An elegant masquerade ball in fin-de-siècle London provides the perfect occasion for Lady Emily Hargreaves to dazzle, dressed as the goddess Artemis, but the evening ends in chaos after a similarly costumed woman is found murdered. As Emily and her husband, Colin, investigate, they realize that the dead woman, Mary Darby, was posing as heiress Estella Lamar, who is ostensibly traveling the world. No one has actually seen Estella for years, apart from some blurry newspaper photos taken in various exotic locations. Why would anyone pose as Estella? Did the killer mean to murder the heiress or the impostor? And is the real Estella still alive?
In her ninth Lady Emily novel, Tasha Alexander (Behind the Shattered Glass) weaves a compelling double mystery, alternating between Emily's attempts to solve Mary's murder in 1897 and Estella's story in Paris several decades earlier. After the death of her parents, Estella was left with a sizable fortune but few friends. Shy and socially awkward, she gradually withdrew from society--but an unwise business investment might have led to more than financial loss for her.
The return of familiar series characters, including Emily's Parisian friend Cécile du Lac (Estella's childhood friend) and the lazy dandy Jeremy Bainbridge, will delight longtime readers, but Alexander provides enough background to give new readers a sense of Emily's history. Witty, well-plotted and rich with historical detail, The Counterfeit Heiress is an engaging chapter in Lady Emily's story and an evocative glimpse into Victorian London. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams