Review: Who's Sorry Now?

Last year I finally read the first book in Maggie Robinson's Lady Adelaide mystery series and I enjoyed it so much it made my annual Best Of list for the year. I resolved I would read the remaining three books in the series, but ARC guilt, it's real.  Instead of diving into glomming this series, I put it on the back burner in favor of reading through some neglected ARCs, and here we are a year later.  Well life is short, my reading mojo is crap, and there's no time like the present. Who's Sorry Now? was a delightfully fun read and just what the doctor ordered.

After the events of the first book, Lady Adelaide Compton ran off to New York with her sister Cecilia (Cee) for a well-deserved break. The best part of all?  She hasn't seen the ghost of her profligate dead husband since the resolution of the murder that took place in the barn at her country home. Unfortunately, the reprieve doesn't last long. While enjoying a New York speakeasy, Rupert pops up to warn Adelaide that a raid is coming, she and Cee shimmer out a bathroom window, and decide it's time to head back to England.

Scotland Yard Detective Inspector Devenand Hunter has his hands full back in London. Someone is murdering Bright Young People, poisoning their drinks while they dance and party the night away at their favorite hot spots. A disreputable new establishment, the Thieves' Den, has seen two poisonings thus far and now the villain has targeted the Savoy (of all places). The victim? Lady Cecilia. Blessedly, Lady Adelaide's quick thinking may have saved her sister's life.  Unfortunately he's now got another problem on his hands - Lady Adelaide wants to help. Besides the fact that her own sister could have died, she tells the Inspector that she can get into places and talk to people who will be more forthcoming with her than the police. She's right, of course, but he can't forget how her helping him before almost got her killed. 

What follows is Adelaide (feeling older than dirt as a 30-something widow) befriending the group of Bright Young People who seem to be at the center of the poisonings. Doing his best to "help" is Rupert's ghost, who has been ordered back to assist his widow at the behest of the "higher powers" who think he needs to reform before they'll let him out of ghostly limbo. Then of course there's the mutual attraction simmering between Anglo-Indian DI Hunter and Lady Adelaide, a marquess' daughter and widow of a bonafide World War I hero, never mind he was spectacularly unfaithful when he was alive. It's an attraction they both know is utterly impossible but they're both struggling to resist.

Finally picking up this second book reminded me of why I liked the first one so much, it really is an utterly charming and delightful cozy. While an alive Rupert would be vile and insufferable, a dead Rupert trying to make amends by protecting and helping his widow injects some levity. Robinson writes about the time period (1925) very well, infusing plenty of world-building without bogging down the narrative with a history lesson.  There's also a wide cast of characters around the mystery, including a notorious girl gang (the Forty Dollies) who seem to be mixed up in the whole affair in some way - never mind their main business up until that point is stealing merchandise such as clothes, furs and jewelry. 

The author has kept the first two books fairly lean (under 300 pages) but gives readers plenty of charm, interesting characters, a whiff of romance, and mysteries that are substantial enough to keep the plots moving along. I wasn't entirely enamored with the turn the denouement took in this book, but it's action-packed and I certainly didn't want to come up for air during the final chapters. I'm not going to allow ARC guilt to distract me from picking up Book 3.

Final Grade = B