ARC Review: Lady Rights a Wrong by Eliza Casey

Lady Rights a Wrong
Author: Eliza Casey
Series: Manor Cat Mystery (Book 2)
Publication: Berkley (June 2, 2020)

Description: As the suffragette movement sweeps England in 1912, Lady Cecilia Bates wants to march but ends up trailing a killer instead in the latest entry to the Manor Cat Mysteries.

Lady Cecilia of Danby Hall feels adrift. She couldn’t be less interested in helping to plan the church's upcoming bazaar. Instead, what excites her most is the Woman’s Suffrage Union meeting she has just attended.

Inspired by the famous and charismatic leader of the group, Mrs. Amelia Price, Cecilia is eager to join the Union—if she can hide it from her parents, that is. But when Mrs. Price is found dead at the foot of the stairs of her home, her Votes for Women sash torn away, Cecilia knows she must attend to a more urgent matter: finding the killer. With the help of her lady’s maid Jane and intelligent cat Jack, she hopes to play her part in earning women’s equality by stopping the Union’s dangerous foe.

My Thoughts: Lady Cecelia Bates is feeling restless in her country home and wondering what her purpose is. She was engaged and active in an earlier murder investigation at her home but now things have settled down too much for her liking. While her mother tries her hand a matchmaking with the local vicar and her brother courts an American heiress, Cecelia just is.

Some excitement does come to the neighborhood in the person of Mrs. Amelia Price who is a noted spokeswoman for the suffrage movement. Cecelia is curious about the movement and soon attends some speeches and gets to know Mrs. Price and her entourage which includes her daughter who studied as a lawyer but can't practice, Mrs. Price's second in command, and her new young protegee.

Lady Cecelia notices all the tensions among the women and also notices that many men including her neighbor Lord Elphin are not at all happy about this new focus that takes women away from their rightful role as wives and mothers. Cecelia wonders why Mrs. Price is not living with Mr. Price anymore. She also wonders why Mrs. Price's daughter Mary who married lawyer Mr. Winter and is estranged has come with her husband to visit.

When Mrs. Price is found dead at the foot of the stairs in the cottage she was renting, Lady Cecelia feels that she has a new case to investigate and a purpose in life. She and a maid who was her helper on her first case busy themselves looking into all the suspicious characters until a wrong move puts Cecelia herself in danger.

This was an entertaining mystery with interesting characters. I liked the descriptions of life in the village and the hint of change in the air. I felt that there were some pacing issues in the story. It took until 32% before the murder happened and the reveal of the murderer seemed to come too fast and with too little buildup at 94% leaving the last 6% returning to quiet and the idyllic country setting with Cecelia back to being bored and restless.

Favorite Quote:

Yet Cecelia couldn't entirely shake the feeling of restlessness and anger that seemed to creep over her like an itch she couldn't brush away. It had actually been there for months, vaguely humming away in the background as she went about the motions of her everyday life. Changing clothes, sipping tea, looking in shops, dancing, but always as if she was someplace else entirely. Should be someplace else.

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from Edelweiss. You can buy your copy here.