The latest in Anna Lee Huber's Lady Darby Mystery series (it's an even dozen now) is full of intrigue, revenge, greed, family conflicts and emotional resolutions.

Lord Gage, Sebastian and Kiera are urgently summoned to investigate the mysterious death of the patriarch of the Roscarrock family, Lord Gage's maternal side of the family who hail from Cornwall. The reader (as well as Sebastian and Kiera) is at last introduced to the notorious smuggling family that we've heard disdainful snippets about from Lord Gage at various points in the series...and what a family they are.

There is a lot to unpack in this installment. First and foremost, Lord Gage, who has not seen or been in contact with his mother's side of the family since he aided them in their free trading operation as a child of 11 and was captured, arrested and paroled into the navy by his grandfather. There are 50+ years of animosity, betrayal and pain/guilt over the death of his best friend during that same raid for him to face and come to terms with. Investigation-wise, there is the question of if there really is a murder to investigate or perhaps the death of his great uncle was an accident/suicide? Also, there is frustration and anger from both father and son (and Kiera) for the mystery and secrecy/withholding of information from the Roscarrocks themselves and their efforts to hamper rather than aid in the investigation.

I really enjoyed this story for several reasons. First, we are able to learn more of Lord Gage's extended family background and how it impacted his formative years. We see a different, dare I say, more emotional and vulnerable Lord Gage, both in his struggle with past demons as well as his burgeoning respect and acceptance of his daughter-in-law Kiera. In a very real way, this was HIS book to make or break, and in my opinion, he definitely MADE it. I am looking forward to seeing how his character progresses and grows from this venture. Second, it's fascinating to meet the Roscarrocks and understand their past and its motivations...how they fed off their history, interacted with each other, felt about their neighbors/community, dealt with the law, and plotted for securing their obsessive needs. Third, we see the three-person family unit of Sebastian, Kiera and baby Emma continuing to evolve and grow, and it's heartwarming to have a front-row seat as this new little family settles in with a fierce love and devotion for each other.

This book was very well written, and while there was not as much action (until the denouement) as is present in some of Huber's past books, the emotional and inner turmoil of some of the characters was every bit as thrilling, absorbing and enlightening as other constructs for the book could have been...more so, in my opinion.

I'm very curious to see where our characters go from here and look forward to the next Huber/Darby/Gage collaboration.

Highly recommended (but also recommend that the series be read in order to gain more insight as you go along).

My sincere thanks to the author, NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for providing the free early arc of A Deceptive Composition for review. The opinions are strictly my own.

A Deceptive Composition sees the Gages on a surprising journey to Cornwall, one that will bring with it trials, family secrets, and unearth the past for Lord Gage (Kiera’s father-in-law) in a drastic way. With Huber’s skillful pen, this twelfth (!!! so many books and all so good!) installment in the Lady Darby Mysteries delivers another winding, unpredictable tale with equal parts intrigue and emotional resonance.

The writing style showing Kiera’s 1st person POV really shines in matters of logic and deduction. To read it is to see human nature through Kiera’s eyes, familiar ones for faithful readers who’ve followed the series thus far. Kiera’s view is a precise and insightful analysis of the world around her, yet written in such a way as to be certain of other characters’ manners, motives, and demeanors. As she engages with the estranged family members, truths and complexities about her own immediate family are brought to light. She is the first to comprehend how a particular character’s past experiences result in a certain prickliness and worldview that has influenced the present.

As a person who looks for the romance in every story, I have always I liked the growing dynamic between Gage and Kiera, and more recently in this series the possibility of their personal staff, Bree and Anderley, getting together. In A Deceptive Composition, there are wonderful moments that highlight the everydayness of Gage and Kiera’s love at this stage in their relationship. Huber does a great job showing how they are just as smitten with the same delightful tension and chemistry between them, yet showing their consideration and kindness in the practicalities, too, like caring for little Emma and making sure a carriage ride is comfortable (or, with a baby, tolerable).

The Cornwall setting is nicely depicted and brings to my mind visuals from the Poldark series complete with the country gentry, shipwrecks, and smuggling activities. Real-life places and personalities were the author’s inspiration for some of the story framework, which I appreciate.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance ebook copy. This is my honest review.

I received a copy of the title from the publisher; all thoughts expressed are my own. As a huge fan of the series, I'm always excited for a new entry and this one didn't disappoint. Kiera's father-in-law, Lord Gage has been a bit of an enigma throughout the series and has had a very fraught relationship with his son. This title finds Kiera, Sebastian, Lord Gage, her young daughter Emma as well as their staff traveling to Cornwall when Lord Gage's estranged maternal family asks for his help in finding out what happened to his great uncle.

In addition to a well crafted mystery with multiple twists, I really enjoyed the backstory of Lord Gage's childhood as it explained why he developed into a bitter and difficult adult. I also like the relationship he has with his granddaughter which shows he is not beyond redemption. Kiera has settled nicely into motherhood and I look forward to more titles in the series.

This book reminded me of a Tilt-a-Whirl with all of the plots and characters spinning in different directions simultaneously. Who were the good guys? Who were the bad guys? What was the motive? It was such a fantastic read that I wanted to start reading it again as soon as I was finished. For me, that isn’t an unusual reaction to this author as I don’t believe I have ever read one of her books that I didn’t love.

The opening of the book finds Kiera, Gage, seven-month-old Emma, and their servants still at the home of Gage’s father, Lord Gage. Lord Gage has been recovering from the near-fatal injury he suffered in the last book, and he’s coming along nicely. Gage and his father have always had an extremely contentious relationship and even that is evening out. So, all is right in their world at the moment – until a letter from Lord Gage’s long-estranged family arrives. Though he hasn’t been to his family’s home in over fifty years, his Aunt Amelia is asking him to come right away because his uncle has died – and she thinks it was murder.

Set in the beautiful, though harsh and unwelcoming, Cornish coast of England, our protagonists find themselves surrounded by people who don’t wish them to be there. What was the real purpose of luring them to Cornwall? Was there really a murder? His uncle has been buried for a while, so what is there to investigate? Can they even investigate? It seems there is something around every corner that causes the hairs on the backs of their necks to tickle. Does someone wish them ill?

This author does an exceptional job of conveying the fear, the anxiety, the anguish, the animosity, and she brings you and those feelings into situations that are both dangerous and poignant. With smugglers, murderers, kidnappers, and more than enough secrets to go around, there is never a dull moment.

Once you begin reading, you won’t be able to put it down, so be prepared with an extra-large drink, a snack or two, a comfy reading spot – and maybe a potty break. The mystery is engrossing, challenging, and interesting while the characters are very life-like and relatable – even the villains.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I really enjoy this series and have especially loved seeing Kiera and Sebastian become parents and the softening of Lord Gage as he becomes a grandfather. We got to see a more vulnerable side of Lord Gage in the previous book with his injury. In this book he is (mostly) healed physically but is now having to come face to face with his past.

Lord Gage's past has always been a bit hazy though in the last few books more and more has been revealed. The curtains are fully up now as the Gage family, complete with infant daughter Emma, head to down to Cornwall to find answers about the Roscarrock family and murder.

While I only came to this series about halfway through it has become one of my favorite historical mystery series and one I always enjoy. I love the group effort - not only the partnership between Kiera and Gage but their staff and now even Lord Gage.

This is a solid historical mystery with complex, interesting characters and a fantastic setting!

Anna Lee Huber knows how to paint an intriguing plot! Lady Darby, her husband Gage, their infant daughter Emma, and her father in law Lord Gage all have been called to investigate the possible murder of a long estranged family member. Family who led to Lord Gage's eventual occupation in the Navy. Ms. Huber's descriptions and research shine through in this novel. The atmosphere is set so well with the characters duplicity in such a way that even the family manor feels suspicious. I was not expecting the twists and turns this installment of the series had in store for me. I was so delighted to see Lord Gage as more of a main character with his relationships changing with Sebastian and Keira. As an Art Historian, myself, I genuinely giggle every time Ms. Huber writes about the contemporary artists of the day with such accurate details.

My thanks for the ARC goes to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group. I'm voluntarily leaving a review.

Genre: Historical Mystery, Victorian Mystery, Mystery, Cozy Mystery
Gore Level: Low
Spice Level: Nothing overtly on the page

I've read some of Huber's other mysteries, but this is the first in this series. The author references events in previous novels, but it was easy to catch on and keep going forward.

The characters are interesting, and I was quickly absorbed in their lives and struggles. I couldn't wait to see what would happen next.

Things I loved:
- Cornwall
- Smugglers
- Misunderstood characters
- Twists
- Family relationships
- The BABY gooing and being adorable!
- Creaking
- Secrets

I definitely recommend this mystery. It was so much fun to enter another time period and place.

Happy reading!

"Lady Kiera Darby and her dashing husband, Sebastian Gage, hope they've finally found peace after a tumultuous summer, but long-buried family secrets soon threaten to unravel their lives...

October 1832. Kiera is enjoying the slower pace of the English countryside. She, Sebastian, and their infant daughter have accompanied her father-in-law, Lord Gage, home so that he can recuperate from the injuries he sustained in a foiled attempt on his life. But as the chill of autumn sweeps across the land, they receive a summons from an unexpected quarter. Lord Gage's estranged uncle - a member of the notorious Roscarrock family - has been murdered, and his family is desperate for answers. Despite Lord Gage's protests, Kiera and Sebastian press on to Cornwall to assist.

It isn't long before they discover that almost nothing is as it seems among the Roscarrocks, and they've been lured to their isolated cove under false pretenses. There are whispers of a lost treasure and frightening allusions to a series of murders stretching back decades that touch the lives of the family personally. Kiera and Sebastian are left with no choice but to uncover the truth before the secrets of the past threaten to destroy them all."

And maybe find some treasure along the way?

This enjoyable series focuses on unconventional artist Kiera Gage, who still carries her first husband’s title though she’s remarried to Sebastian Gage. Her first husband was cruel and forced her to use her artistic skills as an anatomist as he dissected corpses, an extremely disreputable occupation for a woman in the 1830’s. He luckily died, leaving her free to marry her agreeable second husband, and the two have a baby. She now uses her skills as a society portraitist, but it’s her artist’s eye that make this series a standout. She sees color and details with an artist’s eye and is incredibly observant. It makes her a great assistant to her husband, who works as an operative for the crown.

Her father in law, Lord Gage, has been a cranky problem in books one through eleven, but in book eleven, he’s injured and Kiera and Sebastian travel to tend to him with the baby, who breaks the ice. Lord Gage is quite the doting grandfather. In this outing, Lord Gage gets a request from his family to help investigate the death of his uncle in Cornwall. He has many, many bad memories of his childhood, and has not returned to the area for fifty years, but he agrees. Kiera, Sebastian and Emma of course accompany him as they make the long and uncomfortable trek to the coast.

Cornwall is the setting of many wonderful mysteries (most famously, DuMaurier’s Rebecca) and it’s a delight to see the talented Huber make good use of the locale. Cornwall was well known for smugglers and what were known as “wreckers” – the good people of Cornwall certainly rescued many shipwreck victims, but they also picked the wrecks clean. The caves and coves along the shore were perfect for stashing treasure, liquor, and many other items. And as it turns out, Lord Gage’s obstreperous family, the Roscarrocks, have long been smugglers.
The reason for Lord Gage leaving the area in the first place is tied to smuggling, and this book is a long unravelling of the family history that caused his departure and his many unresolved feelings about his relatives. The trip, terrible as it turns out to be, also draws him closer to his son and daughter in law.

The Roscarrocks, collectively, are what we might refer to today as a piece of work. The family is full of squabbles and resentments and the uncertainty about the death of Gage’s uncle and the reasons behind it are not helpful. Huber manages to create a rich canvas of characters in a small location by portraying the members of the Roscarrock family as well as the Grenville family, a group of rival smugglers. They refer to themselves as “free traders” but smuggling is smuggling, no matter what it might be called. The harshness of the landscape and the hardscrabble nature of their existence makes a case for smuggling – the families were making use of the opportunities at hand.

Huber manages to combine a skilful mystery with adventure, some romance (Kiera and Sebastian have a very happy marriage), and a beautifully layered portrayal of a troubled family. This is a very solidly entertaining series, one I look forward to picking up each year for a new visit with Kiera and her clan.

This is a slow-paced, slice-of-life book without a strong central plot. It focuses a lot on the relationships between the characters rather than on the mystery.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC.

4.0

Though I’m not particularly a huge fan of the accent of the narrator, I have, especially for the most recent ones, primarily listened to the audiobooks in this series rather than read them. When that’s the only thing available, I often wonder when I read a book, if it’s just the format that is skewing my opinion. Sometimes, that’s because the narrator is so good, and sometimes it’s just because it’s easier to keep things moving with an audiobook.

This was a very interesting premise, but somewhat slow moving and I don’t know if that’s because of the book itself or because I was making my way through it under my own steam, so to say. I can say that the majority of the action takes place after the 80% point, really right at the end even. Short of going back and reading through past installments, I’ll do what I can to figure it out. I’ve noticed in reading another series prior to the Victorians, that things really were isolated back then. The industrial revolution, train travel, radios and telephones, etc., all made a huge dent in shrinking the globe and bringing comforts and communication. To think how long and arduous the trip was just from the back up in Devon to the Cornish coast is baffling.

For this book, we do get to learn about some of the background and family that is hinted at in recent books and it’s the first at either of the Gage estates or the maternal side of the family in Cornwall. I remember watching Poldark and, even though that took place much earlier, things were so desperate and smuggling really was big business. You don’t really know who to trust in this book. You don’t even know if there’s been a murder for quite some time or if someone has even died. I enjoyed some of the scenery descriptions and loved all the time spent with Emma and the fact that Keira and Lord Gage aren’t immediately at odds again, though he’s still pigheaded. I can say that I do miss having someone do all of the Scottish dialogue because me sounding it out and trying to imagine it are not the same as professional narrator, regardless of my thoughts on their aristocratic English accent.

I’m still up in the air and I’m already frustrated that the hint at the next books story line is going to have to hang there for another year or more.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkeley Publishing Group for providing me with a free advanced copy of this book in exchange for my unbiased review.

I enjoyed this book. I like the characters in this series, even grumpy grandpa. The mystery kept me guessing. I liked visiting the relatives to get a more information on grumpy grandpa.

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for my eARC in exchange for an honest review.

A Deceptive Composition by Anna Lee Huber is the latest installment in her captivating Lady Darby mystery series. What draws me back to Ms. Huber's books time and time again is her exceptional storytelling ability, expertly crafted plot development, meticulous attention to historical accuracy, and the compelling character progression that unfolds throughout the series.

Kiera, Gage, and company return to Gage's father's ancestral home in Cornwall to solve the mysterious death of an estranged relative. I love this series, so revisiting the characters is always a joy but there were parts of the underlying mystery that dragged for me. I had a hard time staying engaged and keeping all of the moving pieces straight.

Lord Gage's Cornish relatives are deceptive indeed as he reluctantly accompanies Gage and Kiera to Cornwall at his aunt's urgent request. The story winds itself around suspected murder, feuds, ancient history, and suspected treachery. The Gages find they can trust no one as they investigate. Kiera has been slipping into Lord Gage's good graces to the point where she can question him on his past and perhaps influence his present without his blowing up. An amazing accomplishment! Of course it doesn't hurt that he is gaga over his granddaughter. This has to be one of the most confounding and twisty investigations ever!

It was so great to read this book! This series is just so great and I loved this latest installment-after the last book focused on Lord Gage, that this case focuses on his maternal family, and we got to explore that in this book, it was so great!

This mystery went places that were so shocking and so fantastic and thrilling to read! Because Lord Gage's great-uncle has died, and he is urged to come to the family home and help investigate. And oh, how many family members there were, and all the complicated emotions, I just had to keep reading!

There was so much family history and secrets going on in this book, focused on both the recent death, and on the smuggling incident that got Lord Gage's friend killed and him set off. Which raised all sorts of emotions, and challenged a few relationships, but also strengthen others.

I just wanted to shake my head at the end. Like, all this, for what? It was just like the tale that was told, that people just became obsessed, and couldn't think clearly. Though I do wish we could've found out who the silent partner was. I doubt it was important, but I would've loved to know who. But this was one of the most bittersweet endings in a while, if not the most bitter. It's debatable, but so much of this didn't need to happen, and it's sad what it cost.

I absolutely loved reading this book and I can't wait to read more by Anna Lee Huber!

I found the newest addition to Anna Lee Huber's Lady Darby mysteries to be riveting. What keeps me coming back to Ms. Huber's books is her gift for storytelling, her expert plot pacing, her attention to historical detail and the fantastic character arc throughout the series.

In their newest mystery, Kiera and Sebastien find they need to unsnarl a tangled web of deceit. They have accompanied Lord Gage to aid in his investigation of the mysterious death of an estranged relative. They find more questions than answers as they seek to uncover secrets that may be linked with those in the past. Set against the atmospheric backdrop of the Cornish coast, readers will find the folklore and tales of smugglers captivating.

Fans will not be disappointed in the intricate plot and the sharply etched characters. I love the fact that the author chooses to have her readers witness to Keira's inner monologue, as she makes observations of the various family dynamics of her father-in-law's extended family, seeking to uncover answers to the mysteries of the past and present.

With a few plot twists and danger lurking, readers will be enthralled by this newest addition to the series.

****I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author/publisher and Netgalley. I was not required to write a review. All opinions expressed are my own.

The twelfth book in the Lady Darby mystery series takes place in 1832. Keira, Sebastian, and their six-month-old daughter are staying with Sebastian's father as he recovers from almost being killed. Things are finally going well with her father-in-law who has finally accepted her. And he is besotted with his granddaughter.

Then a letter arrives from Lord Gage's estranged family. He learns that his uncle has died in a suspicious manner and his aunt wants them all to come and investigate. Lord Gage left almost fifty years earlier when his choice was to be tried for smuggling or join the Navy. He had a successful Navy career, but he never forgot the betrayal he felt at being sent away.

Keira and Gage manage to convince him to got to his relatives in Cornwall because they are curious. However, the quickly learn that the bad feelings haven't gone away in fifty years and that everyone is lying to them about one thing or another.

Besides the smuggling which the family has not abandoned, there is also the question of some hidden treasure that the family wants found and believes that Lord Gage can locate.

This was an entertaining story with lots of twists and turns and lots of interesting characters.

I’ve been eager for this one if only to see more of a less-querulous Lord Gage. A good edition to the series with all the historical touches we expect from this author.

There were many characters and family relationships to keep track of in this one. Lots of repeated phrases too. Enough to make me remark on them to myself as I read. Brace of candles. Blue-black hair. Emma is sweet. This is still great for fans the series, but I don’t know if the it would bring in a new readers. Since I’m a fan of the mysteries and Kiera and Gage, I’ll be eagerly back for the next book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Pub for this earc

Another addition to the Lady Darby series. This one was full of mystery, family drama and betrayal. I definitely enjoyed it more than the previous one. The mystery was twisted and kept you guessing which is always fun. And I really enjoyed how the ending was all “heart and flowers”. Definitely ended true to the story.

It was a little had to keep track of all the family members of both sides but as long as you know the main players, you should be fine.