A Sinister Establishment
Series: Beatrice Hyde-Clare Mysteries, Book 6
By: Lynn Messina / Narrated By: Jill Smith
Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins
Oh good cow! No, maybe not the best of the series, but gosh how I love Bea and Kesgrave!
Yeh I did that whole thing I do where I make up my mind about a book but then check other reviews to make sure I’m considering everything carefully, giving weight where it’s called for. And so I THOroughly enjoyed A Sinister Establishment. No need to check, but I did anyway… and…. DUDE! Those negative reviews actually had a point!
Yeh yeh yeh. It’s like this, see: Bea does indeed do a whole heckuva LOT of navel-gazing! No really, she does. It kinda didn’t strike me at the time cuz right before giving this a Listen, I’d spent TWO days (Blisssssful days!) re-listening to the first three audiobooks in the series. It was cuz I wanted to see just how our heroine and Hero morphed from Strangers to Newlyweds. But during those three stories, I’d kinda gotten used to Bea always pondering various lines of reasoning as clue-ideas flitted through her mind. She does it, like, a LOT.
So it really didn’t faze me when the story began and right away Bea was considering this that the other. But it’s true: If someone did that in real time, they’d be staring at the wall for aaaaages before responding, and it would be QUITE noticeable.
So there’s that.
And then someone pointed out that a banker, even an Uber-wealthy one, would still be considered a Cit and would NEVER be allowed to live next to a Duke.
So there’s that as well.
And someone else was sickened by Bea and Kesgrave constantly acting like they’re all in love and such all.
Okay, I’m just gonna have to cry Foul on THAT one! Dude, they’re newlyweds!
Anyhoo, let’s forget everyone else so that we might focus on meeeee! and my own danged review.
Bea is newly not-quite established in her new home, the ducal estate. She feels vaaaastly insecure, and overhearing the butler making highly disparaging remarks about her to the footman has her in a heightened state of unease. Why, Marlow (The butler) even goes so far as to say that all her solved cases are probably more the Duke’s doing rather than any smarts of her own. FORtunately, within the very same conversation, the butler and footman discuss a murder that occurred that very morning! Next door! The chef!
So Bea weasels her way into the establishment and so begins this new tale of her sleuthing derring-do.
There aren’t any disguises used in this story. Tho’ Bea considers some, Kesgrave points out that now Bea is a Duchess, all doors MUST open for her. This takes some getting used to, but darned if our beloved solver of infamously brutal crimes doesn’t start using it for all she’s worth. Kesgrave, tho’, is loath to have her investigating yet aNOTHer murder (She has, after all, been whacked over the head and trapped in a barn, had her face pummeled and been left on the street, been nearly strangled and chucked over a rail, been waylaid by a perpetrator and hounded, not to mention: Had a gun pointed at her, been tied up, left to die in a cellar. Soooo, the man has a point, ya know?). Soon he realizes that dead bodies turning up, solving murders, you name the nefarious plot; it all makes her feel whole, feel vital, is her raison d’être.
Plus, he can’t help it; he rather likes the escapades he finds himself involved in. In this book, he shows Bea how to throw the ducal weight around to get information. When you add the whip-smart communication between the pair, their obvious delight to be in cahoots, this all is MOST enjoyable. The only thing lacking would’ve been a few more characters to banter with as Lady Ambercrombie is missing, Jenkins is missing, Flora/Aunt Vera are missing.
Jill Smith. What to say about how AWEsome she is. I gotta tell ya, when I was listening to the very first book in the series she, in all honesty, seemed like she wasn’t all that into what she was reading. But by Book 2, it sounded like she realized the gig was truuuuly going to be going somewhere, and the text, the characters, were hers to OWN! So here, by Book 6, she’s just a gem, a pure pleasure to listen to. Add to that, she’s working with characters who are deeply, joyfully in-step with each other, and her narration just makes it all flow so smoothly!
Okay okay okay, maybe the ending was a bit too nice and tight, a trifle convenient, but gosh, I’m so in the series for what Messina writes, the characters she’s created and with how it’s all evolved over time, and through many MANY books. I was sooo sad, back in the beginning, when I thought this was only going to be a 4-book series. I’m deLIGHted to see that Book 10 is up for release May of 2022.
These just canNOT get into audiobook format soon enough! Onward, I say!!!
Tally-ho!
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.