{"id":1718,"date":"2015-07-18T10:37:47","date_gmt":"2015-07-18T17:37:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=1718"},"modified":"2015-07-18T10:37:47","modified_gmt":"2015-07-18T17:37:47","slug":"anna-lee-huber-a-study-in-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/anna-lee-huber-a-study-in-death\/","title":{"rendered":"Anna Lee Huber: A Study in Death"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"astudyindeath\"<\/a>Anna Lee Huber\u2019s fourth novel featuring Lady Darby, a well known portrait painter and widowed wife of an anatomist, finds our Kiera awaiting the outcome of her sister\u2019s pregnancy, engaged, and of course stumbling over a dead body in the third chapter. Huber, as a writer, really knows how to keep things humming, and I enjoyed this book thoroughly from start to finish. Huber is deft with a good mix of romance, mystery and history, and through her two major characters, Kiera and her fianc\u00e9 Sebastian Gage, she supplies a good back and forth dynamic to her storytelling.<\/p>\n

Gage is a professional investigator who often includes Anna in his work; this time she asks him to take on the mysterious death of one Lady Drummond, who died before her eyes, in front of a husband who Kiera suspected of being abusive. There\u2019s a thread through the novel of abused wives recognizing each other: there\u2019s Kiera herself; there\u2019s Lady Drummond; there\u2019s Lady Statford, from Kiera\u2019s first case; and there\u2019s Lady Drummond\u2019s best friend, Lady Russell. The women help each other and understand each other in ways no one else can; and for Kiera, who was fond of Lady Drummond (she\u2019d been painting her portrait), the case is near and dear to her heart. Unfortunately it\u2019s very difficult to prove that Lady Drummond\u2019s death was a murder and not merely a terrible act of god.<\/p>\n

As Kiera works through the disapproval of her future father in law; bears with her sister Alana\u2019s plans for a gargantuan wedding, all to take her mind off her potentially life threatening pregnancy; and works through trust issues with her fianc\u00e9, she has much to deal with. Huber\u2019s essential personal decency shines through in her storytelling and I feel a comfort level with her characters that\u2019s a trick for any writer to establish. I also look forward to whatever is next for them. In short, Ms. Huber has me hooked.<\/p>\n

The 1830\u2019s Edinburgh setting is used as a backdrop to the storytelling, but certain bits of it are essential: the dangerous and desperate criminal underclass, for one thing, and the atmospheric setting in general makes the story being told far more memorable. A third and (unwelcome, to Sebastian) part of Kiera\u2019s investigations is well known criminal Bonnie Brock, who, while protecting Kiera in his own way also brings her to the most unsavory parts of the city for answers. He\u2019s essential as well, as he dilutes some of the plain niceness between Kiera and Sebastian, giving the story a bit of a kick.<\/p>\n

Huber\u2019s storytelling style and way of telling it reminds me a bit of Anne Perry, though she\u2019s without Perry\u2019s ponderousness. She\u2019s more direct in her style and much, much more concise. This book had a more than satisfying wrap up and it also felt like Huber, as a writer, is settling in for the long haul. For readers everywhere, that\u2019s nothing but good news.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anna Lee Huber\u2019s fourth novel featuring Lady Darby, a well known portrait painter and widowed wife of an anatomist, finds our Kiera awaiting the outcome of her sister\u2019s pregnancy, engaged, and of course stumbling over a dead body in the third chapter. Huber, as a writer, really knows how to keep things humming, and I … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[10],"class_list":["post-1718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-historical"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1718"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1718\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1720,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1718\/revisions\/1720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}