Excellent start, Ms Drake, most excellent!
Independent reviewer for Archaeolibrarian, I was gifted my copy of this book.
When Samantha's brother, Edward, is killed while travelling to France, she is called away from her country home, back to the city and world she worked hard to stay away from. Benjamin was Edward's best friend, and was supposed to find Samantha a husband. He was not expecting his reaction to her, the little girl is all grown up and every possible husband is rejected by Benjamin. When Edward's disappearance turns out to be foul play, Samantha's life is in danger, and Benjamin is running out of time.
First up: CLIFF HANGER!!! We all have that love hate thing for cliff hangers and I did not see this one creeping up on me!! I was loving this book, really enjoying it and then THAT happened and I was not a happie chappie, not at all.
Second: First time author. And you really can't tell!! I only know this, because I went to look for future books in this series, and can't find any of them, nor any other books by this author! Excellent work, Ms Drake, very well done.
I did get who might be up to no good, very early on and I loved watching things become clearer. Love having at all laid out as much as I love being kept on my toes. But while we know WHOdunnit, we don't know the WHY they did it, not yet.
The book open with a murder ten years previous (we get that from the murderer's point of view, so loved that!) which turns out to be Edward and Samantha's father. Then there is Edward's disappearance, and some missing jewellery. It all comes together, or at least its BEGINNING to come together, then I ran out of bloody book!!
So, book two, Ms Drake?? When should we expect that, because I want to know what happens to Samantha and Benjamin but also what Benjamin's mother is up to, taking in that young lady, and whether what I see happening between that young lady and Thomas, Benjamin's twin, actually happens.
4.5 stars, but rounded down to 4 cos Goodreads/Amazon/the blog don't do half stars
