Consequences of Sin

 Consequences of Sin (2007) by Clare Langley-Hawthorne

1910 England (mostly). Ursula Marlowe--heiress, Oxford-educated, wanna-be journalist (but NOT a women's fashion/gossip/society writer), and suffragette--receives a phone call that plunges her into murder and a mystery linked to a South American expedition from twenty years ago. Winifred Stanford-Jones, a friend and fellow suffragette, asks for Ursula's help when her (Freddie's) lover is killed in compromising circumstances. Freddie is arrested--after all, what are the police supposed to think when Laura Radcliffe is stabbed to death in Freddie's own bed? 

But then Laura's father commits suicide and Ursula finds links to an expedition that her own father, as well as Colonel Radcliffe and other prominent men had sponsored. When another sponsor's daughter is killed, it begins to look like someone has a vendetta against those who backed the trip to South America. But Colonel Radcliffe was the only survivor of that doomed expedition...or was he? Ursula tries to get her father and their legal advisor, Lord Wrotham, to give her information that will help find the real killer and set her friend free, but they insist that she stay out of it. But Ursula can't do that...she'll  get to the bottom of this--with or without their help. But will she survive long enough to share what she learns?

Here we go again...strong-willed woman meets supportive man (yes, Lord Wrotham is a young legal advisor and, though he seems to through obstacles in her way, he actually admires her intelligence and courage). It's a little bit more believable this time around because we're in the middle of the "votes for women" era. So in the middle of the story, Ursula--who has never been anywhere outside of England--suddenly decides to go traipsing off to South America where a massacre took place during an expedition her father and other backers funded to see if the man she (and the backers) think may be running amok and killing people right and left is still in the jungle or not. And she manages to disguise herself as a man and successful navigate booking passage so she can travel alone on the boat. And then she goes off by herself to find the man in the back of beyond. I'm sure that could happen. And why on earth did she suddenly abandon her male disguise in the middle of it all? That was baffling.

I wanted to like this more than I did. It had an interesting opening and the premise for the murders actually worked well. But the story dragged a bit up till the point that Ursula goes running off to South America. Lots of action from that point on, but her trip wasn't quite plausible enough. It would have worked better if she'd been given at least a bit of experience as a traveler. The other quibble I have is how rapid things turned to romance. Even faster than usual in these romantic historical mysteries. I'm giving all of the star value to Ursual, whom I really do like as a character, and the mystery itself. ★★★

First line: When the telephone rang downstairs so early that Saturday morning, Ursula Marlow knew it could only be bad news.

Last line: "Always."
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Deaths = 7 (three natural; one accident; one stabbed; one shot; one strangled)