MURDER MOST FAIR (Verity Kent Mysteries #5) by Anna Lee Huber will be published on August 31st 2021 by Kensington Publishing Corporation.
A year after the end of the Great War, Verity and her husband are enjoying a holiday at the seashore when her great aunt Ilse unexpectedly shows up. Ilse and her maid, Bauer, fled Germany where sickness and starvation is rampant. Hoping to spar Aunt Ilse from the strong anti-German sentiment in London, Verity and Sidney relocate her to the remote family estate in Northern England. Unable to deal with her one brother's death, Verity has stayed away from home throughout the war. Her return is fraught with tension. Some family members are more accepting and understand of Verity's reluctance to return than others. Verity's return to the remote area is exciting enough for the neighbors. That she brought her German great aunt is nearly inexcusable. Aunt Ilse had been receiving threats while in Germany. Those threats continue in England, and they now extend to Verity. Responding to a request for a secret meeting, Verity finds that Ilse's maid has been murdered. The hostile neighbors hardly seem concerned about the death of a German maid. But their conviction that another German is hiding out in the area urges them to action. Verity and her family have to stay one step ahead of their bloodthirsty neighbors as they search for mysterious German and Bauer's killer.
I have read all of the Verity Kent Mysteries, and, while I have enjoyed all of them, I found MURDER MOST FAIR to be the least captivating. The focus of the novel is on some of Verity's war work for the Secret Service—specifically how she used Ilse to help a German deserter sneak back into Germany so that he could spy on his fellow countrymen— as well as on her return home and the subsequent interactions with her family members. None of the Townsends come off as all that likable. Verity's mother and sister are absolutely horrid, and her father and brothers aren't all that much better. I couldn't bring myself to really care about any of them. Great Aunt Ilse was the only family member that I liked, but even she grew frustrating with her faulty memory and denials. After dragging for the first half of the novel, the action finally picked up around the halfway mark when Verity found the murdered maid. The second half of the novel revolves around finding the murderer.
Overall, the book was very well written. The descriptions of the landscape/settings and different fashions was spectacular. The novel also filled in some gaps in Verity's backstory. It also provided her character with a huge chance to grow. I just found the plot lacking for the first half, and I just couldn't get into the story.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.