As Wrexford and Charlotte prepare for their wedding, the pair is drawn another investigation when a death occurs at the first party they attend as an engaged couple. The botanist was about to announced a remarkable discovery, and the specimen is missing. It certainly doesn’t help that Hawk might have caught sight of the murderer. And as much as both Charlotte and Wrexford try to stay out the matter, they both keep being drawn back to it. But if they want to survive to their wedding, it will take all of their skills and talents to solve this mystery.
I have slightly mixed feelings about this book. It’s a good book. I just don’t think it’s as good as the earlier books in the series. There are a couple of things that make it feel a little weaker overall. It is a transition from the status quo of the earlier books in some ways, though until now the author has managed to do that a lot more seamlessly, though there are perhaps some more significant changes to the lives of the main characters. The mystery portion is great. I really enjoyed it, and it definitely helped tie the other subplots together. I also appreciated the fact that this time around both Wrexford and Charlotte, who aren’t personally connected in anyway to the murder, do their best to let the authorities handle things because they have plenty of other things on their plates.
And that was where this book didn’t seem to hold together quite as well as the previous ones. There is a lot going on besides the murder. Charlotte and Wrexford will be married within about a month, so they’re preparing for the wedding and for Charlotte and her wards to move in with Wrexford. Charlotte’s brother has also reached out wanting to meet, and she’s nervous about that. Charlotte is actually extremely worried about a lot of things, and her perpetual state of worry seems a little out of character. Some of things like meeting with her brother for the first time in years and the return of a accomplice from a previous murder who has threatened her wards are reasonable things to be worried about. However, her worries about that she won’t be the same person and won’t follow her morals by reentering society are recycled from the last book and significantly more annoying this time around. It also makes her act in ways that feel both unhelpful and out of character. Then there’s a old friend of hers and her dead husband’s from Italy who shows up and doesn’t seem to serve much purpose except to make Wrexford jealous. However, even though he is clearly jealous and it does cause a little tension between Charlotte and Wrexford, Wrexford never acts on that jealousy, and his suspicions on the man do make sense in context. There’s also an American navel captain involved skulking around the edges of things as well as a British smuggler who has an extremely dangerous reputation. It’s a lot over all, and it sometimes feels like far too much even if every one of these threads are tangentially connected to the murder mystery.
Once the action actually gets going with the mystery, things coalesce very well, and I was once again completely swept away by the story, but it took a lot longer for that to happen with this book than it did with the others. And up until that point, a number of the characters feel slightly off. I still really love this series, and there are a lot of great moments in this book. But it doesn’t seem quite as good as the earlier installments which is a bit of a disappointment. I’m hoping it’s just a momentary blip as this book does serve as a transition point. This is a not a bad book by any means, but it isn’t quite as good as the first four. I feel like I’ve been really negative about the book in this review, but it was a fun read and in no way a bad book. The end of the book is incredibly satisfying even if the journey to get there isn’t entirely. Four out of five stars.