Who is The Mayfair Dagger for? Readers who like me love romance and can have it sprinkled or spread over every other genre.
Who is the Mayfair Dagger not for? Readers who expect an amateur sleuth style novel, or a real mystery, and can barely tolerate romance.
The mystery in this case is not the main focus of the book. It's more about the romance between Albertine and Sweetman. I was a little disappointed because I didn't get to follow them solving a murder, but I believe this is the first of a series and in the next installment, there will be more detective work. Overall, I like the main characters and the banter between them. Joan though got on my nerves a little, but that means the author did a great job bringing her to life. I'll give the next installment a try hoping there will be more detective work!

Thank you, Ava January, NetGalley, and Crooked Lane Books for the e-ARC.

Maybe it was the description about a witty, feminist mystery set in the heart of nineteenth-century London advertising a daring adventure that made me request this book by Ava January on Netgalley for a review or the mention that it was "in the style of Deanna Raybourn and Katharine Schellman", I really don't remember.

I certainly was looking forward to read a historical mysterie set in 18th century Londen. Instead this turned out to be a flimsy love story with just a murder thrown in just to be able to advertise it as a mysterie instead of a simple love story. Albertine, the destitute daughter of an earl, is posing as the Countess von Dagga and trying to set herself up, rather unsuccessfully, as a detective. When she retrieves a coupe of rather illicit love letters during a masked ball she drugs her host, Lord Gremble. Later it turns out that that Lord Gremble has been murdered.
This is the start of a series of pretty stupid actions and of Albertine hiring the Duke of Erleigh, who is also one of the leading detectives at Scotland Yard, as a man of all business. From that moment on the story is mainly a love story with very little mysterie.

During the story Albertine refers a lot to herself as her daddies clever girl and we are repeatedly reminded that daddy used to call her "sharp as a dagger", hence the title Mayfair Dagger. However, based on the silly actions Albertine and her friend Joan perform I would rather say that these are certainly not the sharpest knives in the drawer. At times the book brought a smile to my lips but I certainly wouldn't describe it as witty and at the end it was more like a farce. If the author's intention was to write a parody of the genre, she succeeded very well, but somehow I think that has not been the intention.
I will round up 2,5 stars because the book sometimes made me smile.

I really wanted to like this more than I did. It had a great premise and I was hooked from the first page but it just didn’t grip me across the story. Something was missing for me. It’s well enough written but not something I’d read again.

1890s, London, extortion, false-identities, falsely-accused, romantic, verbal-humor, situational-humor, private-investigators, murder, murder-investigation*****

Albertine needs to make her own money to avoid a dire fate, so she utilizes teachings of her father to begin a detective agency.
Joan is more than a maid but less than a sister with a flair for the dramatic and an eye for a handsome man.
Spencer is a Scotland yard inspector who recently and unexpectedly inherited the title of duke and has an interesting time portraying the face of the detective agency incognito.
Then Albertine is in the frame for murder and can't rescue herself!
Good fun and sometimes farcical. I loved it!
I requested and received an EARC from Crooked Lane Books via NetGalley. Thank you!

I have mixed feelings about this book.
I enjoyed its third parts in spite of my personal expectations of finding mystery and suspense.

The whole story is based on the romance between Spencer Sweetman, the new Duke of Erleigh and Albertine Honeycombe, the apparent Countess Von Dagga, the mystery and everything else is in the background.

It feels these two characters are the victims of the era where they lived. Spencer victim of the oppression and sadness of loosing freedom for duty, and Albertine victim of the nonexistent right of her gender and at the same time both victims of vicious and superfluous people that were part of the ton. The book felt more of a critique of England at that time.

If I could recommend something is that towards the end of the book I felt the story needed at least a few more chapters to let the flow of the story reach the ending. Spencer went from this chivalrous and strong character to an insipid and sad one.
She didn’t save herself and he definitely didn’t save her at all, on the contrary. What saved her was a miraculous sense of justice the other women of the ton felt at the end when they actually could have prevented the caos long time ago. Their appearances in court felt force and out of context. I think the lies and betrayal of Spencer left Albertine with so much hurt and anger according to the description of the author that simple words towards the end didn’t feel like a grant gesture at all. That’s something I would definitely change if I could.

This came to me just as I was on a 'historical romance + murder mystery' binge, and I think it leans in well to the tropes of the subgenre while having a unique element in the main characters, Albertine and Joan. The writing style was quite pleasurable to read, with character dynamics that really snap into place from page one. I do wish that there was more focus on the murder mystery, and that Albertine's character arc and headspace was clearer in the final half of the book.

A great mystery / romance.

Albertine is escaping her marriage to a farmer with 15 kids. She moves to London and sets up a detective agency. Through a series of unfortunate events she is suspected for murdering Lord Gendel.

Spencer, a Scotland yard inspector turned Duke is working his last case and infiltrates Albertines agency posing as the male front for her agency.

Through a series of events he knows that she is innocent and he also falls in love with her.

But do they get their hea?

A fun, flirty and clean read.

This was a fun, sometimes goofy, romp of a historical mystery. It's solidly in cozy territory with characters that have a lot of fun along the way to not-really-solving a murder. This is more about hijinks and romance than sleuthing and that can be quite entertaining!

Albertine and Joan are out of their element, country girls who come to London to start a detective agency. Joan seems to be humoring Albertine at points, convinced they will go home and settle down to the prescribed life that has been laid out for them back at home. Albertine is earnest in her wish to be a detective, despite not being able to collect payment for her work. Spencer comes along as a Scotland Yard inspector investigating a murder and pretends to take a job as the front for Albertine's business, who will hopefully make clients pay for her services. Spencer has recently inherited a dukedom, which clashes with his established life.

It's a little curious that Albertine's status as the daughter of the Earl is mentioned, but forgotten regularly. She would certainly have access to society in light of her late father's rank. When she finally knows that Spencer is a Duke, she is dejected, thinking about how she is beneath him. But she isn't?

There are moments that feel modern that pull you out of the story a little bit and the finale scene that does it a lot.

The very end opens the door for a sequel, with Albertine getting an offer to continue to sleuthing. It'll be interesting to see how Albertine and Spencer evolve as a sleuthing couple!

With marriage to a widower with fifteen children as her only prospect, Albertine Honeycombe flees to London and reinvents herself as the Countess Von Dagga. Hoping to live out her late-brother’s dream of being a detective, Albertine starts her own private investigative business meant to assist the ladies of England’s upper class. Her plan goes sideways when Lord Grendel is found murdered in his home mere hours after she drugged him while in the process of retrieving personal letters that he was using to blackmail another woman. While trying to prove her innocence in the Lord Grendel murder as well as her fictious husband’s death, Albertine hires a man to be the front of her detective agency. Unbeknownst to her, the man she hired is the Duke of Erleigh or that he works for Scotland Yard.

THE MAYFAIR DAGGER is advertised as an historical mystery, but it reads more as a historical romance. There is a murder, but the investigation into that murder takes the backseat to the romance developing between Albertine and the Duke of Erleigh. The duke works for Scotland Yard, but he does very little detective work throughout the novel. Initially, he suspected Albertine of murdering Lord Grendel. But, after he starts falling in love with her, he decides that she must be innocent. He does very little to prove her innocence and seems to think that because he doesn’t think she murdered Lord Grendel that everyone else at Scotland Yard must blindly accept her innocence. In the end, Albertine has to save herself. I wasn’t a huge fan of Albertine until the end. She was more ridiculous that credible as a main character. Also, I wish the plot focused more on the murder investigation and less on the budding romance between the two main characters.

Oh what fun this book was!

I was lucky enough to receive an early copy from NetGalley.

From the very first page I loved the heroine Albertine Honeycombe. Her quick wit and smart mouth endeared her to me and I was along for the ride and I didn't want to get off. The book is funny, thrilling with a hilarious bunch of potential suspects, with a dash of romance. It is not very often I am laughing out loud, but this book made me laugh.

If you're looking for an easy read with a hilarious and smart heroine and you love Enola Holmes, this book is for you.

The cover makes this appear to be an ordinary historical mystery, but I can assure you there is nothing ordinary about Ava January’s The Mayfair Dagger. It’s the funniest historical mystery I’ve read. When the judge refers to the courtroom scene as a “debacle”, he’s correct. It’s a madhouse.

Albertine Honeycombe and a housemaid, Joan, stole away from their country home, and rented a house in London for three months. After the death of Albertine’s father, her cousin wants to marry her off to the neighboring farmer, a man with two dead wives and fifteen children. But, her father had raised her with all the advantages of her late brother, and that brother planned to open a detective agency in London along with Albertine. So, she hopes to open a discreet agency for women. She takes the name Countess Von Dagga, secretly known as the Mayfair Dagger.

However, things go wrong immediately. Albertine is too kind to insist her female clients pay her. Then, she’s forced to give Lord Grendel a sleeping draught during a ball in order to retrieve a woman’s indiscreet letters. But, someone sees her leave Lord Grendel’s study.

When Spencer Sweetman, the Duke of Erleigh, learns Lord Grendel has been murdered, he’s acting in his capacity as an officer at Scotland Yard. He intends to interview the mysterious Countess Von Dagga. Instead, he’s bemused to discover a number of men hanging around the street near the Countess’ London home. It seems Countess Von Dagga advertised for a man to be the face of her agency in order to get jobs, and Spencer Sweetman is just the man to do that. It will give him an in to learn more about the woman.

A mystery, a little romance, a great deal of humor. The Mayfair Dagger has all those elements, along with that hysterical courtroom scene. Readers looking for something a little different might want to meet Countess Von Dagga.

It’s been a while since a book has made me laugh this much or this hard. At one point I had tears in my eyes from laughing. If you enjoy sweet, clean, historical romances, read this one! If you like books that make you laugh, read this one. If you need a fun, light, quick book to read between heavy, long books, read this one. Take note that although categorized as a mystery, the mystery aspect is light.

Thank you NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for this digital arc in exchange for my honest review which is not affiliated with any brand.

Set in 1894. I love books that are from this time period. Well written and great imagery. Can she solve the murder and clear her name? Mysteries are great. Albertine breaks tradition for ladies of her time. Such a strong character.

Albertine is a struggling lady detective. When one case ends with a man dead, all eyes land on her. Well they land on her high society persona Countess Von Dagga. When Albertine hires a man to help her with her cases, she is unaware that the man is actually a detective investigating the Countess for suspected murder. Now Albertine needs to clear her name while the detective is hiding secrets of his own. This is a wonderful story of mystery, secrets and high society.
I loved this book! It was such a fun read filled with mystery and suspense. I would absolutely recommend this book to any friends and or family.

I really enjoyed The Mayfair Dagger, but I do want to preface this with the book reads primarily like a romance novel with a major mystery subplot to me. Please go in knowing the romance is a huge part of the story, because I could definitely see people looking at the tags where it just says historical and mystery & thriller and maybe not expect how heavily the romance is featured.

Luckily, I'm love romances/historical romances, so I was happy to read this. Albertine and Spencer are very cute together and I like them individually as characters as well. I believed that they would be good together and have a happy life together. I also loved Joan. Joan and Albertine obviously really cared for each other and definitely had a sisterly feel.

The mystery was interesting, but, again, I felt like it was a subplot rather than the main plot. A lot of the time is spent trying to figure out what even happened to the victim, instead of who killed him. This novel also has a heavy tilt towards comedy over realism, which I found fun. Even though there is a murder, the novel was a quick and light read.

The only major issue I had was that the ending felt a little rushed. At a certain point, things start snowballing and I think events could have had a little more time to breathe.

But overall, I had a lot of fun with The Mayfair Dagger and would recommended it.

This was an enjoyable historical mystery. I think I was expecting a romance, and maybe some steaminess. There was a little bit of romance, and no explicit steaminess, but a few moments that nodded towards sensuality. There were also some humorous moments that I enjoyed. I liked the protagonist, Albertine, and she had qualities that I admired.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for a free copy to review.

A well-written story filled with mystery!

I really enjoyed Ava January’s novel The Mayfair Dagger!
She is a new author for me and look forward to reading her next books!

In this story, we follow Albertine who doesn’t want to be married but follows her dreams as the Countess Von Dagga,
a private detective with a fictional husband. Some parts are so funny! If you like fictional stories,
then this one will please you! The characters are so charming!

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I requested an advance copy of this book based just on the plot description and am so glad I did, and that I was fortunate enough to get the copy. I thoroughly enjoyed this story of Albertine’s attempt to create a life for herself and her closest friend in London by starting a detective agency. There is good mystery, strong and believable characters, humor, emotion, and romance. I highly recommend it and hope it is the start of a series. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Albertine and her friend Joan have escaped to London to avoid marriage and live out a dream. She just wants to live freely helping other women, but between the lies the must tell and her impulsive nature all does not go as planned. Delightful

Set in the late 1800s.
Albertine Honeycombe invents herself as a Private Investigator to avoid the arranged marriage that her cousin has set up for her.
This is a historical romance story with a minor mystery built in just so it can be called a mystery instead of a women's fiction book.
I was unable to conned with the MC as she was more inept rather than the 'witty' that she was described as.
She found herself in a couple of tight situations that she herself place herself in and I wouldn't have been too disappointed to see her suffer the consequences of her actions.
The story is slow paced and I took a lot longer to read than normal as I kept finding other things to do rather than continue with a book I was not thoroughly enjoying.