This book was rather “meh”. It deals with a difficult topic- the sexual exploitation of young girls, but the blurb leads the reader to believe that there is more to the story. Spoiler: there’s not. If I had gone into reading this knowing that, I would have had a different mindset. Instead I was hopeful of reading a relatively lighthearted Victorian mystery and that my friend, is not what this book is. ( )

A group of ladies in Regency England have decided to gather together and stop the abuse of young women by upper class "gentlemen" for their entertainment. Miss Emmeline St. Germaine, masked and hooded enters the house of Sir Henry Claybourne and catches him just as he is about to rape the scullery maid. Holding a knife to his throat, he makes him release the girl and together they escape. However, Sir Henry is found dead, knifed to death, the next morning, and all of London wants the killer, the masked woman, found and charged. Emmeline is forced to solve the murder, undercover, and what she finds is terribly disturbing.

This book dragged, too much repetition in conversations and descriptions. Hopefully, the next in the series is better. ( )

"[An] outstanding series launch. ... Hamilton expertly balances the page-turning detection with the story of a hypocritical society where women, whether they are scullery maids or orphans, rarely get to make their own decisions."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Scandal and slayings among Regency London's elite
The shocking murder of Sir Henry Claybourne leaves Regency London shaken and horror-struck. But for genteel spinster Miss Emmeline St. Germaine, the crime slices far too close to home. Just hours before the knight's death she held a dagger to him, threatening him to stay silent as she rescued a scullery maid he had procured for his pleasure.
Did the man—or woman—who murdered the knight know of her visit? Her secret identity at risk, her reputation and life in jeopardy, Emmeline must solve the crime or face scandalous exposure and ruination, or worse—the hangman's noose—for a crime she did not commit.
"Hamilton's novel will...

class-consciousness, murder, murder-investigation, amateur-sleuth, England, downtrodden, secrets, lies, women-s-rights, scandal, first-in-series, rescue, resilience, false-information, falsely accused, false-identities, friendship, drama, sensation-press, social-injustice****

Emmeline is the most daring of a group of ladies who work together to rescue young girls who work in homes where the wealthy man of the house puts them at risk. She also is the one with the poorest leash on her tongue. The publisher's blurb is a good intro, so no need to recap or do the spoiler thing. Looking forward to the next in series to see further development of the characters. A good start!
I requested and received a free e-book copy from Beyond the Page Publishing via NetGalley. Thank you ( )

Nope, not for me. I should have known, since I've read Hamilton's work before and it left me feeling very dissatisfied, but I thought 'hey, a different publisher might make a difference'.

Hey!, no, it didn't.

Up until now I kept coming back because at the heart of each of her books is a good mystery, and that's true here too, but there's always been something self-righteous about her characters that I could never warm to. In A Gentlewoman's Guide to Murder the gloves came off, and the author let loose the dogs of evangelical self-righteous war.

This is an Edwardian feminist rant thinly veiled in a very good murder mystery. Now, I do not for a minute think that Edwardian women had it anything but awful; they were for all intents and purposes, coddled slaves. Neither am I anything but supportive of strong, independent women protecting their rights to be strong, independent women. But I am violently opposed to all forms of evangelism: social, political and spiritual. I refuse to tolerate heavy-handed preaching and ranting, and, dare I say it, harping, in real life and real life is too short to put up with it in my books.

But - for those that enjoy a dedicated, passionate, laser-focused character who verges on bitter because, seriously, her life sucked in spite of wealth and privilege, this book is not bad. As I said before, it's well plotted and meticulously researched, and the story revolves around a particularly vile, dark, confronting crime (trigger for pedophilia). It probably could have used a stronger edit, but since I didn't like the book, I'm not sure I'm objective.

Also, fair warning: this was obviously meant to be the start of a series, as it ends with a cliff-hanger/lead in to another plot line, but Midnight Ink is being shut down in a few months - if not weeks - so readers who do like the story might be left hanging. As I have no intention of reading any further, I'm not surprisingly ok with never knowing about what happens at the asylum. ( )