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Summary
Summary
From New York Times bestselling author Shelley Noble, Ask Me No Questions is the first in the Lady Dunbridge Mystery series featuring a widow turned sleuth in turn-of-the-twentieth century New York City.
A modern woman in 1907, Lady Dunbridge is not about to let a little thing like the death of her husband ruin her social life. She's ready to take the dazzling world of Gilded Age Manhattan by storm.
From the decadence of high society balls to the underbelly of Belmont horse racing, romance, murder, and scandals abound. Someone simply must do something. And Lady Dunbridge is happy to oblige.
Author Notes
Shelley Noble is the bestselling author of the women's fiction novels Beach Colors, Stargazey, Holidays at Crescent Cove, Breakwater Bay, and Whisper Beach. She also writes under the name Shelley Freydont with the Celebration Bay Festival Mysteries and the Gilded Age Newport Mystery series. She is a former professional dancer and choreographer and has put these talents to work on such films as Mona Lisa Smile and The Game Plan.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Set in 1907, this promising series launch from romance author Noble (Whisper Beach) introduces Philomena Amesbury, Lady Dunbridge, who's coming to the end of the official mourning period for her much older husband, "a man who had no feelings, including the intimate kind, unless it involved whips and madams." Her father gives her an ultimatum: find a suitable companion, return to her parental home, and remain a spinster, or live with her dreaded great-aunt Sephronia in Yorkshire. Refusing these fates, Lady Phil, in the company of her butler and her lady's maid, sets sail for New York City to visit her friend Bev Reynolds, whose husband, Reggie, is shot dead in the back seat of his automobile, his head in the lap of his most recent mistress, shortly after her arrival. Lady Phil steps up to investigate. The book fairly flies along, whisking readers through Manhattan's champagne-sipping high life, with jaunts to the racetrack along the way. Classy, clever, and fun, this is a propitious start for dashing Lady Phil. Agent: Kevin Lyon, Marsal Lyon Literary. (Oct.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
A saucy countess leaves English society behind when she ventures to New York City in 1907.After getting pushed into marrying an older man she disliked, Lady Philomena Dunbridge is now a widow; she has spent two horrible years in mourning, enlivened by only a few discreet romantic interludes. Faced with several unpleasant places to live, she decides to visit Bev Reynolds, an old school friend in New York, taking along her butler, Preswick, and her newly hired maid, Lily, who speaks several languages and carries a hidden stiletto. At the dock, a gunshot rings out as Bev goes to fetch her husband, Reggie, and his car, and Phil arrives just in time to see a horrified Bev staring at the bleeding corpse of Reggie in the arms of his mistress, Mimi LaPonte. When DS John Atkins arrives to investigate, Phil spirits Bev away. Reggie was a wild sort whose only true loves were his racehorses and breeding stable. Since the ruggedly handsome Atkins clearly considers Bev his prime suspect, Phil plays detective in order to free Bev from suspicion despite dire warnings from Atkins, one of the few honest police officers in New York. Matters go from bad to worse when Atkins finds a dead man in Reggie's study shot with Bev's gun. Undeterred, Phil buys several books on crime-solving and uses Lily's lockpicking skills to search Reggie's study for incriminating evidence. Reggie's cousin, his stable manager, and a few other pals offer to help Bev, who, despite the fact that Reggie had secretly divorced her and obtained tickets for two to South America, remains his legatee. As Phil seeks gossip in drawing rooms and stables, she can't shake the feeling that she's being followed. It's up to her to discover which of Reggie's many risky activities got him killed before she becomes the next victim.This delightful series debut is a frisky combination of mystery and romance whose R-rated heroine clearly has a bright and adventurous future. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
After disgracing her London family with her sleuthing, 26-year-old Lady Philomena Dunbridge widowed after a loveless marriage to an earl has no choice but to go to America in 1909, taking along butler Preswick and lady's maid Lily. But just after Phil spots her old friend Beverly Reynolds at the New York dock, Bev's husband, Reggie, is shot in his nearby roadster, found dead with his head in the lap of his chorus-girl mistress, Mimi LaPonte. With her entry into New York's social scene curbed by Bev's mandated mourning period, Phil offers her friend solace (little needed after the death of philandering Reggie) and advice, as Bev also is a suspect. So with the aid of Preswick and Lily, Phil starts investigating, which becomes more complicated when a man is found dead in the Reynolds' library; the reading of Reggie's will yields surprises; and threats are made. This start to the Lady Dunbridge series captures its time and place effectively while leaving intriguing questions unanswered about Lily's past and the identity of a mysterious man who hints of romance ahead. Entertaining historical mystery with an enterprising protagonist.--Michele Leber Copyright 2018 Booklist