Blurb: A lady with a secret

Kate Shackleton's sterling reputation for courageous sleuthing attracts the attention of the venerable Lady Coulton. Hidden in her past is a daughter, born out of wedlock and given up to a different family. Now, Lady Coulton is determined to find her and puts Kate on the case.

A mysterious killing in the library's basement

But as Kate delves deeper into Lady Coulton's past, she soon finds herself thrust into a scandal much closer to home. When the body of the respected Horatio Potter is found in the Leeds Library basement, the quiet literary community is suddenly turned upside down with suspicions, accusations and - much to Kate's surprise - the appearance of a particularly intelligent Capuchin monkey!

The most puzzling case in Kate's sleuthing history yet.

*First of all, I'd like to thank Clara at Little, Brown for sending me this book in exchange for an honest review and inviting me to take part in the Blog Tour.*

Review: This is the sixth Kate Shackleton Mistery book but it's only my first. As it's usual with crime series, it can perfectly be read as a stand-alone as I did. All I can say right now is why haven't I read the previous ones? Because I trully enjoyed this book. Kate Shackleton is a great character, clever and resolute, and not afraid of speaking her mind but conscious of the society she live on. She and her partner Sykes, a former policeman, are an interesting duo that works perfectly well together and they don't give up easily when it seem that all they find are dead ends.

My dad is a big fan of crime. He has a huge Sherlock Holmes collection and we used to spend hours reading the books together or watching Murder She Wrote or Columbo, so my love for crime comes from a long time ago. I hadn't read crime in a while though when I picked up The Cuckoo's Calling earlier this year and had such a great time reading it and trying to guess who the murder was that I decided to start reading more crime again. I am very glad that I did because Frances Brody has been a great addition to my crime favourites. She writes with such detail that you could actully picture yourself in that library in 1925 and smell the books. Plus, it's always interesting to read about the world before mobile phones or the Internet because nowadays the idea of publishing an ad on the newspaper and just wait for a written answer seems laughable but back then there was no other way. 

This story had some really unexpected twists that had me glued to its pages for hours. I had my suspitions about the murderer but had some suprises with some of the events surrounding the death of Dr. Potter, our avid reader. I really enjoyed reading about Percy, the monkey, and also how Kate's other case, the missing daughter, was linked to the murder. All in all I highly recommend this book for crime lovers, especially if you like old school misteries. I know for sure that I will be checking Frances Brody's previous books.

Rating: 4,5