A Pretty Deceit (Verity Kent Mystery #4)

by Anna Lee Huber

Overview

“A historical mystery to delight fans of Agatha Christie or Daphne du Maurier.”
—Bookpage

In the aftermath of the Great War, the line between friend and foe may be hard to discern, even for indomitable former Secret Service agent Verity Kent, in award-winning author Anna Lee Huber’s thrilling mystery series.
 
Peacetime has brought little respite for Verity Kent. Intrigue still abounds, even within her own family. As a favor to her father, Verity agrees to visit his sister in Wiltshire. Her once prosperous aunt has fallen on difficult times and is considering selling their estate. But there are strange goings-on at the manor, including missing servants, possible heirloom forgeries, and suspicious rumors—all leading to the discovery of a dead body on the grounds.
 
While Verity and her husband, Sidney, investigate this new mystery, they are also on the trail of an old adversary—the shadowy and lethal Lord Ardmore. At every turn, the suspected traitor seems to be one step ahead of them. And even when their dear friend Max, the Earl of Ryde, stumbles upon a code hidden among his late father’s effects that may reveal the truth about Ardmore, Verity wonders if they are really the hunters—or the hunted . . .
 
Praise for Anna Lee Huber’s Penny for Your Secrets
 
“Stellar mystery . . . a great read for fans of the series and all who enjoy
Downton Abbey-era fiction.”
—Booklist

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781496728487
Publisher:	Kensington
Publication date:	10/06/2020
Series:	Verity Kent Series , #4
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	NOOK Book
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	3,119
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Anna Lee Huber is the Daphne award-winning and USA Today bestselling author of the Lady Darby Mysteries and the Verity Kent Mysteries. She is a summa cum laude graduate of Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee, where she majored in music and minored in psychology. A member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and International Thriller Writers, she currently resides in Indiana with her family.
 

Editorial Reviews

07/13/2020

Set in 1919, Huber’s fine fourth Verity Kent mystery (after 2019’s Penny for Your Secrets) finds 23-year-old Verity, who operated as a spy behind enemy lines during WWI, and her husband, Sidney, motoring down from London to her Aunt Ernestine’s estate in Wiltshire. Aunt Ernestine, who’s in dire financial straits after her husband’s recent death, fears a number of paintings and other objets d’art that she was hoping to sell have been replaced by forgeries. Meanwhile, a house maid goes missing and tensions are building between Aunt Ernestine and her son, Reg, the new baronet, who was blinded at Ypres two years earlier. In addition, Verity learns that her nemesis, Lord Ardmore, is plotting some insidious skullduggery. The discovery of a body on the estate complicates an already complex plot involving blackmail, political intrigue, and coded messages. The byplay between Verity and Sidney, whom she believed dead for three years after he was erroneously reported killed in action, lends some romantic heat. Huber elegantly blends espionage and mystery. Agent: Kevan Lyon, Marsal Lyon Literary. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

"Narrator Heather Wilds keeps listeners engaged with the exciting story. She excels at giving reality to the horrors of the war." ---AudioFile

From the Publisher

09/01/2020

In 1919, her father asks Verity Kent and her husband, Sidney, to check on his sister, who is complaining about the condition of the family estate, Littlemote House. She claims it's in a shambles and that valuable artworks have been appraised as forgeries. She blames the airmen who were billeted there during the war. The crumbling house is not the Kents' priority, however. A maid is missing, the man who tends the gardens is found dead, and his wife is accused of his murder. Verity and Sidney are supposed to be investigating the family issues, but they're more concerned about Lord Ardmore, whom they suspect is a traitor. Verity and Sidney gather allies to work on clues the deceased Lord Ryde left about Ardmore's treachery, But they're followed and threatened. They don't know whom to trust in a complex mystery that circles back to Littlemote and to Verity's actions at the front a year earlier. VERDICT Verity Kent plays a dangerous game of espionage in a story set just several weeks after Penny for Your Secrets. The ongoing story line involving Ardmore will intrigue series readers. Fans of Jacqueline Winspear and Charles Todd will appreciate the psychological and social issues affecting the British after World War I—Lesa Holstine, Evansville Vanderburgh P.L., IN

Library Journal

2020-07-14
A sleuthing couple still recovering from the horrors of World War I investigate murder and treason.

Verity Kent and her husband, Sidney, are visiting Wiltshire to help Verity’s Aunt Ernestine, who’s bitterly unhappy over the state of her house, which was occupied by the RAF, and the fate of her only remaining son, who returned home blind. There are missing valuables and money problems, so a vanished maid is low on the priority list until her body is found in a shallow grave. Unbeknownst even to Sidney, Verity was a spy during the war, and for 15 months, she thought Sidney dead while he was also doing secret work. Both still suffer from wartime stress, and they’ve recently been involved in several cases of murder and possible treason involving the highly placed Lord Ardmore, who’s having them watched. When the body of Ernestine’s gardener is found, the police arrest his wife, who, broken by the strain of war, took to drink and constantly fought with him. Verity and Sidney must also chase down clues in coded messages from their friend Max Westfield’s murdered father that involve one of Lord Ardmore’s plots. Verity, suddenly plagued by nightmares of a wartime experience, finds herself marked for death by a fanatical officer who misunderstood her part in it.

A thrilling and touching amalgam of wartime suffering, high crimes, and deadly secrets.

Kirkus Reviews