The Secret of the Lost Pearls: A Riveting Regency Historical Mystery

This is a review for Secret of the Lost Pearls by Darcie Wilde, which is the latest book her Rosalind Thorne series which comes out at the end of December of this year. It is based on the character Rosalind Thorne, of whom is the main character in her earlier series. This is book 1 in the Useful Woman series, and I loved it! We begin the story with a man named Campbell courting a young woman named Emma, a rich young heiress of the Haut Ton of regency era in England, and whom ends up being a man who isn't at all what he seems. This particular courting liaison is happening at one of the Ton's favorite pastimes, attending an art gallery, one of which is showcasing a new artist Jacob Mayne, and Emma calls Cameron over to see the new work by this artist, and realizes the portrait that was painted looks exactly like him! But fairly quickly we find out that Campbell, which turns about to be an alias, whose identity will point to a man that is driven by greed and revenge, and schemes his way into many lives to exact his plans to get rich, and to get that revenge, but at the cost hurting and destroying many innocent lives, but will eventually cost him greatly! Then we meet Rosalind Thorne who doesn't have a fortune of her own, but she is a very resourceful woman, who is known by the ladies of the Ton as someone who can help these wealthy women discreetly solve their problems. In this story, Rosalind is called in to help a friend from school, Bethany Douglas, who is married to a man who has just been named heir to Sir Jasper Douglas' estate, and whose circumstances have drastically changed for the better, to come and use her expertise as Bethany has had an expensive set of pearls suddenly go missing!! Rosalind accepts the challenge, and must use all the resources she's learned from earlier cases to solve this case with it's plethora of suspects including many within Bethany's own family!! One of the resources Rosalind has worked with in the past is the infamous Bow Street Runners, and in particular one that she has gotten pretty close with, Adam, and she finds herself working alongside him and his Bow Street colleagues, including Sir David Royce, coroner for the city of London, as she quickly reduces this case is much more than a simple robbery of a string of pearls! Rosalind works closely with both Bethany, her family, and the authorities to solve this complicated case which leads down many rabbit trails, but eventually the truth comes out! I really enjoyed this book! I love a good mystery, and this qualifies a one in my book! It was a story that hooked me from the beginning, and as I went on, each piece of the puzzle kept me wanting to know more and more. I was floored by the time the case was solved, and didn't expect the outcome at all!. I thought the characters were very interesting, the story flowed really well, and built up for an amazing climax! It makes me want to read the rest of the series!! I really enjoyed Rosalind's character, as she was a simple woman who used her sleuthing talents to help her friends! I enjoyed the little bit of romance, but it wasn't 'too much'. I am glad I read this, and would highly recommend it. I read the third of the book over a couple of days, and the last 2/3rds in 2 hours straight as I couldn't put it down!! So this gets 5/5 stars for me because I really enjoyed it!