Murder in PostScript - Historical Mystery Review

Goodreads:  Murder in Poscript (A Lady of Letters Mystery) by Mary Winters

Rating: Liked It! (3.5 Stars)
Source:   Publisher

Description:  Amelia Amesbury--widow, mother, and countess--has a secret. Amelia writes for a London penny paper, doling out advice on fashion, relationships, and manners under the pen name Lady Agony. But when a lady's maid writes Amelia to ask for advice when she believes her mistress has been murdered--and then ends up a victim herself--Amelia is determined to solve the case.

With the help of her best friend and a handsome marquis, Amelia begins to piece together the puzzle, but as each new thread of inquiry ends with a different suspect, the investigation grows ever more daunting. From London's docks and ballrooms to grand country houses, Amelia tracks a killer, putting her reputation--and her life--on the line.

Genre: Mystery - Historical

Why I Picked This Book:  I love historical mysteries and this sounded like an interesting read!

My Impression:  This starts with an interesting premise.  Amelia was a country girl and daughter of an innkeeper when she was swept off her feet and married an earl.  And not just any earl - a very wealthy dying earl.  Within months of her wedding she finds herself a wealthy widow living in London and guardian of her late husband's orphaned niece.  Amelia is not used to a life of luxury and most of the household management is left to her husband's opinionated elderly Aunt Tabitha so Amelia ends up working as Lady Agony - answering anonymous questions that are sent in to her childhood friend's newspaper.   

Each chapter starts with a letter and the reply from Lady Agony which I very much enjoyed.  There is a lot of setup in this story which bogged down the writing a bit and slowed the pace.  This often happens with the first book in a series though and I'm hoping this gets better with upcoming books.  My other main issue with the book is that at times Amelia's actions drove me crazy.  Amelia is intelligent and loves her niece dearly.  She's also very aware of her responsibility as her niece's guardian.  However, she regularly seems to act impulsive to the point of lunacy such as the visit to the docks.to ask questions and her insistence of investigating with no real reason in the first place.

That said, the mystery kept me guessing until the last minute.  I loved Amelia's relationship with her niece and I love Aunt Tabitha.  I'm hoping she plays more of an active role in investigations in future books.  While this wasn't my favorite read of the month I did enjoy it overall and will be looking for the next book in this series.

Would I Read More of this Series/Author? I would.  I'm looking forward to seeing where this series goes.

Would I Recommend this Book?  I would though with the reservations I mention above.  This is a bit of a slower paced mystery with the setup and if you have no patience with impulsive heroines than this may not be the book for you.  But, overall, this is a fun read and an interesting start to a new series.

* I received this book in exchange for an honest review.  As always my opinions and impressions are completely my own. *