A Purely Private Matter by Darcie Wilde

A Purely Private Matter by Darcie Wilde ISBN-13: 9780425282380 Trade Paperback: 368 pages Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime Released: May 2, 2017

Source: Review copy from the publisher.

Book Description, Modified from Back Cover:
Rosalind Thorne has slowly but assuredly gained a reputation as “a useful woman”—by helping respectable women out of some less-than-respectable predicaments.

Her latest endeavor involves Margaretta Seymore, who is with child. Her husband is receiving poisoned pen letters that imply that her condition is the result of an affair with the notorious actor Fletcher Cavendish. Margaretta asks Rosalind to find out who is behind the scurrilous letters. But before she can make any progress, Cavendish is found dead, stabbed through the heart.

Suddenly, Rosalind is plunged into the middle of one of the most sensational murder trials London has ever seen, and her client’s husband is the prime suspect. With the help of the charming Bow Street runner Adam Harkness, she must drop the curtain on this fatal drama before any more lives are ruined.


My Review:
A Purely Private Matter is a mystery set in 1817 in London, England. This is the second book in the series. You don't need to read the previous book to understand this one, and this one didn't spoil the previous mystery.

This was a clue-based puzzle mystery. Rosalind and Harkness carefully asked questions and collected information in their different ways. Rosalind was clever, but the mystery was complex and twisty. I was pretty certain of whodunit shortly after we met the character and only became more convinced as the case progressed. It turns out I wasn't quite correct, though whodunit is technically guessable and actually had a better motive than my guess.

The characters were interesting and complex. Though the romantic triangle was still there (the duke or the Bow Street runner?), the focus was on the mystery and on finding Rosalind's sister. I started rooting for the Duke, though, partly because people wouldn't be able to threaten to ruin Rosalind's reputation (and thus manipulate her) so easily. The historical details were woven into the story as part of the case, and the author clearly put research time into getting those details correct.

There was no sex. There was a minor amount of bad language. Overall, I'd recommend this interesting mystery.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


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