{"id":20,"date":"2019-06-24T00:40:04","date_gmt":"2019-06-24T00:40:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/samiamreadingandreviewing.wordpress.com\/?p=20"},"modified":"2025-06-24T21:06:17","modified_gmt":"2025-06-24T21:06:17","slug":"title-a-grave-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/samiamreading.com\/?p=20","title":{"rendered":"Title: A Grave Matter"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Author: Anna Lee Huber<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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With a sincerely punny title, Anna Lee Huber draws readers into the third installment in the Lady Darby mystery series. Complete with grave robbing, the Scottish mob, and a handsome partner-in-detection, this book is packed with the perfect balance of intricate mystery with a fortifying helping of romance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don’t let the fact that I’m reviewing the third book in the series belittle the first two – if you haven’t read them, be sure to! They’re not necessary to understand or appreciate the third book, but Huber’s character development is significant from one to three. Based on that trend, I am very interested to see where she and Lady Darby will take us further in the series.
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\u201cGage pulled me closer as I shivered a second time, but then his attention was captured by something to his left.\u201d<\/strong>
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Balance<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let’s talk about Huber’s incredible balance of mystery and romance. If any of you have tried to find a good romantic mystery, you know that a lot of them are either romance with a thin mystery plot line, or mystery with some sparse hot scenes. Huber not only manages to create a puzzle that baffles the reader throughout the book, she also maintains the mystery of what Lady Darby and her handsome counterpart, Gage, intend for themselves (Q: Should I spoil it for you? A: Not if I can help it!) – effortlessly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was always interested in both the mystery and the more sentimental aspects of the novel, which is a rarity. Usually, for me, one has more pull than the other, and I’m lightly skimming the less-interesting bit to get to the good stuff. Not in this case.<\/strong> I was glued to every page and stayed up well beyond my bedtime to finish it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In terms of romance, this book may have the most out of three I\u2019ve read – and that\u2019s just part of the plot. I\u2019m interested to see whether it will taper off in the next few books, or continue to keep us readers on our toes.
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\u201cIf you or one of your men so much as touches a hair on his head, I\u2019ll\u2026 Well, all those rumors people whisper about me\u2026 I\u2019ll make them come true.\u201d<\/strong>
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Lady Darby<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Huber creates a fantastic Heroine out of Lady Darby. Coming out of an abusive situation, she\u2019s learning who she is, what she wants, and where she wants to go – all while being a social outcast due to her situation. She\u2019s the unlikeliest hero, but continues to gain confidence while investigating, which makes her a good study. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the things I like most about Lady Darby (and there are many) is her checkered past. Even in the third book, her undeserved reputation doesn\u2019t help her make friends, and it\u2019s unique to see. She\u2019s a highborn lady-turned-pariah – and remains so. <\/em>This is a great move of authorship for Huber as it outlines the social standards of the day, as well as the truthful fact that tarnished reputations may never recover (I say this because Huber could have easily had Darby solve the mystery in the first book and her reputation instantly restored, which is not really how these things work, is it?).
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\u201cIts west front, on the far side of the house, bordered the River Tweed, whose waters rambled southward only to sweep around in a wide curve to flow north again\u2026\u201d<\/strong>
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Scotland<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I love that this series takes place outside of London or a remote English village. It\u2019s not that those aren\u2019t good landscapes for a mystery, they\u2019re just really common for victorian books (I think, anyways). Especially in this third book, we see Scottish traditions, garb, and brogue. Although the customs of the higher classes are quite similar to English ones, it\u2019s always nice to have a touch of culture that we aren\u2019t so familiar with
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One Fault<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If Victorian murder mysteries are your thing, I will recommend this series to you ten times over. I\u2019m enjoying it that much. However, I do have one fault with the series, and that\u2019s the men – but perhaps not in the way you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wherever Lady Darby goes, Gage always appears, respectful and ready to jump into action to protect her. That\u2019s fine, because he\u2019s also witty and tends to tease her a lot, which gives a nice edge to their relationship. Aside from Gage, though, other men she meets (whether at Gairloch, Dalmay House, or Blakelaw House) tend to give her the same respect that they would a man. I\u2019m not so sure that would be correct for these times, especially with a woman who\u2019s fallen so far below her station. However, it may be that because of her reputation, she commands a different respect than a typical female.
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Summing Up<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks for sticking with me throughout this post. It\u2019s been a long and wild ride. Bottom line is that I would definitely pick up this book if my post made it sound at all interesting. I really enjoyed it and am excited to read number four!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following Me:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Feel free to follow me here and on Instagram @samiamreading. I look forward to your comments and book recommendations!
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Author: Anna Lee Huber With a sincerely punny title, Anna Lee Huber draws readers into the third installment in the Lady Darby mystery series. Complete with grave robbing, the Scottish mob, and a handsome partner-in-detection, this book is packed with the perfect balance of intricate mystery with a fortifying helping of romance. Don’t let theContinue reading “Title: A Grave Matter”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[29,30,54,149,157,178,287,301,333,344,349],"class_list":["post-20","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-anna","tag-anna-lee-huber","tag-books","tag-historical","tag-historical-fiction","tag-huber","tag-mystery","tag-novel","tag-reading","tag-review","tag-romance","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/samiamreading.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/samiamreading.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/samiamreading.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samiamreading.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samiamreading.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/samiamreading.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":696,"href":"https:\/\/samiamreading.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20\/revisions\/696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/samiamreading.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samiamreading.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samiamreading.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}