Review MURDER AT BLACKWATER BEND By Clara McKenna

True confession: I was reading this at the same time I was watching Bridgerton. They don’t take place in the exact same time period, but the attitudes and the restraints on women are very much alike. Both are love stories layered with other things, specifically a murder, in the case of this book.

Both also feature fun characters that you won’t want to leave. Stella Kendrick is an American from an unrefined wealthy family; she’s engaged to marry Lyndy, aka Viscount Lyndhurst, whose family desperately needs that wealth. Lyndy’s mother, Lady Atherly (Frances) of Morrington Hall, dislikes Stella as soon as she meets her, but stiffens that upper lip for the sake of her own family.

Stella is spirited and hard to control. She engages in most unladylike behavior. She does not excel at having tea and making stilted small talk. Lyndy loves her even more for this, while his mother seethes.

Meanwhile bounders abound. A local pony show contest is won by Lord Fairbrother, a suspicious character who is married to Lady Philippa, the insufferable snob formerly engaged to Lyndy, before her own family lost all their money and she was forced to pair up with Fairbrother. We see him engaging in vague, nefarious bribery schemes before he turns up dead. Well, he doesn’t exactly turn up. Stella snags his body in the river while fishing with Lyndy.

There is no shortage of suspects. Everyone seemed to dislike the man. But the main suspect is the dirty old snake catcher, the person Stella has scandalously befriended. You’ll love following the story through Stella’s determined efforts to protect her friend, and to clear his name.

I’m glad, as a woman, I don’t live in those constrained, confined times, but I do love reading about them. If you do, too, pick this up.

Review MURDER AT BLACKWATER BEND By Clara McKenna

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