A Lady Eleanor Swift Mystery #8,#9 by Verity Bright

I have read and reviewed all but one of the previous works in the series. I have linked the reviews to the cover pages before for easier perusal

Death on a Winter’s Day #8

The eighth book in this series, and the emotions continue to run high. Of the two I read back to back, I liked the mystery in this better. On an impulse, Lady Swift, who is yet to host her own gathering, decides to go to Scotland for a Christmas celebration.
Once there, Eleanor realises that she has miscalculated all her moves and that she does not know as much as she would like of the people to whom she has volunteered her staff for the duration. Scotland at Christmas is dark and dismal, not least because the area does not celebrate Christmas the way some people are used to. The weather does not help either.
The foulest man at the table is found stabbed after a chance blackout (or was it one?). The police are not as interested as they should be and swiftly pin it on the wrong person (or so Lady Swift assumes). Her investigative skills have been honed well, and she sets out her dedicated list to figure things out. A special Chief Inspector makes his entry after the second half and plays a significant role in bringing things to a close. There is also a lot of movement in their ‘courtship’, which laid a pretty solid foundation for the next book.

A Royal Murder #9

The latest release in the series had quite a few twists before its final conclusion. I will not talk more about my feelings for some of them because I found a significant clue that led me to figure things out quite early. I would have liked this book even better if that had not happened.
Eleanor has made a new friend, one who wants her to find a more suitable ‘beau’ than a working man. Especially one who has not had the time to visit since his recuperative stay.
Once she is out in the more vicious social circles, Eleanor is literally thrown to the wolves, and she is lost with regards to etiquette or what it is about the situation that she was supposed to enjoy. This is exactly the point when yet another body falls in front of her. This time, she is asked to make a formal investigation. Her trusty butler and her well-defined lists come to her aid yet again as she starts to piece the pieces of the puzzle together. There are international relationships at stake this time around, and either no one is lying, or every one is. The investigation is very thorough but not unexpected in the directions that it took.
I think we might be inching closer to figuring out the possibilities behind the parental disappearance/uncle’s death. I really hope either is addressed sooner rather than later.

I will continue to pursue this series because I feel like it still has something left for me. I would not recommend reading this series without having first read the beginning ones. One or two books in between can be skipped, but not more because otherwise, it would be hard to make sense of some of the background plots.

I received the ARCs thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience of this and the previous works in the same series.