Now this one was a fresh, interesting idea. Anna Lee Huber’s Lady Darby Mystery Series continues with A Wicked Conceit and I’m glad reading the blurb on the back did just enough to entice me – there has been one too many times when I’ve read a big plot point that should’ve stayed off the back cover.

Here we have our sleuthing duo Kiera and Sebastian sharing a begrudging sentiment with their gang leader associate Bonnie Brock Kincaid and it does nothing for the Gage’s image whatsoever. Bonnie Brock on the other hand gets the opposite attention – the whole city seems to be hearing all about his tragic upbringing and his trials in the slum of Edinburgh thanks to an book being published detailing it all. Then the theatres and playhouses make their own adaptions of the text and there’s no halting the masses.

This plot has a better balance of main plot and supplementary sub plot threads weaving through the story than some of her other works. We also have the tension points across multiple areas of Kiera’s life – her family, the investigations, her pending pregnancy, the general opinion on her and the rumours surged up by this story as to her relationship with Bonnie Brock. I do wish there was a little more going on with the cholera details than there currently is. It’s a very serious, very relevant detail that’s been around for a few books now given the time period but there isn’t really any serious importance and repercussions of it yet. I’m hoping by saying yet we get some more plot points directly involving the cholera outbreak and a few moral dilemmas crop up.

One thing that irked me about this one was the relationship between Alana and Kiera. I don’t have sisters – let me say that outright to give my personal context – so I don’t know if sisters would act in this way given the circumstances. It just came across as selfish to me. Kiera cannot stop or can she really mitigate the rumours and opinions of others regarding her and her past. People will think and act how they see fit. Alana constantly pressuring Kiera to conform to norms she’s never fit into, subsequently blaming her for how people view her and the family by extension, came across really self-centred in my opinion. Maybe that was a the goal, and if that’s the case well done. It just seems wrong for Alana to be so controlling over Kiera’s choices and her daily life during the last stages of her pregnancy – is this some projection in regards to Alana’s diminishing health during her confinement? Does she expect Kiera to do the same even though there’s no reason for her to?

And last but not least, we have the lil bub. The squishy angel. The third Gage. It’s about time. I don’t know if there could’ve been another book where Kiera is still pregnant so I’m glad the balance has been met with this one. Excited to see how having a baby changes the order of events in their investigations and their personal standings when involved in such sleuthing.