No Stone Unturned by Pam Lecky

England, 1886. In the flickering gaslights of Victorian London, 28-year-old Lucy Lawrence's future hangs in the balance. Her husband's murder has left her reputation in tatters, and the theft of her mother's priceless heirloom pearls has only added to her woes. But when the handsome investigator Phineas Stone enters her life, Lucy finds herself drawn into a web of deceit that leads right back to her marriage and a deadly conspiracy that could undo them all.
Really enjoyed this , the author really manages to capture the era and the twist and turns keep you guessing. Great characters.

This book was AMAZING, great storyline that kept me guessing the whole book! The characters were well done and entertaining. I can’t wait to read the next book!!! I would highly recommend this book to everyone!

I found this an absolute delight. It was a historical mystery that had all the things I loved. The characters were well developed and the story engaging with good twists and turns. Lucy, the main character was a steady, strong female that I enjoyed reading about. I think in real life we would have been fast friends.
The author wrote an engaging book that was very satisfying indeed. I highly recommend this one.
Thanks Storm Publishing via NetGalley.

No Stone Unturned is the start of a promising new series. Set in the 1880s, Lucy finds out that her now dead husband was up to no good, as was the rest of her family. Lucy is a feisty character, and the supporting cast of Mary, Phinneas and Gordon make for entertaining reading. I liked the twist in the middle that saved the book from being a little predictable, and the ultimate ending. I am looking forward to reading the next book to see what happens next to this cast of characters. Thanks to NetGalley and Storm Publishing for an advance copy to freely review.

A cracking read. This book has plot and pace and such good characters - and character names. Who couldn’t love a book with a character called Coffin Mike! Lucy is full of sass and bravery and faces up to each new challenge with courage and her head held high. She is incredibly enduring and the book moves on at a fair clip reminiscent of her speed and wit. There is a good bit of intrigue and betrayal and the nasty characters are very much living up to the evil positions that there are in,
There is a little bit of the Agatha Christie about the book, with well rounded characters, perhaps an undercurrent of romance and a clever plot that leaves you guessing,

Our plucky heroine, Lucy, discovers that her husband has been involved in some less than above-board financial schemes. Unfortunately, he’s now dead and she can’t get any answers, other than she’s flat broke. Mysterious men, including investigator Phineas Stone, keep asking her for answers. Once Lucy and Phineas start communicating well, she realizes it’s a race against time to find the hidden goods her husband left behind.

“No Stone Unturned” is a quick and enjoyable read that keeps you guessing as well as wondering who will betray Lucy next. I enjoyed Lucy’s positive attitude in the face of personal tragedy; she wasn’t Pollyanna-ish, but kept moving forward. She is a delight. This is the first book in a series.

This story is great for readers who enjoy historical mysteries and slow burn romances.

I received an advance review copy for free from NetGalley and Storm Publishing, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This was really good!!! I loved the plot as well as the intrepid ladies "leading" the investigation! Very pleasant to read, with much action, misunderstandings, intrigue and a touch of romance, the author has created a brilliant team! The first of the series, and I will definitely read the next books! Warmly recommended!
I received a digital copy of this novel from NetGalley and I am leaving voluntarily an honest review.

The constant suspense. Drama. Scandals. This book had me turning pages at record speed!

In the first 2 chapters, I was HOOKED.

The pacing is absolutely perfect. Perfect for someone like me who will lose interest and DNF faster than you can say "Dee Enn Eff" if a book starts going into long boring background stories or descriptions that drag on for chapters. This book does not do that! Something was happening on every page. Probably a huge reason why I was hooked the entire book.

I honestly felt so bad for Lucy. As a woman of the time, she was completely clueless about all the scandals happening behind the scenes with basically everyone of power in her life. The men in her life were just awful. Her wretched mother can go somewhere too. Ugh.

The story is set in London and surrounding areas in the 1800s. As an American living in the 21st century, I found myself long-pressing unknown words constantly throughout the ebook. The words could have easily been figured out by context, but I was curious of the exact definitions. Thank you Kindle Dictionary for letting me be lazy by not having to pull out an actual dictionary!

I'm excited to jump into book 2 of this series.

I highly recommend for clean mystery lovers!

Thank you NetGalley, Publisher, and Author for sharing this advanced copy.

It’s 1886, and romance and intrigue are alive and well in Victorian London. When Lucy Lawrence’s husband is murdered, her life is suddenly shattered. She is suddenly faced with the economic consequences of her husband’s questionable business dealings, threatening to leave her in financial straits. She becomes an immediate suspect when her mother’s priceless heirloom pearls are stolen. Investigator Phineas Stone comes to her rescue and stands by her innocence, but she is still the leading suspect.
In Lucy’s desperate efforts to prove her innocence, she soon becomes the target of the group involved in the murder of her husband, and she must race against time to identify the killer and save her own life.
Prepare for a gripping read that will keep you on the edge of your seat, filled with unexpected twists, deceptive red herrings, and a tantalizing hint of romance.

I have a thing for historical mysteries with sleuthing couples. Add in a slow-burn romantic subplot and I am hooked. Because of Pam Lecky's No Stone Unturned, I'm adding Lucy Lawrence to my list of favorite lady detectives...and she's not really a detective yet!

When the story opens, Lucy has just found out that her late husband was part of an investment scam that promised returns on a sapphire mine in Kashmir. He stole some gems from a maharaja and was involved with organized crime. The crime boss thinks Lucy knows where the sapphires are and is threatening her, so she decides to spend the holidays at her family's Yorkshire estate. She's been estranged from her family since eloping ten years prior, but they welcome her back. When Lucy's mother's prized pearls go missing after Christmas dinner, Lucy is accused of the crime, but bailed out by Phineas Stone.

Phineas Stone is the third son who went into law, but found his way into investigative work for an insurance company. He is tracking the stolen gems for said company and thinks Lucy will lead him to them. They team up, but are still wary of each other despite their great chemistry. Lucy winds up sleuthing separately with the help of an old friend and her maid, Mary, which is a nice change from the typical "sleuthing couples" stories. Phineas is playing catch up for part of this story! It's great fun to see a fierce woman in the lead and staying in the lead here.

Though significant time has to be spent on establishing the back stories for the characters, this story feels fast paced and never delves into info dumping. I devoured it in less then a day because the story has some great twists and didn't follow a typical formula. I'll clearly be diving right into the second book to see what's next for Lucy.

Wonderful, a great Victorian era mystery. Lucy's husband is killed in an accident but all is not what it seems. At the mortuary she meets Phineas Stone, an insurance investigator, for the first time. He seems to have an undue interest in her husband's affairs, but she doesn't find out why for some time. At a loss after her husband's death, Lucy returns to the family estate from where she was exiled when she eloped 10 years before. While there, her situation takes a nosedive when her mother's pearls go missing. Phineas comes to her rescue and also explains why he was interested in her husband. After some hair raising encounters, she starts to follow her husband's trail for the days before he died. Can she solve the mystery before her life is forfeit? An intriguing mystery. Lucy's maid, Mary, is such a fun character and Phineas never quite reveals his inner thoughts. Lucy is a strong, likeable character, no 'simpering miss' attitude for her. This is a fast paced, easy read and I really enjoyed it. I'm off to continue Lucy's adventures with book 2!
Thanks to Netgalley, Storm Publishing and Pam Lecky for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

An enchanting story set in Victorian times when well to do families feared scandal above all else. Reputation was everything and young ladies were expected to behave appropriately and marry the right sort, preferably to benefit the family. Their lives were governed by their father and then after marriage by their husband. It is against this backdrop that Lucy finds herself widowed and impoverished with little help available except from a family that had previously shunned her. The ensuing tale is one of deceit and deception, with many twists and turns, but Lucy is not one to shy away from danger! With the addition of Mr Stone the story is a satisfying mix of a who done it by the likes of Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes. A really enjoyable read.

England, 1886. In the flickering gaslights of Victorian London, 28-year-old Lucy Lawrence's future hangs in the balance. Her husband's murder has left her reputation in tatters, and the theft of her mother's priceless heirloom pearls has only added to her woes. But when the handsome investigator Phineas Stone enters her life, Lucy finds herself drawn into a web of deceit that leads right back to her marriage and a deadly conspiracy that could undo them all.

I was intrigued by the blurb on this story so took the chance to get all three books in this series. I'm very glad that I did, this promises to be a great adventure featuring our intrepid heroine Lucy, her maid Mary and the shadowy Phineas Stone. In this book Lucy is thrust into a nightmare, her husband is dead and there are people trying to get information from her which she doesn't have! I haven't read any of Pamela Leckys books before, she writes well and conveys the tense atmosphere around Lucy and her antagonists so well. I loved this book. I am about to dive into the second of these and anticipate more excitement and danger for Lucy. Many thanks to the publishers for an ARC of No Stone Unturned.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Storm Publishing for the ARC of No Stone Unturned by Pam Lecky.

This book was a delightful surprise! In a way, it reminded me of Deanna Raybourn or Andrea Penrose, but with less of a hard eye focus on Victorian terminology/turns of phrase/maybe some historical inaccuracy (not in a bad way, just felt more modernized with use of words like "didn't").

We meet Lucy Lawrence, our heroine, as she identifies the body of her husband under very curious circumstances. Her marriage had been falling apart for quite a time, but his death catapults her into a world of danger and intrigue as his previously unknown financial misadventures/crimes fall on her head. Trying to escape the potential danger, Lucy returns to her family home which disowned her a decade earlier when she chose to marry her husband. It briefly seems like this will be the safest place for her, until the family pearls, a priceless heirloom, go missing and she is arrested as the prime suspect. From there the story snowballs as Lucy is caught in a world where no one can be trusted, except maybe insurance investigator Phineas Stone, who seems to be the only one who believes her and protects her.

This story had great pacing, a lot of intrigue, and a nice slow burn romance brewing. It was also nice that this doesn't all take place over a weekend -- the story spans several months, though Lecky jumps us through time instead of sitting in lulls. Lucy is vibrant and plucky, even as she is continuously blindsided by people she thought she knew - it was nice to see she had a backbone, when it would be entirely understandable if she didn't.

Phineas is also an interesting character -- I do think parts of their relationship moved quicker without my understanding of them - Lucy is basically in a constant state of trauma so I don't know how some of these love vibes while mourning / being terrorized really fell together as something genuine instead of as pure emotional response // if Phineas should have been flirting with her while also telling her horrific news every time they talked - I'm interesting to see how that develops in the next book.

Thank you so much to NetGalley Storm Publishing and Pam Lecky for providing me with a complimentary digital ARC for No Stone Unturned coming out July 25, 2024. The honest opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I was definitely excited to receive this book! I also received book two and book three. I’m obsessed with dark Victorian murder history, so this book was giving all the gaslighting Jack the Ripper vibes. The action and shock starts straightaway with Lucy’s husband murdered and her discovering the body. I loved it! It was dark and fascinating. I think Lucy was a strong and intelligent character who got stuff done. Definitely excited to check out the second book next.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys dark Victorian vibes!