A TERRIBLY NASTY BUSINESS

Having established herself as the preeminent sleuth in Swampshire, Regency-period debutante Beatrice Steele hangs out her investigator’s shingle in London, partnering with Inspector Vivek Drake, whose first case with her got him drummed out of the police force.

Someone is after the founders of NAGS, the Neighborhood Association of Gentlemen Sweetbriarians. After wealthy NAGS cofounder Walter Shrewsbury is bashed and stabbed to death shortly after receiving a note saying “Confess, or die. Your choice,” and celebrated detective Sir Lawrence Huxley comes to suspect Percival Nash, the star of Figaro III: Here We Figaro Again, Nash approaches the partners of DS Investigations asking them to clear his name. It’s an uphill battle for several reasons. The evidence against the overbearing Nash is significant; Huxley thinks he’s incapable of making a mistake; and Nash doesn’t have a convincing alibi for this or the other murders that predictably follow after the other NAGS cofounders receive identical notes. Beatrice’s biggest challenge, though, is that in order to investigate properly, she has to somehow get herself invited to the events restricted to the exclusive Rose list of debutantes and persuade her social superiors to reveal indiscreet things to her, all while assuring her goal-oriented mother and Helen Bolton, the aspiring playwright who’s agreed to serve as her chaperone, that she’s spending every waking moment courting a proposal from an eligible suitor or two. Seales adroitly walks the line between decorous Regency dialogue and manners and Beatrice’s acidic contemporary sensibility. The delectable result will enchant fans who thought Bridgerton would have been even better with a higher body count.

As a dunderheaded supporting character announces, “Wit in the face of tragedy is admirable.” So true.