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A Gentleman of Fortune (Dido Kent series #2)


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This is a copy of the review in my reading blog.

 

A Gentleman Of Fortune (or, The Suspicions Of Miss Dido Kent)

 

by a Lady

Miss Anna Dean

 

The spoof 19th Century style title is an indication of the gentle tongue in cheek humour to be enjoyed in this series. This is the second in this series, they are sequential so are best read in order. They are set in the world of Jane Austen in the early 1800s (Is that Regency period?).

Miss Dido Kent is a 35 year old unmarried spinster , who, having more or less given up hope of finding a husband at the beginning of the first book , finds a new interest in solving murder mysteries. She has a lot of time on her hands and (like Lizzie Bennet) a brain that is very sharp (which in the past has not been appreciated by possible suitors) and an eye for unusual detail.

The first book was a pleasant enough easy read. I would not have gone out of my way to pick up the second book but I saw it in a charity shop. This second book really flies in my opinion. The central mystery is this time far more involved with red herrings and loose ends all over the place which excercise poor Dido to her limits and keep the reader guessing until the end. As far as that goes, this is as good a murder mystery as you would read anywhere.

Added to this is the very subtle romantic sub -plot which starts to gather pace .

We find out a little more -not too much- about Dido's unfortunate history with men who did not like intelligence in a possible wife. This of course endears her to us modern readers and we root for her.

There is only one man who does seem to appreciate her powers of reasoning, Mr William Lomax (who she met in the first book).

However, the course of her investigations lead Dido into an embarrassing mistake ( but very amusing to us) which brings her into conflict with Mr Lomax.

A man's life may hang in the balance. Should Dido bow to the wishes of Mr Lomax and abandon her investigations? Or must she be true to her nature and almost certainly lose the regard of her only male friend?

I will certainly read the rest of this series now..

Dido is a great heroine. The genius of the author is in not giving her character omnipotent powers of insight, she can and does get led astray sometimes by having incomplete information. But as other facts come to light her rigid application of logic is fun to read. It is not like Poirot where he holds silence until the very end.

Edited by vodkafan
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