Review: Death at Bishop's Keep

This book introduces Kathryn Ardleigh, a nineteenth-century New Yorker who writes mysteries under a pseudonym. Just as she is looking for her next commission, Ardleigh finds herself summoned to England by a previously unknown aunt to serve as secretary for a mystical society, the Order of the Golden Dawn. When Kate arrives at her aunt's estate, Bishop's Keep, she finds a second aunt who spends her days terrorizing the servants. She also discovers ample material for her next murder mystery. An unidentified dead body suggest possible connections to the Order of the Golden Dawn. Throughout the story Kate must balance her interest in crime with all of the Victorian proscriptions on ladies engaging in unsavory activities. This book was certainly an entertaining read. This is the book that has to send Ardleigh to England to perpetuate the series. I found Kate to be more charming than usual in this book. Her friend Charles Sheridan, on the other hand, was more simpering and pathetic than usual. I did manage to figure out who the murderer was, but there were enough twists and turns to make me doubt myself. All in all, a satisfying and entertaining mystery. 

Robin Paige, Death at Bishop's Keep (Berkley, 1998) ISBN:  0425164357