An accidental re-read, but an enjoyable one.  As I started reading it, I remembered my frustration the first time around with the slow, purposefully vague start, but once into it, I enjoyed the banter and the mystery again - and had no recollection as to whodunnit.

I enjoy this series so far, but this plot setup stretched the boundaries of plausibility a bit thin.  It was still good, and the outing of Charlotte Sloane was inevitable and handled well, but the murder setup involving her cousin was played too strongly for nail biting suspense, in my opinion (as was the denouement).  The rest was good though, and while I can't remember whodunnit, I do remember not guessing it too early in the book.

Overall a good read and I'll be on the lookout for #4.

The quirky from book 1 doesn't hold so much in book 2, but boy howdy is the dark still there.  I'm not going to lie, while I was intrigued by the Burryman Festival, the description of the Burryman's ... costume? creeped me right out.  McPherson's detailed description made me feel claustrophobic and I could totally understand why children would cry upon seeing him.  

Dandy continues her unorthodox (for the times) partnership and I'm curious how the author is going to shape this investigative duo in future books.  I nailed the whodunnit part, but the ending... ugh, I did not see the ending coming and I was more than a little surprised and impressed that McPherson went there in what is ostensibly a cozy historical.

Will definitely read more of the series - and not just because I have the books.  ;)

Quirky, and a little bit dark.  It's been long enough now since I read it that I'm very fuzzy on most of the details, but I enjoyed it enough to immediately pick up book #2.  Dandy is a little odd at the start, and her partnership with a male character that's not her husband is innocent yet intriguing and challenging to my sense of what one could get away with during the time (the interval between WW1 and WW2).  

I thoroughly enjoy this series, and I enjoyed this one too, but I think it might be the one I liked least.

Anyone who has read the earlier books in the series will readily agree that Lady Darby has had an unarguably difficult and painful past.  Her first husband, a famous anatomist, forced her to attend his human dissections to draw the illustrations required for his planned masterwork on the human anatomy.  When her part was revealed upon his death, she was vilified and run out of London. Now she's back, in love, married, and pregnant, and her timing is awful; burkers have been caught attempting to sell the body of a dead boy to anatomists, and it's obvious he did not meet his end naturally.  Then the nobs start getting killed in the streets of Mayfair and everyone is looking at Lady Darby again.

It's a great story, but unfortunately, Kiera's wallowing just a bit.  Not as much as your average historical heroine cliche, but more than what I'd expect from this strong and talented character.  Call it a justifiable response to the equivalent of PTSD, but she became a victim, and it was a bit disappointing, given all the adventures she's had.  Usually, this wouldn't be as big of a stand out as it is this time, but the murderer was obvious to me from the start, so I had nothing to distract me from Kiera's sudden-onset mousiness.  She gets her mojo back in the end, so that's something.

In spite of my nit-picking, it was still an enjoyable read overall, and I look forward to the next one.