante Ilse has made her way from Germany and has no family left, except the English branch. Verity has avoided home for five years as she could not face finally acknowledging her beloved brother Rob's death. She has locked up her grief for years so she could function. Her wartime activities keep coming back to haunt her and Sidney and one involving a German deserter has cropped up. The local village is not receptive to visiting Germans; most residents are coolly polite to Ilse but openly hostile to her young maid. This book really ratchets up the tension in Verity's personal life as she tries to reconcile with her family while watching her back as enemies still exist. Fortunately, Sidney very much has her back.

I had read the previous book so was looking forward to reading this one, I think it would read better if you'd read the series for context.

Overall I really enjoyed the book although as a murder mystery the murder happens just after 50% of the way through and finding the murderer seemed to be very quick and a little rushed.

The author or editor also needs to cut out how in every other chapter or even page that verity can't tell anyone anything because of trade secrets. We know. 1) we worked this out 2) you've already told us only pages ago! It doesn't need to be said all. The. Time. It got to the point where I was going to keep a running tally it was so laughable.

However overall I did enjoy the book and veritys character and liked getting to know her family and hope they are brought back.

Thank you for the arc.

Thank you to Kensington Books and Netgalley for an Advanced reader copy of Murder most fair, the 5th Verity Kent mystery by Anna Lee Huber. I binge read the first four books in this series a few months ago and you definitely need to have read them before your start this fifth novel in the series. Murder most fair IS NOT A STAND ALONE. There is a murder mystery to solve but it's almost a side plot. The main part of this story is about Verity facing her semi estranged family and facing her personal demons, dealing with the repercussions of her War work and mostly it's about grief. This series is set just after World War One & I love that it doesn't gloss over the after effects of war. The war might be ended and the Influenza epidemic that followed might have died out but every character in this series has been changed by the war and is dealing with the legacy of war. Be it grief, injury, survivor guilt or past crimes and betrayals coming back to haunt them.

This book was an absolute rarity - a book that I just loved. Once upon a time, I loved many books. Now, I'm a lot more choosy. Also, I'm a lot more sensitive to anything dark or overly stressful nowadays. Murder Most Fair is essentially a cozy mystery taking place post World War I. It's part of a series and I wish I had not read it first because it is a spoiler for previous books in the series. That said I truly enjoyed reading it and I believe I will go back and read the earlier books simply to learn exactly how things came about. I'll look forward to the next book in the series, too. If you haven't yet read it, don't - - get the earlier ones first! It's not a light-hearted romp or anything like that but it is easier on the emotions than some historical novels/mysteries taking place in similar time periods so, if like me, you're sensitive right now, it's okay, you should be fine with this book.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, Anna Lee Huber, and the publisher for making this ARC available to me. I truly enjoyed it.

In this entry in the Verity Kent series, Verity finally faces her biggest fear - going home and facing her family. Her closest brother died in the war, she barely knows her youngest sister, her mother is hostile and judgmental about her absence and her lifestyle in London, and no one knows (or can know) what she did during WWI. To make matters more tense, her German aunt has managed to get a rare visa that allows her to escape from a terrible life in post-war Germany and come to her English family, stirring up anti-German sentiment in the town. While there is a mystery, naturally, this one is all about Verity continuing to come to terms with her past personal trauma, more than the continuing arc about the evil machinations of Lord Ardmore. Another excellent entry in the series..

I've been a fan of Anne Lee Huber for years now. I wasn't 100% sold on this series when I first started it, but it is really growing on me. I feel more connected to the characters and enjoy the overall mystery that is tying all the most recent books together. Verity needed her own Moriarty and she has it in Lord Ardmore. Though he doesn't make an appearance in this book, he is there, lurking in the shadows and pulling strings.

The Great War is finally at an end, Verity's husband Sidney has returned a hero after being presumed dead, and Verity has finished with her top secret assignment. Her great aunt from Germany appears in England, much to Verity's surprise, and they all go north to visit Verity's somewhat disagreeable and judgmental family. When there is a murder, Verity must step in to help solve the case since the local police seem disinterested. I have read all of the books in this series, and this one's a lot slower moving than the previous ones. I would recommend reading them in order, as this is definitely not a stand-alone. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

As with her other books (in this series and the Lady Darby books), Huber deftly mixes intriguing mysteries with richly developed characters and historically correct facts. The heroine of the series (this is book #5) is Verity Kent a modern and independent woman of her time - during WWI and in the immediate post war years in England. Verity and her war-hero husband Sydney solve murders and try to uncover traitorous plots while coming to terms with the loss of family and friends in WWI and the scars remaining on those who returned.

In MURDER MOST FAIR, Verity and Sydney return to her childhood home in 1919 after a 5 year absence. As they continue to rebuild their marriage after the war years absence, they confront the psychological impact of the war on those who fought and those who stayed home. In addition, Verity’s great aunt from the German side of her family has arrived in England, bringing with her a connection to Verity’s war time activities that lead to a murder of a young woman. As Verity and Sydney piece together clues to find the killer, they continue to move forward in their quest to prove the traitorous guilt of a very highly placed Lord….before he destroys them.

1919 Verify and her husband Sidney have with her newly arrived German Great Aunt travelled to Yorkshire to visit her family, the Townsends, for the first time in five years. While there the aunt and her maid experience the hostilities of the locals.
A well-written story but with a very slow build to reach the murder. For me there was not enough of a mystery, but too much of the relationship between the family, and the impact of the war. Also there is a fair amount of the story referencing past events, so for me not a standalone story.
An ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.