Recent Reads - As Death Draws Near

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As Death Draws Near by Anna Lee Huber - Lady Kiera Darby and Sebastian Gage are on their honeymoon when they receive instructions from Gage's father to investigate a murder in Ireland. The victim was a young woman related to Lord Wellington was a postulant at an abbey. With very little information to start with, and annoyed that Lord Gage would cut short their honeymoon, Kiera and Gage travel to Ireland and take on the investigation.

Tensions are high in the village near the abbey, because of the conflict between Protestant and Catholic and growing unrest and potential hostility between Ribbonmen and Orangemen. Kiera does her best to gather information from the nuns and students at the abbey, while Gage talks with villagers. They both run into dead ends when people are reluctant to talk to them, and are frustrated when they uncover facts that Lord Wellington and Lord Gage would have known but had not shared. Finally, one of the nuns comes to a decision to share important insights with Kiera, but is found murdered before she can do so. 

While the investigation itself is very frustrating for both of them, it also starts Kiera questioning her role and purpose, and whether she is following a calling by assisting Gage in investigation. Conversations with the Mother Superior expose Kiera's uncertainties about whether she is right to use the knowledge she has about anatomy, and whether she should continue taking an active role now that she's a wife and will potentially become a mother. The expectations of married gentlewomen of the time period are addressed as part of this personal struggle, and the political and religious conflicts are the backdrop for the intriguing murder mystery with a surprise twist.

(I've fallen quite behind, but do check out the Lady Darby Read-Along group on Facebook if you're interested.)

By the same author: The Anatomist's Wife, Mortal Arts; A Grave Matter, A Study in Death, A Pressing Engagement, This Side of Murder, As Death Draws Near  (from my first reading in 2018), A Brush With Shadows. Treacherous Is The Night, An Artless Demise, Secrets in the Mist, Penny for Your Secrets, A Stroke of Malice, A Pretty Deceit

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