Devious Duchess

Lord Belami & Miss Deirdre Gower #3

by Joan Smith

Deirdre Gower refused to ruin her fiancé, Lord Belami, by marrying him€”if her aunt proved to have murdered her brother. But the Duchess had brought the ancient Lord Dudley a bowl of stew, and he had succumbed to arsenic poisoning. The Duchess, Sir Nevil Ryder and who else wished to silence the old man before he could change his will? Regency Romance/Mystery by Joan Smith; originally published by Fawcett

Genres: Romance, Regency, Mystery, Historical Romance

208 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published August 12, 1985

About the author

Joan Smith is a graduate of Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, and the Ontario College of Education. She has taught French and English in high school and English in college. When she began writing, her interest in Jane Austen and Lord Byron led to her first choice of genre, the Regency, which she especially liked for its wit and humor.
Her favorite travel destination is England, where she researches her books. Her hobbies are gardening, painting, sculpture and reading. She is married and has three children. A prolific writer, she is currently working on Regencies and various mysteries at her home in Georgetown, Ontario.
She is also known as Jennie Gallant

Reviews

[H2bourne · Rating 4 out of 5]

An entertaining, delightful read. This is the third of the Lord Belami quartet. Each novel is a stand-alone story but involves the recurring characters of Lord Belami, his on-again, off-again fiancée, Deirdre Gower, her aunt, the Duchess of Charney, and Pronto Pilgrim, Lord Belami's sidekick. This involves the apparent murder of Charney's brother, Lord Dudley. It's a very well written whodunit, well paced and kept my interest right to the end.

[Anne Neville · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lord Belami is so close to happiness that he can taste it: he is engaged to the lovely Deirdre Gower and hopes that their wedding can go forward as soon as possible. Then, tragedy strikes. Deirdre’s guardian, the money-obsessed Duchess of Charney, worries that her wealthy and unhealthy brother is about to change his will and cut her out. Shortly after the Duchess delivers a bowl of stew to her sibling, he is found dead of arsenic poisoning. All the clues condemn the Duchess, and Deirdre is unwilling to go through with her wedding with such a scandal brewing. Now Belami, an amateur detective, must discover the truth about Dudley’s death–or lose his bride.

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[Joyce · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another fun Joan Smith novel with a little mystery in this one!