I enjoyed this tale, but that is because I am thoroughly familiar with this author’s other series, Beatrice Hyde-Clare Mysteries. As a matter of fact, the way I discovered this sister series is by reading the latest BHC mystery and seeing the blurb for this book. I love that there is a sister series – and that they are inter-related. It will be interesting to watch them unfold. If you have read none of the BHC books, this first book in the new series will probably leave you a bit befuddled. So, to help a little bit …

Beatrice Hyde-Clare is the six-season spinster who up and married the most eligible ton bachelor, Damien Matlock, the Duke of Kesgrave. The little Duchess of Kesgrave keeps solving murders – with her besotted husband's full help and cooperation. This makes great fodder for the renowned gossip columnist Mr. Twaddle-Thum who likes to refer to the duchess as Her Outrageousness. Twaddle-Thum takes great delight in featuring the duchess and her exploits in his newspaper column. Verity Lark, the lead in this series IS Mr. Twaddle-Thum, and several other aliases used in her reporting and information gathering. Verity is also the illegitimate half-sister to the Duke of Kesgrave. While Verity knows who Kesgrave is, he has no idea he has a half-sister.

For me, the mystery got a bit lost in all of the BHC references, but if you parse out all of that, it was a pretty solid mystery and I enjoyed watching Verity work her way to the solution. I also enjoyed the introduction of Lord Colson Hardwicke who I definitely hope will work out to be Verity’s version of Kesgrave. Hardwicke seems to challenge Verity in ways nobody else does – and her reactions to him are interesting. I always have to have a romance in my mysteries and I’m looking forward to seeing theirs develop.

There was a lot of series set-up in this first book and that is another reason I feel the mystery was a tad lost in it all. The establishment of Verity’s background, her friends and their backgrounds, and the many disguises used by Verity in order to further her reporting and information gathering takes up a great deal of page space – but it is needed to firmly establish the setting going forward. Verity is a fun, interesting, and complex character who I am sure I’ll enjoy getting to know. It will be fun to see when/if she and Kesgrave actually meet and how that goes. Will they have a relationship or will they just each go their own way?

For me personally, this book was a definite 4-star rating. However, for someone who is unfamiliar with the Beatrice Hyde-Clare series, I’d guess it would come in at somewhere around the 2.5 to 3-star mark. I think this was a necessary book to set up the series and get everything started – and I think the next book will be a bit more of the same, but after that, I’m hoping that it will find its legs and stand on its own because I really do like the characters and the idea behind the series. So, maybe we’ll have BHC and Verity related enough to mention, but not constantly as in this book. I do hope Kesgrave and Verity come to a friendship and we’ll see them mentioned in each other’s series, but not be the main focus of the series. It will be interesting to see how the author handles the relationship beyond the second book (where, yes, Kesgrave and Verity meet).

I can recommend this book because it is filled with attractive, intelligent, very likable characters – but – you really need to be familiar with the BHC Mysteries series OR you need to be willing to parse through all of that and figure out where it all fits. Good luck and happy reading. ( )

Enjoyed the introduction of a new member of the Beatrice Hyde-Clare universe in this new-series debut "A Lark's Tale," but got bogged down in the minutiae of too many villains and too many machinations.
This book will be best appreciated by those already familiar with the Beatrice Hyde-Clare books by the same author, as Verity Lark is the unacknowledged half-sister to the Duke of Kesgrave. Growing up in vastly different circumstances, Verity lives by means of her wits as the undercover gossip columnist who is everywhere and nowhere, "Mr. Twaddle-Thum." But when she realizes that someone is masquerading as her/him, and that her own life is in danger, a nefarious plot starts to unravel, and she is determined to see it through to its conclusion.
I enjoyed Verity as a character, as well as her long-suffering friends Freddie and Delphine. I also enjoyed the way she investigates the Kesgraves' investigations--it's a sort of outsider's view of their cases from the last few books. And I enjoyed her interactions with Mr. X, who starts out by forestalling her attempt to rescue a damsel in distress, and then challenges her at every turn with his inside information.
What didn't I enjoy? The plot that Verity stumbles on, mostly in the latter half of the book, is too full of people and names and layers and higher-ups and lackeys, and I just stopped keeping track after a while and skimmed.
The characterizations were fun as always, but I could wish for somewhat less complicated intrigue--or at least, with fewer names to keep track of.

Thanks to NetGalley and The Book Whisperer for this digital review copy! ( )

Persevere! Amusing and humorous!!

So I enjoyed Messina’s cosy Regency style mysteries, the Beatrice Hyde-Clare series.
Lark’s Tale however is something else. At first I felt confounded by it. I couldn’t get a handle on the story. It was as slippery as an eel, much like Mr Twaddle-Thum. It did my head in.
Verity Lark is a gossip columnist, a chameleon. Nobody knows who she is. She’s a master of disguise, so much so, even she forgets who she is. I certainly did.
I think this is the first book I’ve read in a long time where I’ve had to take notes
Verity btw is the Duke of Kesgrave half sister by the courtesan La Reina (and that complex!) That’s not an alter ego, that’s fact.
Let’s look for instance at some of Verity’s disguises, or maybe I should say Verity’s alter egos.
*Mr Twaddle-Thum the gossip columnist ( most important)
*Robert Lark another reporter, with a house and housekeeper—Verity herself. Writes occasional serious columns
*Mr Quales an opportunistic landlord
*The turnip rustic
*Dudley Tiffin, scion of the H. Tiffin and Son dynasty: Official Bug Destroyers to His Majesty and the Royal Family.
George Hogarth, goldsmith
Archie Jones, excessively fond of onions
Old Turnip
Phantom
You can see my confusion!
Beatrice Hyde-Clare married the Duke of Kesgrave much to some members of the ton’s horror. Those who spread gossip about them were ejected from Almack's. Verity called one The Almack pariah. Kesgrave had his pound of flesh.
Madelyn Norton was one of those wretches. “One moment her crisp little [entrée] card was tucked firmly in her grasp, the next it was cruelly torn from her fingers.” Banished, she’s determined to make her way back into the fold. That’s why she conceived of the idea of becoming Mr Twaddle-Thum and much to Verity’s disgust broadcast her lies high and wide. So Verity, unknown to her, is now a target.
Cut back to the opening scene in Madelyn’s bedroom and it seems there are three people in her bedroom that night, (unknown to her) with guns. Needless to say after this Madelyn repairs to the country.
Verity sees that the Duchess of Kesgrave is paying attention to a murder of a man at the Western Exchange emporium and yet the scene was reported as being attended by Constable Jones: the apprehension of Francis Altick for the murder of William Gorman and the attempted murder of Sebastian Holcroft. No mention of the duchess. Curious.
Even more curious is the involvement of Holcroft the Holy. (That had been one of Mr. Twaddle-Thum’s coinages.)
So we run from murder to mayhem, there’s also Lord Colson Hardwicke who seems to be one step (mostly) ahead of Verity. But wait! Is this the same degenerate drunk from another time? Hmm!
A wild gallop around London sleuthing and more, and I loved every minute! I’m looking forward to more of verity and more of the mysterious Hardwicke.

A BookWhisperer ARC via NetGalley.
Many thanks to the author and publisher.
Please note: Quotes taken from an advanced reading copy maybe subject to change
(Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.) ( )

Verity Lark is a gossip columnist for the London Daily Gazette. The appeal of Verity is not only her scintillating wit but the manner of her investigations for new material for her column. Verity uses a diverse array of female and male disguises to conduct investigations based on submissions from her network of spies that are well compensated for their reporting. She is adept at changing plans spontaneously during her fieldwork and her column is penned under the pseudonym of Mr. Twaddle-Thum.

I appreciate complexities in an investigation and can enjoy a large cast of characters. However, this large cast of characters was sometimes difficult to track as within the abundance of red herrings and twists the flow is interrupted by Verity’s dissection of her interrogations in the very midst of them. Her thoughtful analysis frequently lingered over multiple paragraphs. To this end, as Verity is thinking of the next steps I found it easy to drift from the dialogue due to the interruptions of analysis.

As I enjoyed the dynamics with Delphine and Freddie I’ll give a future mystery in the series another try.

My sincere thanks to Lynn Messina, and The Book Whisperer for my complimentary digital copy of this title, via NetGalley, in exchange for my honest review.

#ALarksTale #NetGalley ( )