Title: An Invitation To Murder
Series: Lady Katherine Regency Matchmaker, Book #1
Author: Leighann Dobbs
My Rating: ★★★★☆
Synopsis:
Lady Katherine only has one week to catch the Pink Ribbon Killer. Not only to stop the killing but also to prove her skills at detection to her father and win her dowry and independence. There’s only one catch—she has to take one last matchmaking job to do it. Never mind that the match is impossible, all the better because if she fails, then no one will seek her services again. The job provides the perfect cover especially when her peculiar investigatory techniques are mistaken for unconventional matchmaking attempts. Things would go a lot smoother if she weren’t knee-deep in suspects and thwarted at every turn by a rival matchmaker. But when the killer strikes again, Katherine’s investigation leads down a dangerous path. Too late, she discovers that she has a lot more to lose than her dowry… (via Goodreads).
My Thoughts:
This is the first cozy mystery book I have read that didn’t take place in modern times, and I loved it! Katherine, the heroine, captured my heart from the start, with her determination to gain her independence and ferocious refusal to conform to societal rules, yet work within them to achieve her goals. The story takes place in the Victorian Era, a time when young women of the upper class were expected to reach for no higher goals than a favorable marriage. In contrast, Katherine is determined to make her way as an investigator, like her father, despite the stigma that carries.
As we follow Katherine throughout her investigation, we not only experience her determination but also her intelligence and forward thinking. The introduction of investigative technologies through her investigator friend, Lyle, gives us the feeling of what it must have been like at the dawn of criminal science. As a science major and buff, I truly enjoyed this area of the storyline. While the sub-plot, the matchmaking challenge Katherine faced, was predictable, the umbrella mystery of the Pink Ribbon Killer was captivating and intriguing.
Not to toot my own horn, but with many cozy mystery books, I often figure out who the perpetrator is long before the story reveals it. However, in An Invitation To Murder, while I had my suspects like Katherine did, I truly did not know who it was until they ultimately, and dangerously, revealed themselves to our investigator. For the life of me, I can’t remember how I came across this book for it to end up on my reading list, but so glad that it did.
This is the first book by Leighann Dobbs in the Lady Katherine Regency Matchmaker series, and I have already purchased the second book: The Baffling Burglaries of Bath. This will be one series that I will definitely follow closely.
Thanks for taking the time to read my review; if you like you can follow my reading activity on Goodreads here.
Featured image created with help from Freepik.
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