A Nefarious Engagement: A Regency Cozy

Beatrice Hyde-Clare Mysteries, Book 4

By: Lynn Messina

Narrated by: Jill Smith

Having long abandoned any hope of making a match, 26-year-old Beatrice Hyde Clare finds herself a little overwhelmed by her engagement to the Duke of Kesgrave. Cloying society matrons clamor for her attention while her aunt reels off an endless list of servants she will have to oversee. Even the most intrepid female would quake at the prospect of managing eight footmen!

Fortunately, Bea knows the perfect distraction - an intriguing mystery - and pays a call on the Countess of Abercrombie, who had promised her that very thing only the evening before.

But her ladyship is reluctant to discuss the details with a newly minted duchess-to-be, and it dawns on Bea that the investigation cuts closer to home than she could have ever imagined because this time the murder victims are her own mother and father, who had died 20 years before in a seemingly straightforward boating accident.

Alas, nothing is straightforward, and as Bea digs into her past, she discovers with growing horror that she has no more idea how to be a daughter than she does a duchess.

©2019 Lynn Messina (P)2019 Lynn Messina

Love this series

This is the best of the series. Very emotional and great mystery. I highly recommend it.

Love this series!

I’m really loving this series! Can’t wait to get to the next one! Two thumbs up!!

Does this series have to end!!!????

I have loved, loved, loved every single book in this series. Bea's growth and her relationship with her Duke has been a joy to behold. I love their interactions; the two play off each other so well.

This final installment of their relationship had all kinds of special. Bea is on the search to find out what happened to her parents. Along the way, she discovers how much she loves the Duke, how much he loves her, and what her awful aunt and uncle actually means to her. This was storytelling and regency romances at its best.

I cannot say enough about the narrator. It actually takes a very special talent to be able to voice regency novels. This narrator brought the special.

The story end was very dramatic and very much Bea. It was a fitting end to a very wonderful character. It's just too bad the story had to end.

A Nefarious Engagement

It took me a while to get into the book but once things started moving I got really engrossed in the story. I have read the other three in this series and loved them and I am glad to say that this book does not disappoint.
If you like romance with a mystery then this is for you.

Not as good as the previous books, yet still solid

I didn’t enjoy this story as much as the first two books—and to me, the third book wasn’t as enjoyable as the first two—yet it was enjoyable nonetheless. I suppose the author has to give us a more well rounded view of Bea (though why Bea believed anything Aunt Vera said about her parents is beyond me). Kesgrave isn’t featured in this book as much as he was previously, though he came on the scene when it mattered.
Overall, a solid read. I’m going to read the next book in the series.