The cover makes this appear to be an ordinary historical mystery, but I can assure you there is nothing ordinary about Ava January’s The Mayfair Dagger. It’s the funniest historical mystery I’ve read. When the judge refers to the courtroom scene as a “debacle”, he’s correct. It’s a madhouse.

Albertine Honeycombe and a housemaid, Joan, stole away from their country home, and rented a house in London for three months. After the death of Albertine’s father, her cousin wants to marry her off to the neighboring farmer, a man with two dead wives and fifteen children. But, her father had raised her with all the advantages of her late brother, and that brother planned to open a detective agency in London along with Albertine. So, she hopes to open a discreet agency for women. She takes the name Countess Von Dagga, secretly known as the Mayfair Dagger.

However, things go wrong immediately. Albertine is too kind to insist her female clients pay her. Then, she’s forced to give Lord Grendel a sleeping draught during a ball in order to retrieve a woman’s indiscreet letters. But, someone sees her leave Lord Grendel’s study.

When Spencer Sweetman, the Duke of Erleigh, learns Lord Grendel has been murdered, he’s acting in his capacity as an officer at Scotland Yard. He intends to interview the mysterious Countess Von Dagga. Instead, he’s bemused to discover a number of men hanging around the street near the Countess’ London home. It seems Countess Von Dagga advertised for a man to be the face of her agency in order to get jobs, and Spencer Sweetman is just the man to do that. It will give him an in to learn more about the woman.

A mystery, a little romance, a great deal of humor. The Mayfair Dagger has all those elements, along with that hysterical courtroom scene. Readers looking for something a little different might want to meet Countess Von Dagga.

Ava January’s website is https://www.avajanuary.net/

The Mayfair Dagger by Ava January. Crooked Lane Books, 2024. ISBN 9781639107513 (hardcover), 304p.

FTC Full Disclosure – I received a galley through NetGalley to review for a journal.