Death of a Duchess

Duchess of Blackmoore Mystery (Duchess of Blackmoore Mysteries, Book 1)

By: Nellie H. Steele

Narrated by: Liz Gentle

Length: 9 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's summary

My name is Lenora Fletcher. And I can communicate with the dead.

Lenora expected her unique ability would condemn her to a life of solitude, shunned by society. But when she receives an unexpected marriage proposal hinging on it, Lenora is shocked. All she must do in exchange for the life of a duchess is use her communicative skills to determine the reason for the former Duchess of Blackmoore’s suicide.

Beyond the strange blackening on the stones of Blackmoore Castle, Lenora discovers another darkness lurks in her new Scottish Highlands home. The secrets housed within the castle walls chill Lenora to the bone...and threaten her own life.

Will Lenora discover the hidden truth behind the death of the former duchess? Or will she, too, fall prey to a similar fate?

©2021 Melissa Marie Sovak (P)2021 A Novel Idea Publishing, LLC

A very entertaining action packed mystery!

My first listen by this author. I was pleasantly surprised! The storyline was intriguing and a little spooky... in a gothic sort of way. I enjoyed every word of it... From her very painful past to being in a home where she felt she had a purpose. That purpose to begin with starts the mystery and mayhem... I recommend this audible!

Wonderful touching paranormal romance*

I loved this story from beginning to end! Even though the main character comes from a sad and abusive background she always remains a lady of high standing even if some of her childhood mischievousness comes out when no one is aware. After all she has a paranormal mystery to solve within the castle walls she is surprised to find herself within. How can one do that without curiosity? This is a lovely story of love friendship and intrigue. At first I was throne off by the obvious older womans voice when it was an 18 year old girl speaking until I realized the woman was speaking of a story in her past. I didn't want to leave my time spent with these characters. I hope she will be telling us of some more intriguing situations in her life to come.

Death of a Duchess

Liz Gentle does a masterful job with her narration of Death of a Duchess: A Duchess of Blackmoore Mystery series. Nellie H. Steele writes with a passion that creates wonderfully, special characters set in an interesting paranormal mystery plot. Highly recommend to Regency Mystery lovers.

Excruciatingly Wonderful Story!

Well written. I devoured it. The Duke was unrealistically good, but it didn't detract, rather, he was a good role model of what a true man should be. Lenora is a little too self-effacing, but still a lovely, strong heorine. I'm rushing off to get the next book in the series!

Death of a Duchess is hard to put down!

Absolutely Wonderful storytelling. Such a unique approach to a murder mystery. I am looking forward to the next book.

Great story

I loved this book. The narrator was fantastic. I am looking forward to the next books in the series.

frustrating

it's probably accurate, but the readiness to shush women ( every little thing is "shall we call the doctor or you must rest" as if women were spun glass) is beyond annoying. ( historically, there were plenty of strong women. Empress Maude and queen elanore being two) and it doesn't match up with the Duke accepting almost instantly some uncommon social behavior (the premise for the story. adoptions, brothel)... and the main character seems rather slow on the uptake.

brilliant!

this is one of the best books i have listened to in a very long time! The narration was outstanding.

A good story

Predictable, but a good story, told well. I will look for other books by this author, as found this enjoyable.

Good Narration - Nice Mystery

I enjoyed the smooth, soothing quality of the narrator's voice. The delivery was nicely paced and the voice of each character was distinctive. I thought the narrator did a nice job.

Since I don’t read the paranormal genre, I certainly surprised myself when I decided to purchase – and then enjoyed – this book. The mystery is well-plotted and well presented, with just enough obscure clues to cause you frustration, yet keep you reading. This is a new-to-me author and I enjoyed her writing style which captures the more formal speaking style of earlier historical periods. There wasn’t enough information within the story to get a grasp of the period in which the story takes place, and that always annoys me – couldn’t somebody just put a date at the beginning of the first chapter or something?

Lenora Hastings has a gift – or a curse – depending on your point of view. She sees and communicates with dead people and has done so her entire life. While it all seems perfectly normal to Lenora, the adults in her life can’t deal with it – when she was six, her father left and her mother turned her over to a nunnery soon after. When the nuns couldn’t deal with it, they turned her over to Headmistress Williamson at St. Mary’s Orphanage for Girls, where she lived for the next ten years. The headmistress didn’t care for Lenora nor her abilities, so she never recommended Lenora for placement into any of the employment opportunities that came to the orphanage’s occupants. Lenora was totally shocked when she was told to pack her things at once as she was leaving immediately. Lenora was excited to be going to the Highlands even though she had no idea what position her employment required. Maybe she would be a governess, or a companion, or – scullery maid, she didn’t care, she was out of the orphanage. When she finally learned what position was being offered, her jaw dropped.

Robert Fletcher, Duke of Blackmoore, has been a widower for three years. He has suffered greatly for those years because he loved his wife and cannot imagine what could possibly have caused her to take her own life. When he hears rumors of a young woman at an orphanage – one who can communicate with the dead – he immediately has her tracked down and investigated to see if she is the real article. He then has her summoned to Blackmoore Castle where he offers her marriage and a life of luxury in exchange for her ‘special’ skills. He needs her to communicate with Annie, the former Duchess of Blackmoore, to find out why she took her own life.

Annie is one very angry and confused ghost. She’s hard to communicate with because she doesn’t speak to Lenora in any way. She projects feelings and does other things and Lenora has to guess at their meanings. That communication process is very slow, dangerous, and vexing. Will Lenora be able to figure it all out before it is too late?

I enjoyed the other tangents of the story aside from the main mystery. It was lovely to see the duke come to care for Lenora and to demonstrate that caring by his actions in regard to her friend Tillie and also in regard to Headmistress Williamson.

I could have easily rated this at five stars, but there were just too many historical inaccuracies that I just couldn’t get past them. Proper forms of address were all over the place – sometimes they were correct, but mostly they weren’t. Then there was the ‘adoption’ when formal legal adoptions didn’t happen until sometime in the 1900s. Before then, there were guardianships or wardships, etc. An ‘adopted’ child could not have become the duke’s heir – the title would have gone to the duke’s brother, etc. anyway – lots of historical errors in an otherwise great mystery.