In 1918, Verity’s father asks her and her husband, Sidney, to check on his sister. She’s been complaining about the condition of the family estate, Littlemote House. She claims it’s in shambles, and that valuable artworks have been appraised as forgeries. 

Verity and Sidney don’t worry too much about her aunt’s complaints. The house isn’t as important to them as the fact that a maid is missing, and the other maids surmise she ran off with someone from the nearby airfield. Then, the man who tends the gardens is found dead, and his wife is accused of his murder. While the disappearance and death concern the couple, they’re more worried about Lord Ardmore, whom they suspect is a traitor.

Verity and Sidney were both involved in espionage during the war. Now, they gather allies to work on clues the deceased Lord Ryde left about Ardmore’s treachery. They’re followed and threatened. They don’t know whom to trust. Who is the enemy, and who is a friend?

A Pretty Deceit is a complex mystery with connections to Littlemote and to Verity’s actions a year earlier. Verity and Sidney are playing a dangerous game with repercussions for friends and the country. The ongoing storyline involving Lord Ardmore will intrigue series readers while confusing people who haven’t read the previous books. Readers who enjoy the historical post-World War I mysteries of Jacqueline Winspear and Charles Todd might want to try this series. Like the other books, it deals with the psychological and social issues affecting the British after the war.

Anna Lee Huber’s website is www.annaleehuber.com

A Pretty Deceit by Anna Lee Huber. Kensington, 2020. ISBN 9781496728470 (paperback), 384p.

*****

FTC Full Disclosure – I received a .pdf to review for a journal.