I like this original cover much better than the most recent one.
After Lady Anne's adventures in Cornwall with The Revenge of the Barbary Ghost, she returns to her home in Kent.
So...a gypsy curse, some unexplained illnesses, a blast from the past (and we thought he was dead), a mistaken identity, the arrival of Lord Darkefell (of course), and a resolution to this series of three Lady Anne books.
Light reading and enjoyable, but maybe the first one in the series is the best.
NetGalley/Beyond the Page Publishing
Historical Mystery. 1st ed. 2009; 2019. Print length: 363 pages.
Brighton is once again a hotbed of spiritual and psychic chicanery in The Royal Ghost. Tiny Mina Scarletti, twisted by scoliosis, once again takes up the banner of rational thought and investigates a pamphlet in which two sisters claim to have seen the ghost of King George IV. Actually, not the fat and unpopular king, but the man he was when he was the young and attractive Prince Regent.
The two pseudonymous sisters say they witnessed the prince and his mistress in flagrante--and the details are such that the women of Brighton are surreptitiously buying and reading the scandalous pamphlet! Ahh, the titillation of the Victorian era.
Mina finds herself in an awkward situation when a famous person tries to convince her to retract her earlier statements about the medium Miss Eustace and to accept that the pamphlet by the two sisters is genuine. When she refuses, she is threatened with blackmail.
While I find it difficult to imagine intelligent people being so determined to believe in mediums and psychic phenomena, spiritualism was surprisingly accepted from the 1840's through the 1920's, and Linda Stratmann has certainly done her research--including documentation of events and real people in her historical notes.
Historical Mystery. 2017. Print length: 350 pages.
I don't mind a cover change but absolutely hate it when they change the title, too. There were a few times I ended up buying the same book with a different cover & title, thinking it's a new book. :( Anyway, these two books sound like an intriguing read.
ReplyDeleteI know--there are already enough similar titles to keep in mind. Changing the author is from her real name to a pseudonym is also confusing.
DeleteSame here, Melody, because I have a hard enough time remembering exactly which titles in a long series I've actually read and which ones I've only considered buying. That's a real problem for an older series of 10-20 books that I come to late in the cycle. But changing both the cover and the author's pen name would really throw me for a loop.
ReplyDeleteI try to find the order of books in a series, but when the author is prolific, it does get confusing!
DeleteLove that quote! And both of these books sound like fun. (Of course, I have to read the previous books first.) Have a great weekend! :)
ReplyDeleteIsn't that quote funny? I wish there were more of those tongue-in-cheek descriptions!
DeleteHey, with Flat Earthers and the like in this century, I have no trouble swallowing what people believed in the Victorian Era.
ReplyDeleteThe Lady Anne series sounds like fun, even if the second and third don't quite measure up. It is nice to have those kinds of books available when you need them. :D
You are right! What was I thinking questioning the strange beliefs of Victorians when there are flat earthers and science deniers today. Lily Dale, NY and Cassadega, FL are towns devoted to spiritualists and mediums and still flourishing! (Actually, I wouldn't mind visiting either one :D)
DeleteI am always so intrigued by how popular seances and spiritualism was back then. These two series sound light but a lot of fun, plus the historical setting is a big plus!
ReplyDelete