Susan's Review of A Lady's Guide to Mischief and Mayhem by Manda Collins

An intrepid female reporter matches wits with a serious, sexy detective in award-winning author Manda Collins' fun and flirty historical rom-com!

England, 1865 : As one of England's most notorious newspaper columnists, Lady Katherine Bascomb believes knowledge is power. And she's determined to inform and educate the ladies of London on the nefarious-and deadly-criminals who are praying on the fairer sex. When her reporting leads to the arrest of a notorious killer, however, Katherine flees to a country house party to escape her newfound notoriety-only to witness a murder on her very first night. And when the lead detective accuses Katherine of inflaming-rather than informing-the public with her column, she vows to prove him wrong.

Detective Inspector Andrew Eversham's refusal to compromise his investigations nearly cost him his own career, and he blames Katherine. To avoid bad publicity, his superiors are pressuring him to solve cases quickly rather than correctly. When he discovers she's the key witness in a new crime, he's determined to prevent the beautiful widow from once again wreaking havoc on his case. Yet as Katherine proves surprisingly insightful and Andrew impresses Katherine with his lethal competency, both are forced to admit the fire between them is more flirtatious than furious. But to explore the passion between them, they'll need to catch a killer. 

The connection between strong willed newspaper owner and columnist Lady Katherine and the serious, determined detective Andrew Eversham drew me into A Lady’s Guide to Mischief and Mayhem immediately. Katherine authored an article about the “Commandments Killer” citing new information. This article contained an interview with a witness that the police overlooked. The newpaper article ruined the lead detective, Andrew Eversham's career. Andrew and Katherine meet at a crowded assembly announcing that the Commandments Killer had been caught. Andrew rescues her from the crush and sees her to safety.

I adored this delightful whodunit which takes place at a house party at a country estate. The storyline reminded me of Clue, one of my favorite board games. The cast of characters was fabulous! The guest list includes an American businessman and his daughter, an ex-prize fighter, the Earl and Countess of Eggleston and Reeve Thompson. Lots of different personalities that added to my enjoyment of the novel.

Andrew and Katherine are reunited when a murder occurs at the house party. Loved the initial conflict between these two characters and how their relationship changed as they learned to work together to solve the murders. The attraction between Andrew and Katherine intensified with every murder and the author crafted fabulous dialogue for them—witty, serious and passionate.

The focus of the storyline was solving the mystery— which appealed to me. Enjoyed that the author added in several red herring clues which added intrigue and a sense of uneasiness to the novel. I loved trying to figure out the killer’s identity and when he or she might strike again.

A Lady's Guide to Mischief and Mayhem is well written, the romance between Andrew and Katherine is engaging and the unmasking of the killer totally surprised me!

Well done Manda Collins--I fell for one of the red herring clues and believed another character was the murderer!

Reviewed by Susan Gorman

ARC provided by the Publisher