A Brush with Shadows (Lady Darby Mystery #6)

by Anna Lee Huber

Overview

Sebastian Gage returns home to battle the ghosts of his past and prevent them from destroying his future with Kiera in the latest exciting installment in this national bestselling series.

July 1831. It's been fifteen years since Sebastian Gage has set foot in Langstone Manor. Though he has shared little with his wife, Lady Kiera Darby, about his past, she knows that he planned never to return to the place of so many unhappy childhood memories. But when an urgent letter from his grandfather reaches them in Dublin, Ireland, and begs Gage to visit, Kiera convinces him to go.

All is not well at Langstone Manor. Gage's grandfather, the Viscount Tavistock, is gravely ill, and Gage's cousin Alfred has suddenly vanished. He wandered out into the moors and never returned. The Viscount is convinced someone or something other than the natural hazards of the moors is to blame for Alfred's disappearance. And when Alfred's brother Rory goes missing, Kiera and Gage must concede he may be right. Now, they must face the ghosts of Gage's past, discover the truth behind the local superstitions, and see beyond the tricks being played by their very own eyes to expose what has happened to Gage's family before the moors claim yet another victim...

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780399587221
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	03/06/2018
Series:	Lady Darby Series , #6
Pages:	384
Sales rank:	105,816
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.05(d)

About the Author

Anna Lee Huber is the Daphne award-winning author of the national bestselling Lady Darby Mysteries and the Verity Kent Mysteries. She is a summa cum laude graduate of Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee, where she majored in music and minored in psychology. She currently resides with her family and is hard at work on her next novel.

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Chapter one
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Excerpted from "A Brush with Shadows"
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Copyright © 2018 Anna Lee Huber.
Excerpted by permission of Penguin Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Editorial Reviews

01/29/2018
Set in 1831, Huber’s unsettling sixth Lady Darby mystery (after 2016’s A Brush with Shadows) takes whip-smart Kiera Gage and her husband, Sebastian, back to his unhappy boyhood home of Langstone Manor in Dartmoor. Fifteen years after Sebastian’s last visit, his aunt Vanessa is still frighteningly bitter; his grandfather, the Viscount Tailstock, is deathly ill; and his roguish bully of a cousin, Alfred, has disappeared on the moors. More mischief ensues. Sebastian and Kiera are attacked in their guest rooms, they encounter a woman said to be in a relationship with the missing Alfred who may be a witch, and Kiera becomes violently ill after drinking poisoned tea. Still, they press on, talking to locals about the missing Alfred and trying gently to pry information from the viscount on his sickbed. Meanwhile, Kiera attempts to overcome Sebastian’s stubborn silence about his past, particularly his mother’s death, while holding her own with his family. It’s a long and winding story, but the unexpected ending satisfies. Agent: Kevan Lyon, Marsal Lyon Literary. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for A Brush with Shadows:

"A missing heir, an estranged family, and a possible poisoner add up to a pretty puzzle for two far-from-disinterested sleuths…. Huber draws on the beauties and dangers of the mysterious moorlands to provide a fitting setting for a knotty mystery filled with envy, greed, and thwarted love.”—Kirkus Reviews 

Praise for the Lady Darby Mysteries
 
“[A] history mystery in fine Victorian style! Anna Lee Huber’s spirited debut mixes classic country house mystery with a liberal dash of historical romance.”—Julia Spencer-Fleming, New York Times bestselling author
 
“Riveting…Huber deftly weaves together an original premise, an enigmatic heroine, and a compelling Highland setting.”—Deanna Raybourn, New York Times bestselling author
 
“[A] fascinating heroine…A thoroughly enjoyable read!”—Victoria Thompson, national bestselling author
 
“Reads like a cross between a gothic novel and a mystery with a decidedly unusual heroine.”—Kirkus Reviews
 
"Set largely in Scotland in 1830, Huber's well-done sequel to 2012's The Anatomist's Wife includes all the ingredients of a romantic suspense novel, starting with a proud and independent heroine...Strong and lively characters as well as believable family dynamics, however, elevate this above stock genre fare."—Publishers Weekly
 
“[A] clever heroine with a shocking past and a talent for detection.”—Carol K. Carr, national bestselling author
 
“[Huber] designs her heroine as a woman who straddles the line between eighteenth-century behavior and twenty-first-century independence.”—New York Journal of Books
 
“[A] must read…One of those rare books that will both shock and please readers.”—Fresh Fiction
 
“Fascinates with its compelling heroine who forges her own way in a society that frowns upon female independence. The crime itself is well planned and executed. The journey to uncover a killer takes many twists and leads to a surprising culprit.”—RT Book Reviews
 
“One of the best historical mysteries that I have read this year.”—Cozy Mystery Book Reviews

From the Publisher

2017-12-12
A missing heir, an estranged family, and a possible poisoner add up to a pretty puzzle for two far-from-disinterested sleuths.July 1831. Lady Keira Darby and her husband, Sebastian Gage, have been summoned to Langstone Manor in Dartmoor by his maternal grandfather, the Viscount Tavistock, to help find Sebastian's cousin Alfred, who's gone missing. Sebastian was raised at Langstone Manor but hasn't visited for 15 years. He has traumatic memories of his mother's death by poisoning and of being bullied by Alfred and his brother, Rory, and disliked by their mother, Vanessa. On their arrival, they learn that Alfred's disappeared for a day or two at a time in the past, but now he's been gone for 11 days. His grandfather's been pressing him to marry a well-bred heiress, but Alfred, who's always been wild, has other plans. Keira isn't surprised to be treated badly by Vanessa; after all, before she married Sebastian, she was the notorious widow of an anatomist who forced her to use her artistic talents to illustrate his textbook (The Anatomist's Wife, 2012), quite a scandalous job for a lady. Despite her outsider status, she slowly begins to learn more about Sebastian's family. His father, now a well-known detective, was a naval officer not thought good enough for his mother, who was not the first family member to be poisoned. While looking into Alfred's disappearance, Keira meets Lorna Galloway, the beautiful bastard daughter of a wealthy man who provides her with a cottage on the moors, where she's known as a hedge witch. Although Lorna disclaims all knowledge of Alfred's whereabouts, Keira is sure that she loves him and is hiding information. Because the aged viscount is gravely ill, Sebastian is determined to find Alfred dead or alive despite his dislike of his relatives—and dead seems more likely.Huber (This Side of Murder, 2017, etc.) draws on the beauties and dangers of the mysterious moorlands to provide a fitting setting for a knotty mystery filled with envy, greed, and thwarted love.

Kirkus Reviews