I love historical mysteries, so much so that I sometimes think I read too many. After a while they can merge into one another unless there’s something to differentiate them from the mass. Andrea Penrose’s Murder at Kensington Palace is yet another set in the Regency period, but Penrose has taken the standard and given it a very nice twist indeed with her protagonists — the well-connected Lady Charlotte Sloane, who has an alternative existence as a satirical cartoonist, and the aristocratic scientist Lord Wrexford.
I liked this twist very much. The plot itself isn’t really what drives the story, which is a fairly standard romp through Recency London as Charlotte tries to track down the murderer of her cousin amid the usual cast of corrupt lords, Bow Street Runners and smart-alec valets, and which has a conclusion that rather stretched my credulity. But the protagonists are different from most, and they’re quirky and (apart from the fact that I found some of the repartee a little bit unbelievable), they work.
I thought the book was nicely written though in places the dialogue felt a bit brittle. But the tension built up when it mattered and I kept turning the pages, and it was strong enough to keep me interested when the plot started to feel a little silly. But it was fun and it was readable and I will be back for more of Wrexford and Sloan.
Thanks to Netgalley and Kensington Books for an advance copy in return for an honest review.
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